Active teaching and learning support pedagogies typically require student vocal participation in the classroom. However, very little is known about strategies used to promote student voice especially in teacher-dominated classroom cultures in many parts of the developing world. This paper reports action research that explored student responses and…

Scholars of teaching and learning frequently examine whether simulations promote content knowledge and engagement with course material. But many educators use simulations to promote additional goals. This article suggests that designers of political simulations often pursue four ends: "knowledge, engagement, skills, and empathy (KESE)."…

Mock elections are an increasingly popular form of active learning, adopted in many European countries and the United States. However, we have limited knowledge regarding the extent to which they enhance students' civic competence. This article analyzes data from over 9,000 students aged 13-19 who participated in a 2022 mock election in Sweden.…

Instructors seeking to add active learning elements to their courses encounter an "evaluation challenge" when trying to assign grades to discussion-based activities that do not produce a final product. By creating a way to incorporate evaluation into hard-to-observe activities, the protocol presented here can help instructors make active…

Active learning is an engaging way of teaching and even experienced professors may not know how to start implementing its techniques to make classes more dynamic. Teaching cases can be a very useful active method of instruction, as an opportunity to assign students roles in the case discussion, centering them as the protagonists of their own…

Although the esthetic turn in International Relations (IR) has recently expanded to teaching, with professors promoting the mobilization of artistic material in the classroom, its use in students' productions and examinations has received scarce attention. Drawing on a course at Sciences Po Paris dedicated to IR normative theory and given for five…

This contribution presents and discusses the methodology and results of a panel study analyzing the effects of a simulation on students' learning outcomes. The focus is on how sustainable knowledge acquisition can be enhanced through participation in simulation as well as on presenting and discussing one way this learning can be analyzed. The…

This article uses new survey data to examine student preferences and experiences with active learning among a graduate student cohort across two key identity markers: international student status and gender. Our survey of students enrolled in a Master of International Relations program suggests that most view active learning favorably and believe…

To develop a simulation is to construct a new reality, one where students can safely engage with the course materials, so as to achieve the intended learning outcomes. While there are a wide range of studies that review the utility of simulations in the classroom, the construction of the alternate reality--the pseudo-reality--is a less discussed…

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…

The objective of ESD is to make people think differently about lifestyles as well as economic and political structures, to raise awareness for complex problems, to sharpen political judgment and to empower people to act. A means to achieve these objectives is to engage students in action-oriented learning. The ESD courses aimed at implementing…

Protracted conflict presents students with an unfamiliar and often puzzling context. Why do negotiations sometimes succeed, while at other points, actors are unable to reach agreement on key issues, even in the face of deadly costs? In this article, I introduce an extended role-playing simulation designed to enhance student understanding of…

This article details a role-playing "citizenship simulation" used in a large graduate seminar offered by the Masters of International Relations (IR) faculty at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While recognizing the need for a more systematic analysis of the relationship between class size and active learning strategies, this…

This essay introduces and analyzes a one-class role-play simulation during which students engage in stakeholder negotiations on how to respond to a large flow of refugees between two fictional African countries. Participants acquire an in-depth knowledge of arguments regarding granting and restricting refugees' freedom of movement and civil and…

Global politics simulations are most often employed within a course via face-to-face student interactions, but they can also be integrated into a broader course model and implemented effectively for online and distance learners. To that end, this article proposes the WRIS system as an organizational framework for online course design to include a…