Redesigning an economics course to achieve more reflexivity

Is blended learning a curse or a blessing for mid-career MPA students and teacher?

Abstract

A recurring issue in (mid-career) master programs Public Administration is to get students to become (more) reflexive (conf. e.g. special issue of Teaching Public Administration 2013). As academic graduates they should not merely apply public administration theories and methods in standardized ways but always think critically about what they do and why. Moreover they should be able to make sensible, situated connections between ‘theory’ and ‘praxis’ and critically and creatively derive new modes of professional action from these. To achieve this students should approach their study with the main intention to develop personal understanding (e.g. Marton & Säljö, 1976; Trigwell, 2010). In this article the redesign of a course in a two year mid-career master program from a traditional instructional mode to blended learning, will be discussed and analyzed to see if the redesign attributed to more reflexive working methods in the course and a more reflexive attitude in students.