Teaching Political Science Research Methods in Hungary: Transferring Student-Centred Teaching Practices into a Subject-Focused Academic Culture

• Published in: European political science Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 78 - 95
• Main Author: simon, eszter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Palgrave Macmillan UK 01.03.2014; Palgrave Macmillan
• Subjects: Comparative Politics; Europe; European Commission; European Union; Higher Education; Hungary; Italy; Learning; Methods; Planning; Political Science; Political Science and International Relations; Political Science and International Studies; Political Science Research; Political Theory; Politics; Postcommunist Societies; Research methodology; Research methods; Students; Teachers; Teaching; Teaching and Training; tla; research methods; Hungary; post-Communist higher education; teaching and learning
• ISSN: 1680-4333; 1682-0983
• DOI: 10.1057/eps.2013.43

This article discusses the challenges of moving towards student-centredness in East-Central Europe through the example of Hungary’s subject-focused academic culture and the (re-)design of a political science research methods course at the University of Szeged for Spring 2012. Although countries participating in the Bologna Process undersigned the importance of student-centredness, few countries have actually yet moved in this direction. In addition, we know very little about how these instructional methods work outside the Western democratic context. I show that research into teaching is an important means to improve the process of education and that there are specific problems in transferring student-centredness into post-Communist higher education settings. Finally, I argue that knowing one’s teaching context is vital for planning student-centred courses effectively, which would be greatly fostered by experiencing other teaching contexts through early-career teacher exchanges. The European Commission has recently affirmed its commitment to staff exchanges, but such opportunities are only likely to be beneficial if they go beyond the current 6-week long exchange scheme that the Erasmus programme offers.