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)."…

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,…

This paper pilots a method of testing the learning effects of a role-playing simulation of negotiations over the Nile basin. Players negotiate how to apply general principles from international law, such as sharing water equitably and avoiding significant harm, to specific circumstances of the river basin. Students are presented with a set of…

The use of active learning pedagogies gives students a more applied experience and aids in the retention of material, improvement of critical thinking, and overall student satisfaction. Among these pedagogies, long-form (complex, extended) simulations provide an excellent vehicle for teaching students about the legislative process. However, these…

The study of educational simulations at the secondary level has typically centered on programs that are competitive, shorter in duration, and characterized by their low fidelity, or a lack of realism. The resources required to hold longer, more immersive, and nuanced programs are often prohibitive for teachers of political science programs. As…

In the modern American politics classroom, ideological and partisan conflict have the capacity to interfere with a healthy classroom environment. This problem is increasingly apparent when students engage questions at the heart of U.S. Constitutional design. By asking students to inhabit fictional roles with preferences and attitudes that may…

This article offers two novel tools for teaching political science methodology and research design. The first is a comprehensive framework for helping students conceptualize a research project in political science. The second is a reformulation of the dominant conceptualization of process-tracing tests. Building on Collier's use of Sherlock Holmes…

This contribution presents and discusses the methodology and results of a panel study analyzing the effects of a simulation on students' learning outcomes. The focus is on how sustainable knowledge acquisition can be enhanced through participation in simulation as well as on presenting and discussing one way this learning can be analyzed. The…

Competition among parties is a central feature of democratic politics, but extreme partisanship can undermine democratic practices and institutions. We report the results of a formative curricular intervention involving reflective discussions designed to avoid hyper-partisanship in a training program for anyone--including university students--with…

While the number of newspapers and the circulation of those remaining is decreasing, they are still the greatest contributor of new information into media ecosystems. Newspapers continue to pay an important role in setting the agenda, as other sources recycle and repackage their content. To assist students in learning concepts of newspapers,…

Model United Nations (MUN) simulations are an increasingly popular approach to teaching international relations, in both secondary and tertiary education. There is some evidence, however, that these simulations disadvantage female participants. Studies by Rosenthal et al. and Coughlin found that female students participate less in simulations than…

Over the course of 3 years, the Political Science and Biology Programs at a regional HBCU have built a curricular learning community centered on a mock trial competition, where a microbiology course was paired with an introductory legal studies course. Over the course of a semester, students enrolled in both courses studied a real appellate case…

To develop a simulation is to construct a new reality, one where students can safely engage with the course materials, so as to achieve the intended learning outcomes. While there are a wide range of studies that review the utility of simulations in the classroom, the construction of the alternate reality--the pseudo-reality--is a less discussed…

This article explores the hidden educational potential in the board game "Diplomacy." While commonly recognized as a good low-cost negotiation simulation and a useful teaching platform, the original game version over-emphasizes the conflictual nature of international relations and presents an image of international relations that is not…

Active learning techniques are being use with increasing frequency in the classroom and more time is being dedicated to designing and implementing them. However, the literature still suffers from a lack of rigorous empirical methods to test the effects of simulations. Most of the claimed benefits of utilizing simulations, and other active learning…