“TEACHING POLITICS AS A PUBLIC GOOD: CITIZENSHIP AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN THE CLASSROOM”
Please join us for a unique conference, which provides a highly interactive forum for scholars to share research and innovative tools for political science education. The conference focuses on promoting the scholarship of teaching and learning, equipping faculty with new techniques and resources for teaching, and enhancing the role of teaching in the discipline of political science. This year’s conference theme focuses on the public value of teaching political science and how studying politics can help students build tools for citizenship and civic discourse.
The conference combines paper and workshop presentations. Papers are presented in a working group environment, in which the participants in a theme learn about and discuss each other’s research.
Workshops are designed to be highly interactive and provide hands-on experience. Each workshop will demonstrate a learning tool or technique in which participants could immediately implement at their institution.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT EDUCATION: FOUNDATIONS
This track will consider the foundations of civic engagement education in the classroom. What can political scientists do in the classroom to address issues of civic trust, tolerance, and voting? Topics discussed will include assessing civic learning outcomes, encouraging civic engagement in introductory courses, designing courses to incorporate civic engagement, assessing the long-term impacts of civic engagement education, and comparing methods of civic engagement in the classroom.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT EDUCATION: ACROSS DISCIPLINES, CAMPUS, AND COMMUNITIES
This track will consider issues related to the extension of civic engagement across campus, across disciplines, and into the community. It is particularly focused on finding ways to teach civic engagement through experiential learning, community engagement, campus initiatives, service learning, and cross-disciplinary programs. Participants will also discuss effective assessment techniques.
DISCIPLINARY CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT
Curriculum design and course assessment are essential parts of a political science classroom. This track will look at a range of questions related to developing disciplinary curricula, setting general education requirements, teaching non-majors effectively, designing campus programs, and measuring outcomes and effectiveness. Participants will discuss how political science contributes to and enhances general education curriculum, and also addresses engaging and high-impact practices which political science can offer.
LIBERAL ARTS
This track will explore topics related to teaching the liberal arts, and particularly political theory. Topics addressed include: teaching the liberal arts as a public good; educating students politically vs. ideologically; how liberal education promotes free and civil campus discourse; the connection between liberal arts and democracy; and effective ways to teach the liberal arts.
SIMULATIONS AND GAMES
Simulations and games can immerse students in an environment that enables them to experience the decision-making processes of real-world political actors. Examples include in-person and online role-play scenarios like the Model European Union and ICONS, off-the-shelf board games, Reacting to the Past, and exercises that model subjects like poverty, institutions of government, and ethnic conflict. Papers in this track will examine topics such as the effects of gamification of course content on student motivation and engagement, cognitive and affective outcomes from simulations and games in comparison to other teaching techniques, and the contexts in which the use of simulations and games makes sense for the instructor.
TEACHING RESEARCH, WRITING, AND INFORMATION LITERACY
Encouraging research, writing, and information literacy skills among our students is a common goal of the political science curriculum. This track will address how political science faculty can effectively teach these skills, increasing knowledge of research design and methods, teaching critical thinking, using data as a teaching tool, and high-impact practices for teaching information literacy.
THE VIRTUAL AND TECHNOLOGICALLY ENHANCED CLASSROOM
This track will address the challenges and opportunities of both online and technologically enhanced teaching. Topics will include innovative online course design and teaching methods, improving student engagement through the use of technology, and incorporating technological and online tools (including, but not limited to, clickers, podcasts, blogs, wikis, synchronous and asynchronous videos, and document sharing) into the classroom. Papers in this track will examine how to maximize the effectiveness of virtual and technological tools for classrooms of all types.
More Information
2018 Conference awards:
Michael Brintnall Teaching & Learning Award
Supports attendance at the conference. The award may include conference registration fees and a one-year complimentary APSA membership.
CQ Press Award for Teaching Innovation
Recognizes a political scientist who has developed an effective new approach to teaching in the discipline. The award seeks to honor a wide range of new directions in teaching.
The program committee oversees the conference content and programming:
Elizabeth Matto, Rutgers University, Co-Chair
Lee Trepanier, Saginaw Valley State University, Co-Chair
Terry Gilmour, Midland College
Maureen Feeley, University of California, San Diego
William Jennings, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
