This article presents the results of a 4-year quasi-experimental study of the effectiveness of lecture capture in an undergraduate political research class. Students self-enrolled in either a traditional in-class lecture-discussion section or a fully online section of a required political research course. The class sessions from the in-class…

Student preparation for class is an integral part of the college learning experience. In order to incentivize student preparation outside class, professors have employed such techniques as reflection papers, quizzes, and group discussion, to name but a few. This article explores the benefits of using a technique known as "course preparation…

"Interteach" is a method of guided discussion and feedback developed by Thomas Boyce and Philip Hineline in 2002. This method, primarily used in the psychology classroom, encourages greater student engagement and responsibility for learning by requiring extensive student preparation, peer-to-peer instruction, and peer evaluation. How can…

The federal budget and the rising national debt are crucial concerns in American politics. Yet, they are issues about which average citizens, and particularly young citizens, are presumed to have limited knowledge and very little to say. They are also topics that are not generally seen as engaging to students in introductory political science…

It is generally accepted in the literature that writing assignments, even short ones, increase both student writing ability and comprehension of the material covered in the assignments. As class enrollments increase, particularly at the introductory level, however, instructors often sacrifice writing assignments because of the difficulty in…

There is a debate in Political Science concerning how best to teach American Government courses. We investigate whether students learn more effectively with texts from the great tradition or from textbooks and other secondary sources. Which medium better guides students toward becoming better citizens? We examine how teaching "The Great…

There is evidence that some obstacles to women running for political office emerge early in the political development of women and girls. Lawless and Fox (2005) identify several reasons for lower political ambition among women relative to men. Among their explanations are that girls are less likely to be engaged in political conversations in their…

In the interest of developing a combination of teaching techniques designed to maximize efficiency "and" quality of instruction, we have experimentally tested three separate and relatively common teaching techniques in three large introductory political science classes at a large urban public university. Our results indicate that the…

Simulations are often employed as content-teaching tools in political science, but their effect on students' reasoning skills is rarely assessed. This article explores what effect the "Statecraft" simulation might have on undergraduate students' perceptions of their decision making. Decisions are often evaluated on the basis of…

This article describes a four-week congressional committee simulation implemented in upper level courses on Congress and the Legislative process at two liberal arts colleges. We find that the students participating in the simulation possessed high levels of political knowledge and confidence in their political skills prior to the simulation. An…

Active learning, including in-class debates, is used in social science classrooms as a means of improving meaning and increasing understanding of complex materials. However, in-class debates do not fully satisfy all aspects of experiential learning because students do not get to experience the results of multifaceted concepts, such as strategic…

Simulations are employed widely as teaching tools in political science, yet evidence of their pedagogical effectiveness, in comparison to other methods of instruction, is mixed. The assessment of learning outcomes is often a secondary concern in simulation design, and the qualitative and quantitative methods used to evaluate outcomes are…

Simulations have received considerable attention as a tool to promote problem-solving skills, intense involvement, and high-order thinking among students. Whether semester-long exercises or a single-class session, simulations are often used in areas of conflict studies, diplomatic studies, trade disputes, electoral processes, and policy and legal…

Political Science research methods courses face two problems. First is what to cover, as there are too many techniques to explore in any one course. Second is dealing with student anxiety around quantitative material. We explore a novel way to approach these issues. Our students began by writing a qualitative paper. They followed with a term…

An emerging assumption in undergraduate political science education is that role-playing simulations are an effective teaching tool. While previous studies have addressed the pedagogical advantages of simulations as compared to more traditional teaching techniques, less attention has been paid to student perceptions of these simulations. This…