College faculty often struggle with getting their students to read assigned materials. Even if students do read, they may not read closely or critically. Not only does the lack of effective reading undermine understanding, but it also hampers class discussions and engagement. To promote close and critical reading in a required, upper-division…

In this article I discuss an approach to teaching about the Russian war in Ukraine that uses the war as a focal point for teaching about topics in comparative politics and international relations. I discuss the pedagogical advantages for political science teaching, including meeting the interests of students, introducing students to theories in…

This essay discusses the emerging literature on APA religiosity and politics, with a focus on theologically conservative Christians. APAs are both highly religiously diverse, and politically divided between those who identify more as conservative Christians and those who do less. More-educated, conservative Christian APAs experience…

This article details assignments and lessons created for and tested in research methods courses at two different universities, a large state school and a small liberal arts college. Each assignment or activity utilized scaffolding. Students were asked to push beyond their comfort zone while utilizing concrete and/or creative examples,…

University instructors have increasingly turned to flipped classrooms as a way to promote engaged, student-centered learning. At the same time, scholars across disciplines have shown the power of visual assignments for developing critical thinking and achieving higher level learning. In this article I discuss a flipped class design that uses…

As the prevalence of online education continues to grow, so do concerns about student success. Online students tend to withdraw more often and earn lower grades, compared to students in traditional classrooms. Explanations for this disparity range from student characteristics to institutional shortcomings to course design. Attempts to counter this…

Student exit polling has demonstrated value in the classroom (Berry and Robinson 2012; Evans and Lagergren 2007; Lelieveldt and Rossen 2009), but faculty typically operate these polls in isolation. When faculty collaborate, however, students gain additional benefits from the experience. Collaboration provides a geographically diverse "student…

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…

Studies suggest that course-integrated information literacy instruction is an effective way to enhance the quality of student research. However, many political science professors are unfamiliar with the growing information literacy movement in higher education today, with strategies for integrating information literacy into their courses and…