Active Learning Techniques Raising up the Understanding of Comparative Politics and Democracy

Abstract

There are two research objectives in this study 1) to study the practice of teaching Introduction to Political Science on the politics and democracy comparison aspect, and 2) to use active learning techniques in order to help students comprehend core political issues regarding the comparative democracy between Thai-style Democracy and Western-style Democracy. The research employed both qualitative and quantitative methods by using respectively the in-depth interviews and the questionnaire with the students who registered Introduction to Political Science in semester 1/2016 in Prince of Songkla University, Surat Thani Campus. The pre and post-test were used to evaluate the students comprehension after employing four types of active learning techniques; 1)problem-based learning technique, 2)group –based learning technique by giving assignments to each group of the students, asking them to do a research on various topics of political issues and the comparative democracy, 3) case study by video clips based learning technique of important political situations and democracy, and 4) brainstorming and class discussion techniques. The results indicated that the students had the abilities to identify the differences between Thai-style Democracy and Western-style Democracy after using all four types of active learning techniques in the classroom. Additionally, the case study by video clips based learning technique of important political situations and democracy was the most efficient technique to help students to learn the differences of these two democracies. That is, the election is the necessary condition of Western-style Democracy so coup d’état is unacceptable in this type of democracy. Moreover, having only election is not sufficient condition for Western-style Democracy. In contrast, coup d’état is acceptable, and it is one of the necessary conditions of Thai-style Democracy