This study assessed the capacity of a major Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Assignment to improve students' content knowledge surrounding relevant course concepts in two sections of "The Politics of Welfare Reform," a 200-level class offered at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. The hypothesis was that performance on the PBL assignment, which…

Finds little interaction between political information level, strength of party identification, and voting defection (not voting according to the "party line"). Concludes that the decision to defect from party affiliation is largely related to the specific issues in a political campaign. (RL)

Suggests that declines in newspaper penetration, lessened competition, or shifts toward getting news from television weakens people's understanding about partisan candidates. (RL)

Concluded that (1) reliance on television news correlated negatively with knowledge of issues; (2) reliance on newspapers did not correlate at all; (3) focused television news correlated more highly with knowledge of issues than did general television news use; and (4) for newspapers, both focused and general use had strong correlations with…

A study of the role of the attention construct in the process of transforming specific newspaper and television media content into political knowledge involved a survey of 71 undergraduate students in an introductory journalism course. A review of the literature had revealed that the use of the attention construct had been infrequent in mass media…

The current political conflict over school policy making is raised as a source of political learning for the young. It is hypothesized that the current politicization of educational issues influences students as never before and that this influence has great potential for re-shaping perceptions and evaluations of the political world. In the last…

This collection of essays is authored by social scientists who are concerned primarily with relationships between academic knowledge and political power, rethinking the traditional view of politics and science as mutually exclusive fields of study. Chapters are organized into three parts: "Introduction"; "The Institutional Politics of Knowledge…