Making Agreements With Friends: Using an Analogy to Teach Informal Agreements and Bargaining in International Relations Courses
By Zachary Houser, Boise State University
Making Agreements with Friends is an engaging problem-based learning activity that uses a structured analogy, deciding whether you should spot (lend) members of a fictional friend group money to pay for their pub cover, to help international relations students learn about informal agreements, bargaining, and reputation costs. Anonymous student evaluations and results from a pre-and-posttest on the material provide evidence that this activity is a fun, engaging, and highly effective way to teach these concepts to undergraduate students.
The Journal of Political Science Education is an intellectually rigorous, path-breaking, agenda-setting journal that publishes the highest quality scholarship on teaching and pedagogical issues in political science. The journal aims to represent the full range of questions, issues and approaches regarding political science education, including teaching-related issues, methods and techniques, learning/teaching activities and devices, educational assessment in political science, graduate education, and curriculum development.