The study of political theory is particularly well suited to pedagogical practices that involve music. Several canonical figures were themselves composers and instrumentalists who cared deeply about their musical commitments. For a notable few, including Plato, Aristotle, and Rousseau, music arguably constitutes an indispensable feature of their…

Only a handful of research papers have examined the assessment of student debate activities in higher education, and very little is currently known about how students might perceive a final oral exam in which they have to debate with/against each other. The aim of this study was to examine students' perceptions of participation and learning in…

Decades of research suggest that interactive classrooms enhance student engagement and improve comprehension. Team-Based Learning (TBL) is an educational strategy used first in medical settings and business schools and then expanded to social sciences and humanities that emphasizes small-group, active-learning, where most classroom time is devoted…

Scholars of teaching and learning frequently examine whether simulations promote content knowledge and engagement with course material. But many educators use simulations to promote additional goals. This article suggests that designers of political simulations often pursue four ends: "knowledge, engagement, skills, and empathy (KESE)."…

This paper investigates how early career academics interpret and respond to institutional demands structured by projectification. Developing a 'frame analytic' approach, it explores projectification as a process constituted at the level of meaning-making. Building on 35 in-depth interviews with fixed-term scholars in political science and history,…

The inverted classroom model (ICM) has started to attract attention as a pedagogical approach in political science teaching. While there are many publications describing the application of the model in single courses and analyzing students' performance in inverted classes, the existing literature provides little guidance for first-time users of…

What is the impact of active learning techniques on student excitement, interest, and self-efficacy in a course? An American Foreign Policy and National Security course was designed around the utilization of a number of active learning techniques, including simulations, a debate, and counterfactual analysis. Students in the course were surveyed…

This essay outlines a set of mini-games designed to more effectively allow political science instructors, particularly in International Relations, teach basic principles and concepts associated with digital insecurity and cyber conflict. This topic, increasingly significant in IR syllabi in recent years, is in many cases considered with…

Instructors seeking to add active learning elements to their courses encounter an "evaluation challenge" when trying to assign grades to discussion-based activities that do not produce a final product. By creating a way to incorporate evaluation into hard-to-observe activities, the protocol presented here can help instructors make active…

Anecdotal evidence suggests pedagogy research on simulations in political science is dominated by two subfields: International Relations and Comparative Politics. This belief may stem from the widespread use of things like Model United Nations and Model Arab League or the popular game Statecraft. While some other subfields, notably public law,…

The large introductory classes at many universities present a particular challenge for instructors wishing to guarantee participation opportunities for their students. Yet, large courses can actually afford advantages for instructors looking to replicate many features of the U.S. Congress. We describe two separate Congressional simulations in an…

A Model United Nations (MUN) conference is one of Political Science's most enduring and iconic formats for active learning and a defining event for many undergraduate students and high school students. Despite its established place in the discipline of Political Science, a MUN conference is an event that defies attempts at perfection, due mainly…

This research examines whether explicit course-level learning objectives (LOs) affect students' perceptions of courses and ability to recall factual knowledge and analyze political problems. The study compares four sections of the author's introductory world politics course -- two that were provided with the explicit learning objectives and two…

"Active learning" strategies--peer instruction, simulations, hands-on activities, and the like--improve student performance and engagement. However, instructors often struggle to incorporate these techniques into their courses. Doing so can be especially difficult in large lecture courses, where the number of students makes activities…

In recent years, scholar-educators have examined a variety of new approaches for teaching research in political science. Many of these inquiries begin with the observation that research activities cause some students to experience trepidation and aversion. The result is often poor performance in courses which assign research. In this project, I…