The rollback of several environmental policies in the US at the federal level over the last couple of years often evokes a heavy sense of cynicism in our students toward environmental politics and has exacerbated their anxiety for the future of our planet. In this article, I argue that it is important to acknowledge our students' emotional…

In today's world characterized by political tribalism, narrative is an increasingly important concept for understanding politics. The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) seeks to describe, explain, and predict the role of narrative in politics and policy. We wanted to explore whether the assumptions and postulates of the NPF could help students in…

This article describes and evaluates an implementation of team-based learning (TBL) in a large (180 student) section of a U.S. government course. The author argues that TBL presents an opportunity for instructors of large classes to increase student engagement with the course content as well as student interaction with the instructor and with each…

In this article, we investigate the graduate curricula of political science programs and 122 Ph.D.-granting political science programs in the United States and how they seek to prepare political science teachers. We first investigate whether the department offers a dedicated political science course at the graduate level on college teaching, and…

This article addresses the pros and cons of incorporating more non-canonical political theory into our introductory political theory courses. I begin by identifying what I take to be the goals of an introductory political theory class. Based on these four goals, I examine the reasons why we tend not to include non-canonical works in our…

Describes and evaluates the use of the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) to teach an introductory public policy course on the college level. Also discusses student performance and evaluations. (Author/DB)

Describes and evaluates college level political science at the University of Santa Clara which promotes social science research as an integral part of the baccalaureate program. (Author/DB)

This paper addresses nontraditional methods and issues involved in presenting a productive undergraduate political science course that provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities to aid good citizenship and a variety of career choices. This educators incorporated team teaching, cross training, original research, and small group work, and invited…

This paper describes and evaluates a political skills course for college students. Course objectives include teaching students to do the following: organize and run a meeting; bargain effectively; communicate within and between groups; manage a crisis; organize a political coalition; be aware of personal stress and some of the ways to reduce it;…