Analytic Teaching Using Rational Choice Theory

Abstract

Introduction:  The purpose of this article is to suggest what we consider to be a unique teaching and learning strategy. We have had some good results with this approach and believe it can be successfully employed in a wide variety of social science courses, both undergraduate and graduate. Equally important, however, is our unanticipated discovery that the analysis to be presented here is also capable of serving another function, namely as a method of synthesizing a wide diversity of topics within the field itself. We will return to this theme after our analysis and discuss it in more detail.