PhD programs in the United States are increasingly marked by the rising influence of market-oriented dynamics. As a case in point, one of the primary objectives of the new PhD program offered at the University of South Dakota is to deliver a doctoral program through a flexible--or hybrid--format that is accessible to nontraditional as well as…

This article seeks to contribute to the evolving literature on the scholarship of teaching and learning. We do this by describing and then reflecting on what we have learned from a year-long freshman applied research seminar, "International Affairs Knowledge and U.S. Foreign Policy Opinions." After surveying the literature on public…

This is the first study to use self-reported ratings of student learning, instructor recommendations, and course recommendations as the outcome measure to estimate class size effects, doing so across 24 disciplines. Fixed-effects models controlling for heterogeneous courses and instructors reveal that increasing enrollment has negative and…

In November 2007, I helped found a blog, "The Monkey Cage", with two of my colleagues, David Park and Lee Sigelman. This site joined a nascent political science blogosphere that is now composed of at least 80 blogs (Farrell and Sides 2010). The goals of "The Monkey Cage" are to publicize political science research and use this research to comment…

This paper identifies the epistemological values of novice students and their lecturers in terms of a "farming" metaphor. It argues that each occupy essentially different kinds of epistemological "farms", involving different "crops" and "methods", and lecturers often fail to provide effective access to their…

Postings generated during "natural" online interactions among geographically dispersed/diasporic Nigerians contain ideas from different intellectual sources. A few of the ideas encapsulated within texts produced were brought to the fore, discussed, and analyzed. The consequent search for the presence of indigenous knowledge within the…

This article compares the methods and means employed by the state to enforce the education of (semi-)autonomous indigenous groups in southern Chile and northwestern Mexico (Sonora), border regions in the Latin American periphery, covering the transition from colonial times to the consolidation of independent republics until the middle of the…

How can philosophical instruction inform practical analysis and decision making among college students in a way that demonstrably benefits them as individual members of our polity and economy? I pose this question because each year, I introduce classic political theory to first- and second-year college students who simultaneously confront a fiscal…

Inspired by the work of Ernest Boyer and the Boyer Commission, the Scholarship of Engagement for Politics project was an attempt to adapt their demands for research-based undergraduate learning opportunities to the British context through the pedagogy of placement learning. This article explores the project's attempts to make placement learning…

This article draws from different experiences in teaching Introduction to American Politics classes over a six-year period. It examines the value of using nontraditional texts in introductory political science classes that may also fulfill general education requirements, in order to engage as many students as possible in the subject matter. It…

This paper discusses the role of a writing centre in creating spaces for talk about and change in disciplinary writing pedagogy. It asks how collaborative partnerships between disciplinary academics and Writing Centre practitioners might be established and nurtured sustainably. Drawing on insights from two collaborations with academics in…

We present two simulations designed to convey the strategic nature of terrorism and counterterrorism. The first is a simulated hostage crisis, designed primarily to illustrate the concepts of credible commitment and costly signaling. The second explores high-level decision making of both a terrorist group and the state, and is designed to…

Bernie Ronan's "The Civic Spectrum: How Students Become Engaged Citizens" comes at a critical time in the effort to strengthen the role of higher education in a democracy. In the last 20 years, higher education institutions have begun to pay a great deal of attention to the civic engagement of college students. By now, nearly every campus around…

Multimedia use in the collegiate political science classroom has had a negative image since Janda's (1992) early work on CD-ROM-based video presentations. In the nearly two decades since, multimedia has matured and best practices have emerged to challenge the "sobering" findings presented by Janda. Many of the best practices point to student…

In this article, the author addresses both the costs and benefits of implementing clickers into an introductory political science course. Comparing student responses to a mid-semester survey in both a clicker and non-clicker course, the results show that students have higher satisfaction of the course and instructor, higher exam scores, and feel…