Cracking the Code: Penetrating the Soviet Mentality in Selected Post-Soviet Classrooms

Abstract

The author focuses on his attempts to formulate pedagogic strategies for dealing with an atmosphere of intellectual resistance and classroom conflict in the distinct, post-Soviet higher education systems of the Czech Republic and Lithuania. After outlining the causes and the characteristics of specific dysfunctional student behaviors, the author addresses the teaching strategies and classroom management techniques he developed in an effort to penetrate the Soviet mentality and to present Western-style academic programs—law, public administration, business management—using traditional American approaches including required papers, oral participation, and frequent, cheating-free exams.