This paper describes the development of an
innovative teaching method to enable students of political science and social
policy to develop a deeper comprehension of public and social policy concerns
through engaging with real world scenarios.
In this case, the public policy concern in question involved the
development of a local area plan as part of the Irish Government’s National
Spatial Strategy. The paper outlines how the development of a Constructivist
Learning Environment (CLE) (Jonassen, 1999) was fashioned by integrating a
Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach within a postgraduate public policy
module with a University wide, interdisciplinary initiative, the UL Practicum.
The latter being was designed to facilitate meaningful and mutually beneficial
engagement between the University of Limerick and local communities. In particular, the paper describes the
process by which students were exposed to the complexities of public
participation in policy making, not least the challenges of engaging with
individuals and groups that experience poverty and social exclusion. As part of this, students were involved in
fostering a series of external partnerships with local authority officials,
elected representatives and a number of civil society organisations, highlighting
for students the complexities of public policy making within a multi level, new
governance environment.
The paper illustrates the potential to enhance
student learning, develop multi layered problem solving capacities and create
platforms to test these capacities, while at the same time making a
contribution to local socio economic planning.
Thus, it describes how a consciously “ill structured” problem was
presented to a group of postgraduate students; how light touch” facilitation was
provided to stimulate understanding of the problem while at the same time a
parallel process fostered relationships to support public participation in the
local planning process. The paper also
describes the exciting potential created for interaction between disciplines in
the university community and how students in particular, were exposed to a
suite of non traditional problem solving, public participation and policy
making tools, such as World Cafe, PLA (participatory learning and appraisal)
and technology based public participation.
The paper concludes by interrogating the potential of the teaching
method through reflecting on student feedback on learning outcomes, analysing reactions
from external partners and participants in public consultations but emphasises
the need for sustained levels of institutional support if the approach is to
become more widely embedded.