Experiential Learning Exercises’ Effects on Students’ Attitudes Toward the Global Poor

Abstract

This article describes the results of an experiential learning activity conducted at Cal Poly Pomona (CPP) and the University of North Florida (UNF). The activity formed the basis for an assignment required for class credit in a course titled Politics of the Developing Areas (Politics of Developing Countries at UNF). The authors developed and administered a pre- and post-assignment survey measuring student attitudes on the causes of global poverty. Between surveys, students recorded their baseline spending habits, indicated whether or not they were able to reduce their expenses over the activity period, and wrote a reflection essay on the difficulties of limiting their expenditures, connecting their experiences to citizens living in less developed countries. The article discusses the findings across the two samples, highlighting the effectiveness of experiential learning and its appropriateness in and benefits for the classroom.

Keywords:

• Pedagogy
• experiential learning
• poverty simulation
• comparative politics
• development

Notes

1 This study involves human subjects and both authors obtained IRB approval at their home institutions. The approval numbers are: 18–168 (CPP) and 1326009-1 (UNF).

2 The 2018 Current Population Survey (CPS) data reveal that, among full-time college students, only 43 percent worked at all. Roughly one in four worked more than 20 hours.

3 We assessed students’ ideological positions on a self-placement from 0 (extreme liberal) to 10 (extreme conservative). For “conservative” we examine students at 6 or higher in the spectrum.

4 Similar patterns, albeit less pronounced, were observed among the CPP sample as well. Both classes included 7 conservative students. The UNF students were a bit more conservative, averaging 6.71; their CPP peers were less conservative, averaging 6.42. This may have affected their willingness to reject the cultural explanation for poverty.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Nyenhuis

Robert Nyenhuis is an Associate Professor of Political Science, California State University, Pomona (USA). He has published on voting behavior in the developing world, specifically sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. His more recent research examines the use of populist rhetoric by African leaders and is published in African Studies Review, the Journal of Modern African Studies, Comparative & Commonwealth Politics, and the Journal of African Elections.

Joshua C. Gellers

Joshua C. Gellers is an Associate Professor and Director of the MA in International Affairs Program in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of North Florida, Research Fellow of the Earth System Governance Project, and Nonresident Expert with the Global AI Ethics Institute. He is also a 2016–17 U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Sri Lanka. Josh’s research focuses on environmental politics, rights, and technology. His work has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals and cited in several UN or EU reports. Josh is the author of The Global Emergence of Constitutional Environmental Rights (Routledge 2017) and Rights for Robots: Artificial Intelligence, Animal and Environmental Law (Routledge 2020).