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 the Winter of 2020, my introductory Canadian politics class started to develop its own online, collaboratively-built, open-access, introductory "textbook" on Canadian politics. Drawing on the principles of critical pedagogy, the assignment engages students in group work to generate plain-language primers that can connect with an…

Watson earned his B.A. in religious studies from the College of William and Mary in 1995, his M.A. in international peace studies and conflict resolution from the University of Notre Dame in 2001, and his M.A. and doctorate in political science from the University of New Mexico in 2010 and 2013, respectively. Research interests include the…

How can information literacy (IL) skills be improved during one semester? The proliferation of information disorders - fabricated stories, misleading content, clickbait - requires skills beyond using a fake-news checklist. Students in an introductory political science course were asked to analyze a news story every week as a course objective to…

One challenge faced by instructors incorporating simulations and games into political science courses is how to assess learning outcomes from non-"traditional," pedagogical methods. Positive or anticipated simulation outcomes do not necessarily indicate positive learning outcomes for students. And, using more traditional methods of…

Wikipedia has become one of the most used reference works, by students, educators, academics, and the general public, and there is a growing body of research exploring when and how students use the online encyclopedia. A smaller body of work examines the role of Wikipedia as a pedagogical tool for teaching information literacy and subject-matter…

The ability to integrate learning--to make connections across classes or even within a single class--is integral to students becoming better learners, and to growing their capacity to perform as civic actors. We discuss an upper-level Campaigns and Elections class in which the course structure and assignments were set up to encourage students to…

This article outlines a semester-long advocacy project that walks students through the steps to develop a successful advocacy campaign, culminating in a trip to the state capitol to "lobby" legislators. The manuscript provides faculty with the basic structure for the project and suggests gradable assignments. The project builds on the…

This article describes a four-part book club in a political parties, campaigns, and elections course. Self-reported survey data and anecdotal evidence suggest that the book club was a successful learning tool. Specifically, students who enrolled in the book club reported increased classroom capital, significant learning, enjoyment with the book…

When new graduates begin employment in industries such as government, consultancies, or the nongovernmental sector they are expected to have the skills needed to write politically-informed reports accurately. Teaching how to write briefing notes provides students with an important skill, but also provides an effective instrument for examining…

The existing literature on transparency teaching in higher education reveals that the adoption of transparent-oriented assignments improves the learning outcomes for underserved students at the introductory level, and decreases the rate of attrition among the student population with the highest risk of dropping out. Concurrently, the continued…

This research examines whether online discussion groups enhance students' ability to analyze political problems and recall factual knowledge. The study compares four sections of the author's introductory world politics course--two that employed online discussion groups and two that did not. The results revealed little difference in the performance…

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…

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 evidence that some obstacles to women running for political office emerge early in the political development of women and girls. Lawless and Fox (2005) identify several reasons for lower political ambition among women relative to men. Among their explanations are that girls are less likely to be engaged in political conversations in their…