TEACHING DEMOGRAPHY TO UNDERGRADUATES - A PEDAGOGICAL DILEMMA

This paper presents a model for an interdisciplinary undergraduate demography course. The course is designed as a seminar in format, drawing on discussion and students' participation to articulate key concepts, ideas, and issues. This interdisciplinary model, building on the interrelation between population and some other field, assumes that students will have some prior knowledge of that other field. This interdisciplinary approach to teaching demography provides a forum in which to tie together and synthesize the ideas and information that students glean from other courses in the social and/or natural sciences, with the pivotal role played by vital events and patterns of change. The objectives of the course include 1) developing analytic and interpretive quantitative skills, 2) gaining an understanding of the basic interrelations between population and the environment, and 3) increasing understanding of the similarities and differences between less developed countries and more developed countries. The course is structured around 6 topical units: 1) An Introduction: Population and Its History; 2) Population Processes and Components; 3) Limits to Growth; 4) The Effects of Population on the Environment; 5) The effects of the Environment on Population; and 6) Prospects for the Future: Development of Decline. The objective of an interdisciplinary undergraduate demography course is to provide a forum in which students both learn the substance of demography and learn to integrate this knowledge with that of other fields.