The contributors to this special issue all seek to address the challenge of teaching research methods to political science students. This introduction aims to provide a concise framework for the various innovations presented throughout this issue, situating them in the wider literature. Particular emphasis is placed on the factors that distinguish the teaching of research methods from other subjects in the political science curriculum, that is, it revolves around the acquisition of a skill rather than knowledge. Over the last decade, a large body of literature emerged identifying the challenges associated with methods instruction that provides various tools to help overcoming such challenges (see, e.g., Kilburn, Nind, and Wiles 2014; Wagner, Garner, and Kawulich 2011). This review is structured along three different dimensions of the teaching/learning process: the role of the student, the role of the professor, and the context in which learning takes place. For each of these, the authors highlight a number of factors that can enable (or constrain) the effective learning of research methods.