This study examines the effectiveness of the Center for Civic Education's Project Citizen teacher professional development program and curriculum intervention in producing positive student learning outcomes that support civic engagement. Through Project Citizen, students identify and research a problem in their community, explore solutions,…

The use of active learning pedagogies gives students a more applied experience and aids in the retention of material, improvement of critical thinking, and overall student satisfaction. Among these pedagogies, long-form (complex, extended) simulations provide an excellent vehicle for teaching students about the legislative process. However, these…

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.…

Radical-right campaigns commonly employ three discursive elements: anti-elite populism, exclusionary and declinist nationalism, and authoritarianism. Recent scholarship has explored whether these frames have diffused from radical-right to centrist parties in the latter's effort to compete for the former's voters. This study instead investigates…

Gerrymandering is a controversial practice in American politics, and one that has generated a significant amount of legal, academic, and political interest. While gerrymandering is an important and timely topic, this issue receives relatively little attention in most introductory courses in American government. This omission is compounded by the…

This paper describes a relatively new active learning approach--Design Thinking--and its adoption in two comparative politics courses. I draw on my experience using Design Thinking in political science courses to offer instructors another pedagogical tool in the active learning toolkit. I outline the rationale for adopting a Design Thinking…

College campuses have taken on increased responsibility for mobilizing young voters. Despite the discipline's commitment to civic engagement, political science departments play a minimal role in this programming. This article outlines a course structure--including learning objectives, course outline, and assessments--that treats a campus-wide…

Scholars of citizenship education have long regarded deliberation as the default framework for democratic discussion in the classroom and beyond. Turning to the history and theory of rhetoric, we question why the deliberative model of the Athenian assembly has been developed for social studies pedagogy without including the litigative discourse of…

The 2016 presidential election was the first since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in which full voting protections were not in place for historically marginalized voters. This shift was largely due to a 5-4 decision in "Shelby v. Holder" (2013) in which the Supreme Court ruled that states with a history of voter discrimination…

Duverger's Law--the principle that first-past-the-post systems tend to promote two major political parties while proportional representation systems tend to promote multipartism--is a commonly taught topic in introductory and some upper-level political science courses across subfields. However, it also contains concepts that are difficult for…

Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Accountability and Civic Engagement and includes: (1) Will States Use ESSA [Elementary and Secondary Education Act] to Undermine…

This teaching case discusses the analysis of an electronic voting system. The development of the case was motivated by research into information security and management, but as it includes procedural aspects, organizational structure and personnel, it is a suitable basis for all aspects of systems analysis, planning and design tasks. The material…

Active learning, including in-class debates, is used in social science classrooms as a means of improving meaning and increasing understanding of complex materials. However, in-class debates do not fully satisfy all aspects of experiential learning because students do not get to experience the results of multifaceted concepts, such as strategic…

In a democracy, agents of political socialization, such as schools and parents, generally emphasize the importance of voting. While college students may be exposed briefly to voter registration as a barrier to participation, there is little evidence that the topic is given serious attention in the classroom. This research addresses how classroom…