Use of active learning strategies in public affairs education: Advances and lessons from the scholarship and the practice

Abstract

Public affairs education can benefit from the potential of active learning practices in preparing students for the complex surroundings of real public service. This article aims to explore the use of those practices in public affairs education and the extent to which those practices are suitable in a public affairs school in a country in the global South. To do so, it follows a threefold analytical approach. First, from a sample of empirical works in public affairs, it explores the active learning practices portrayed in the literature of public affairs education and identifies patterns and practices. Then, through content analysis of syllabi from a sample of master level courses of schools of public affairs in the US and Europe it identifies the most frequent participant-centered learning practices used in public affairs education. Finally, by means of a case study from a public affairs school in Colombia, it analyzes the adoption of active learning practices to be effectively adopted in such setting and compares them with the two sets of practices previously analyzed. The analysis provided some insights. Both the literature review and the benchmark of practices in public affairs schools, reflect that public affairs education already relies on a wide array of active learning strategies, which, according to some empirical literature, appear to be highly useful in preparing students for public sector practice. Then, the analysis of the use of active learning practices in a Latin American school of public affairs revealed a similarly evident use such practices, something that appears to be instrumental for the faculty, students and alumni of the program, and whose implementation does not appear to differ from other programs abroad.

Public Administration Education During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Teaching Experiences and Policy Implications

“…The usage of digital tools, and digitalization in general, was a key factor in weathering the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, as these tools were used for both administrative and educational activities (Hudrea, Spoaller and Urs, 2023). For example, the usage of the Moodle platform in the case of the Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences (Babeș-Bolyai University) increased from less than 100,000 logins in March 2019, to over 500,000 logins in March 2020 (when the Covid-19 pandemic was officially declared in Romania and face-to-face education was paused), reaching a peak of over 1,850,000 in January 2021, to latter decrease to under 1,800,000 logins in January 2022, when the vaccine 4 was rolled out and face-to face education resumed (see Figure 1). However, it is worth mentioning that higher education institutions were more advanced regarding digitalization than classical public administration organizations, as educational platforms (such as Moodle, Edmodo, and Microsoft Teams) or communication services (such as ZOOM, Webex, and Microsoft Teams) were already used before the pandemic for educational purposes.…”

The problem-based learning as a pedagogical framework for teaching master of public policy and master of public administration programs in Latin America

“…More recently, some studies have discussed case method implementation in the Latin American context (Careaga et al, 2017; Mudida and Rubaii, 2017) or the development of competencies in Latin American programs (Purón-Cid, 2018; Copobianco et al, 2018). Careaga-Tagüeña and Sanabria-Pulido (2021) explore the use of active learning practices in several regions including Latin America, these authors identify a body of literature that addresses the use of case studies and PBL in public affairs education, however only two of the cited works addresses to PBL, even more, these two references come from very different domains as the medical and pharmaceutical 2 (see Careaga-Tagüeña and Sanabria-Pulido, 2021: 101).…”