Exploring Creative Pedagogies in Higher Education: Creative Posters and the Quest of Enhancing Students’ Understanding of Southeast Asian Geopolitical Dynamics

<ns3:p>In teaching international relations (IR) subjects, lecturers struggle to find a teaching method to enhance students’ skills. Expected to be equipped with negotiation, oral communication, research, and writing skills, the demand to re-evaluate the teaching methods undertaken in IR undergraduate classrooms has never been more urgent. This exploratory teaching note looks into the prospects of adopting alternative approaches in the form of creative posters to shift the power of learning into the hands of students. Situated within the discourse of student-centered learning’s continuum and problem-based learning method, this study provides guidelines for lecturers teaching Southeast Asian studies on measures adaptable to enhance the learning experience of undergraduate students. Several points recommended include teaching methods adopted in the earlier weeks as the foundation of knowledge concerning the Southeast Asian region’s dynamics, freedom for students to elect problem-based questions as the basis of a creative poster’s theme, flexibility of substantive and features visualized in the posters, and the presentation of posters to the class at the end of the subject term. Doing so colud allow students to grasp complex theories, concepts, and empirical cases of Southeast Asia, which includes the South China Sea, exertion of great power influences in the region, environmental degradations, non-traditional security threats, challenges to enhancing human rights, and the relevance of regional organizations amid contemporary challenges encountered by Southeast Asian states.</ns3:p>