Simulations offer opportunities for students to receive instruction in political strategies and practice developing political skills without the real-world consequences faced by policymakers. Budget simulations introduce students to collective action problems prevalent at all levels of American government and can be used in a variety of courses.…

Active learning--and gaming, in particular--is now a well-established part of many political science courses. First, we discuss the design and implementation of a "Gateway Game", a pedagogical tool with broad applicability and test its effectiveness in increasing student motivation, satisfaction, and learning. Crucially, we provide…

Civic skills need to be practiced to keep the democracy strong, and civic training materials should be exciting and linked to real-world activities. Today, teaching government and social studies can be, must be, about students' real lives. A unit of study on "Tracking Congress" would offer an opportunity to connect civics and government…

In a 2016 survey, just 26% of Americans were able to name all three branches of government, and 31% failed to name even one branch. In 2011, the American Bar Association's (ABA) Commission on Civic Education in the Nation's Schools called the progress of civic education "worrisome" and said, "there is reason to be alarmed at the…

The Confederate flag has been a hotly debated symbol of heritage or hate in the United States. In 2015, 54 per cent of Americans polled saw the flag as a symbol of 'Southern pride' whereas 34 per cent saw it as racist. However, 27 per cent of Whites compared to 69 per cent of Blacks saw the flag as racist. In this article, I suggest how…

This study reports on an innovative approach to dual-language instruction (DLI) at the secondary-education level and introduces the 2-1-L2 model. The context of the study is an American Government class at a public charter high school in Tucson, Arizona, where the 2-1-L2 model was used for nine weeks to structure daily 90-minute lessons into a…

In the era of smartphones and 24-hour news networks, the State of the Union address is a major event. All national media outlets--in print, on television, on the Internet--report on the address, some almost exclusively in the days leading up to and after the speech. In this article, considering their experiences teaching about the address, and…

In an effort to enhance the quality of education, universities and colleges are developing programs that help faculty and staff internationalize curriculum. These programs will purposefully develop the intercultural perspectives of students. "Curriculum Internationalization and the Future of Education" is a critical scholarly resource…

Teaching the Declaration of Independence can be a challenge. This article presents a lesson plan based on an explication of the title and the first three lines of the Declaration intended to make the American founding era relevant to today's college students. Assuming civic education is a major goal of teaching American Government, assuming…

In this article, the author describes the approach she used to teach American government to high school seniors. Beginning with a court procedure unit, the central strategy she used for this unit was a murder mystery that peaked the students' curiosity and encouraged them to think like scientists and lawyers. The court procedure lesson uses a…

I examine the impact of simulations on student learning and on the growth of civic competence in an introductory American government class. By civic competence, I refer to an individual's skill and ability to make sense of vast amounts of political information; to work with others (and in civil opposition to other people's ideas) where…

Introduction to American Government classes can benefit from the addition of examples from comparative politics. Presenting students with examples of other democratic systems encourages them to confront the costs and benefits of choices made in the American context. Dealing with these "cognitive conflict" tasks facilitates higher level learning on…

This article describes a political debate among congressional candidates that the authors organized in 2006. The debate was structured to maximize student involvement both in the planning stages and during the event itself. After discussing relevant literature on experiential learning, the article describes the debate format and details the issues…

This project posits that incorporating political humor into the classroom can have a positive effect on learning in higher education. Specifically, we present preliminary findings from a quasi-experiment in which a humorous, "mock" textbook titled America (The Book) (Stewart, Karlin, and Javerbaum 2004) was incorporated into Introduction to…

Role playing Congress provides high school American government students with a unique opportunity not only to learn the workings of the Congress, but also to be active participants in the learning process. Research studies have shown that students enjoy those classes in which they are actively participating. (RM)