The Added Value of ‘Instructional Simulation Practices’ in Teaching International Relations and European Studies (IRES)

Instructional simulation practices represent a milestone in the educational methodology of most western universities by harmonizing equal balance between theory and practice. This paper will describe and assess the positive role that simulation practices offer towards better acquisition of the theoretical input during the undergraduate academic courses in the discipline of International Relations and European Studies (IRES). It will investigate and identify the need for academic integration of simulation activities in the core academic courses shedding light on the discrepancies of the current academic practice at in Albania, simultaneously, highlighting the advantages of instructional simulation towards in-depth learning versus surface learning of theory. The paper will be conducted through utilizing observation method with the contrastive textual analysis of the theoretical and empirical data, thus providing an argumentative exhibition and credible insights on the necessity of simulation practices to be intertwined with the academic compulsory curricula for better comprehension of the IRES theoretical concepts. It will draw on the successful experiences applied by international academic initiatives and upon their advantageous value to engage students in analytical learning, critical thinking and eloquence, building public speaking models, seeing the correlation between scientific knowledge and the tangible testable hypotheses on the empirical level. Unfortunately, the traditional Albanian higher education suffers from an unbalance between the massive theoretical input of the academic curricula - in our case study to the discipline of IRES - with the transfer, implementation and active learning of the theories of international relations and theoretical approaches to European Union. Therefore, incorporating and practicing instructional simulation at the undergraduate academic courses of IRES implies equipping the future political leaders, international negotiators, European delegates and prospective Albanian experts of international organizations with the scholastic knowledge and the relevant social interactive skills. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n2p34