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…

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…

This article examines the impact of problem-solving and creativity exercises on student interest in public policy making and behavior related to civic engagement. Researchers have long described policy making as a function of problem solving. Creativity has also been identified as an important component of the process. While these skills are…

This article is an overview of a comprehensive film-based course that covers basic topics appropriate for an introduction to international relations (or world politics) course. Film provides a new and novel perspective by which to view international interactions. I explore how various aspects of international politics are covered by movies with…

The link between religion and political tolerance in the United States, which has focused predominantly on Christianity, is replete with unfavorable images. Often, religious adherents (largely Evangelicals or the Christian right) are characterized as uneducated, poor, and white, suggesting that members of these groups may act in an intolerant…

Many assessment studies are devoted to discovering whether student knowledge increases after successful completion of a specific course; fewer studies attempt to examine whether students undergo a change in their values and attitudes as a result of that coursework. Given the continuing emphasis on assessment and the fulfillment of core curriculum…

This study of 12 introductory American government and politics textbooks shows that their main narratives still focus largely on men's experiences as political actors and pay little attention to women's experiences. While on average just 9% of pages included in-text references to women, 28% of images and 17% of sidebars, tables, figures, and…

In this article, the author addresses both the costs and benefits of implementing clickers into an introductory political science course. Comparing student responses to a mid-semester survey in both a clicker and non-clicker course, the results show that students have higher satisfaction of the course and instructor, higher exam scores, and feel…

This article attempts to demonstrate the applicability of a computer-assisted instruction supported with simulated data in teaching abstract statistical concepts to political science and public affairs students in an introductory research methods course. The software is called the Elaboration Model Computer Exercise (EMCE) in that it takes a great…

For those times when political science is again confronted with questions about its usefulness, we suggest that the classroom is a central arena for our discipline to reassert its relevance to the society in which we live. In particular, given the existence of our open and accessible political system, we argue that the introductory course taught…

Globalization, global citizenship, and political engagement have become such buzzwords and cliches that we often lose the sense of their meaning. Global citizenship in particular is an elusive concept to operationalize. This article proposes to look at three dimensions of global citizenship: legal (rights and obligations), psychological…

This article discusses the findings of an ethnographic content analysis of students' written reflections as a means for assessing the learning outcomes of teaching introductory American politics in comparative perspective. It focuses especially on determining whether and how this approach enhanced students' understanding and retention of knowledge…

Political science is a challenging field, particularly when it comes to undergraduate teaching. If we are to engage in something more than uncritical ideological instruction, it demands from the student a willingness to approach alien political ideas with intellectual generosity. Yet, students within introductory classes often harbor inherited…