Learning is a cognitive process associated with the transformation in the way learners conceive and relate to reality. But when this process involves the radical transformation of learners’ beliefs, cognitive dissonance may appear, and this may hinder the achievement of learning objectives. Our premise is that episodes of cognitive dissonance are inevitable, especially when dealing with “controversial” topics of study, and that the learning process need not be ruined if the instructor is adequately prepared to manage them. Following the specialized literature, such preparation must establish a good balance between the teacher’s expertise and the validation of the students’ prior beliefs and knowledge about the topic to be studied.

In our capacity as teachers of courses on politics and the Middle East, in this chapter we propose a student-centered, active learning method aligned with the intellectual agenda of post-/decolonial studies in IR that allows instructors to constructively work through the usual cognitive biases that appear in courses on politics and the Middle East. Many of these biases come from the persistence of orientalist imaginings and analytical frameworks about the region, its politics and society. These tend to reproduce stereotypes such as the Arab/Muslim/Middle Eastern propensity for despotism, violence or irrationality, and the implicit comparison with the more civilized and politically sophisticated “West”. Despite this, often students find it difficult or are reluctant to recognize the existence of these biases; and we acknowledge that a cognitive and also emotional challenge comes with the questioning of what students had always believed in and other widely held ideas. Hence, our courses’ priority learning objective of teaching what Orientalism is, how it operates at a discursive level and what analytical frameworks are nourished by it must be paired with a teaching method that takes all these elements into account.

Consisting of six steps, the ALDAMA method (Activation of prior knowledge and beliefs on the topic of study, Learning the theory of Orientalism, Discourse analysis of specific cultural and political texts, Metacognitive reflection, and identification of Alternative discourses) can be easily adapted to different levels of instruction and thematic modules in courses on politics and the Middle East. Offering examples of activities designed to inspect the cultural and political discourses on subjects such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iran Question, or the Arab Spring, and based on our experience teaching with films, the chapter concludes that the ALDAMA method helps to counter cognitive biases by bringing them on board the learning process.