Recent reports indicate that employers are increasingly interested in hiring individuals that can think critically and are able to solve complex problems. Further, the ability to apply knowledge learned during college to real-world settings is a major sought-after skill. Overall, these findings emphasize the importance of teaching our students to…

Active learning is an engaging way of teaching and even experienced professors may not know how to start implementing its techniques to make classes more dynamic. Teaching cases can be a very useful active method of instruction, as an opportunity to assign students roles in the case discussion, centering them as the protagonists of their own…

The use of simulations has increasingly gained momentum as a way of captivating students' attention and enhancing learning in the classroom. However, despite its increasing use as a teaching tool, only recently have scholars increasingly empirically considered how the use of simulations may impact student learning. Moreover, whereas qualitative…

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…

Literature on simulation games stresses both the need for objective assessment of pedagogical effectiveness and the concern that such assessment may not be happening because it is too difficult. This article speaks to both points by presenting an approach to objectively assess the effectiveness of a simulation called the Human Rights Foreign…

The Statecraft IR simulation has received a significant amount of attention in the pedagogical literature. Some instructors have asserted that Statecraft is biased toward the behavior and learning goals of realism, calling into question the utility of the simulation as a teaching tool. Using thirteen iterations of the simulation we empirically…

This study brings together insights from the Science Education Initiative with a new course, "Spy Novel Diplomacy: Propaganda and International Relations," which has been taught as a General Education Seminar for first year students. The class will continue on an annual basis from the spring semester of 2020 onward. Thus what follows is…

This article utilizes the online world politics simulation Statecraft to examine how students perceive the influence of simulations on their political ideologies as well as their expectations about behavior and outcomes within the constraints of a virtual world. This paper does not evaluate learning outcomes or student understanding of class…

This paper presents results from a comparative analysis of two sections of Introduction to International Politics, one of which used a traditional research paper as a supplemental assignment and one that used the Statecraft online simulation. Both sections were taught during the same semester and used common lecture notes, PowerPoint slides, exam…

Although deterrence was one of the cornerstones of the international relations field for much of the 20th century, today surveys demonstrate that most students lack even a basic understanding of this concept. Yet, in the light of recent events on the Korean Peninsula, in China, and the post-Soviet space, our civilian and military leaders continue…

This article discusses international simulation "models" as vehicles for active student learning and leadership development. Drawing on his role as the faculty sponsor of his school's delegation and managing director of the overall conference, the author details the structure, workings, and benefits of International Model NATO as well as…

In a pre/post quasi-experimental study assessing the impact of a specific curriculum on critical thinking, the authors employed a critical thinking curriculum in two sections of a U.S. foreign policy class. The authors found that the interactive and scaffolded critical thinking curriculum yielded statistically significant critical thinking…

Utilizing a web-based simulation Statecraft, we explore the relative influence of ideology (realism and idealism) on student behavior and learning. By placing students into ideologically cohesive groups, we are able to demonstrate the effect of their ideology on the goals they pursue and identify the constraints imposed on the system by the…

Professors of international relations are increasingly realizing that simulations can be a fun and effective way of teaching the complexities of the field to their students. One popular simulation that has emerged in recent years--the "Statecraft" simulation--is now used by more than 190 colleges and universities worldwide. Despite…

This study assesses the pedagogical value of film as case material, and whether that value is affected by the different national and institutional contexts of the students engaging that text. We test whether students in two different Theories of International Relations (IR) classrooms--one in Brazil and one in the United States--demonstrated a…