Teaching Students to Engage with Evidence: An Evaluation of Structured Writing and Classroom Discussion Strategies

In their transition to college, students often struggle to identify and make connections between the main arguments, evidence, and empirical findings of articles from academic journals commonly assigned on political science syllabi. Which active learning techniques are most effective for teaching students to recognize and evaluate social science evidence? To address this question, we conducted an experiment with students from two first-year writing seminars in political science. Students were randomly assigned to either an in-class writing activity or a group discussion, both of which required them to summarize an article’s use of evidence. We find limited evidence that group discussions are more effective for teaching students to engage with evidence.     

Raising the Bar: Maximizing Engaged Student Learning Using the American Mock Trial Association Case State of Midlands v. Dylan Hendricks

Abstract

This short review demonstrates how the use of American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) case materials, both throughout intercollegiate competitions and in academic courses, can engage and invigorate students while teaching them crucial skills in a way that few other programs or activities can do. The AMTA case provided for the 2017–2018 academic year, State of Midlands v. Dylan Hendricks, offers a comprehensive introduction to the rules of evidence and crucial criminal law concepts while teaching students the importance of thorough preparation in a way that is difficult to do in a classroom setting. This case requires student attorneys to make difficult choices while preparing their case, witnesses, and evidence for trial. Arriving at an optimum strategy (or strategies) can only occur after critical and reasoned examination of each side of an often complex problem, thereby providing an excellent opportunity for students to use critical thinking skills and to analyze all sides of an issue and all potential outcomes of a strategy. Students must thoroughly study and understand the rules of evidence, rules of criminal procedure, and relevant statutory and case law, and be prepared to use all of these as part of a reasoned, logical argument at a moment’s notice. Overall, this is an exceptional case for skill-building and engaged learning, and can be a valuable tool for faculty and students alike.     

Teaching Experience: How to Make and Use PowerPoint-Based Interactive Simulations for Undergraduate IR Teaching

This article is about designing and implementing PowerPoint-based interactive simulations for use in International Relations (IR) introductory undergraduate classes based on core pedagogical literature, models of human skill acquisition, and previous research on simulations in IR teaching. We argue that simulations can be usefully employed at the early transition from “novice” to “advanced beginner” in a learning process, where the student begins to leave behind rational rules in favor of an own situational experience. However, currently available IR simulations for teaching purposes are often high-cost/high-tech and especially time-intensive: if they do not require custom-made software packages with difficult interfaces and expensive licensing fees, they are often targeted at course-long or at least day-long activities that demand extensive preparation of both teachers and students, with book-length manuals, intricate rules, integrated assessment tools, and specific secondary literature, and conventionally target more experienced students. This article explains how teachers can create an easily accessible and class-long (50 minutes) interactive experience for undergraduate IR students to encourage theoretical linkage with own in-class experience at a very low cost. We do this by employing PowerPoint, specifically in-built features such as hyperlinks, interactive pathways, or audio or video integration that can be used interactively rather than passively (as in a standard presentation).     

RESEARCH METHODS EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SECTOR CAREERS: THE CHALLENGE OF UTILIZATION

As the world rapidly becomes more complex, there is a greater need for tools of research and data analysis to assist the public administrator. While many university programs recognize this need and include several methodology courses in their curriculum, there is little evidence that students are taking this knowledge into the field. In this article, the need for usable methodology courses are stressed. The first section of this article is dedicated to identifying those factors that make methods classes more practical. The remaining portion concentrates on two approaches to teaching that the author asserts will help students to use in the field what they have learned in the classroom.     

SoTL as a Subfield for Political Science Graduate Programs

This article offers a theoretical proposal of how political science graduate programs can emphasize teaching in the discipline by creating the subfield of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Currently, these programs neither prepare their students for academic positions where teaching is valued nor participate in a disciplinary trend that emphasize SoTL. Furthermore, the recent political pressure for political science programs to demonstrate their public worth might be alleviated by the scholarship in teaching and learning, which is more understandable to the public than traditional non-SoTL work. The article concludes with some of the challenges political science programs may confront in institutionalizing a subfield of SoTL and how they can overcome them.     

课程设计与机械类创新型人才的培养——谈创新大赛与课程设计相结合

阐述了对传统机械设计课程设计的改革意见,就将机械设计创新大赛融入机械设计课程设计的一些优势展开了讨论,用具体的多功能垃圾箱设计的实例,说明了研究型的课程设计教学培养创新型人才的作用。     

Nonexpert beliefs about the macroeconomic consequences of economic and noneconomic events

Economists assume that individuals think about the economy like economists, which is especially important in all rational expectations and economic voting models. Despite contrasting evidence, there has been little research on actual nonexpert macroeconomic beliefs. In this paper, I present the results of a survey among students designed to find out whether they distinguish macroeconomically relevant from irrelevant events. I find that even people with some economic background tend to overestimate the effects of noneconomic events. This bias is a function of gender, economic training, and the preferred means of mass communication.     

政府廉政评价的公民参与机制研究

构建政府廉政评价的公民参与机制,可以促使公民建立对反腐倡廉的理性认知,增强党和政府廉政工作公信力,提升公民满意度。依据参与深度的渐次推进,公民参与廉政评价对廉政建设能够发挥象征功能、鉴定功能、诊断功能、监督功能、战略功能。案例梳理表明,在当前中国各地政府实践探索中,政府廉政评价已逐步从内部评价走向引入民意调查和第三方评估,公民参与正处于从"无效参与"向"有限参与"的推进阶段,只是参与式评价的政府主导色彩仍然浓重。要想进一步增强公民参与廉政评价的动力,使公民在廉政评价动态过程的各环节实现主体身份,关键在于激发被评价对象和参与者两个方面的内在动因,形成公民参与的拉力和推力,进而从"理念—制度—环境—手段"四维度构建公民自主、有序、有效参与廉政评价的合理机制。     

数学教育多学科融合的思考——陈建功教育思想对当代数学教育的启迪

如今大学数学教育分科教学和脱离实际的现状在一定程度上是学生丧失学习兴趣、学习效率低下、分析问题与解决问题能力较差的原因。本文受陈建功先生的教育思想的启迪,分析了高等院校数学教育的原则和目的,我们认为现在的教育模式在一定程度上违背了数学教育的原则,削弱了数学的工具作用。虽然综合数学的教学模式相对分科教学具有很大的优势,然而由于现在对综合数学教育模式缺乏系统的教育体系和切实可行的教育手段,当前在高等院校实行综合数学的教学模式有一定的困难。本文提出了在教学中"渐进融合各科数学知识"的教学形式:在不改变当前教学模式的前提下,随着学生对各门数学知识的学习,任课教师应该有目的的加强所授课程与学生已学课程之间的联系,有目的的在内容上突出数学的整体性和实践性,并指出了在教学中要做到"融合各科数学知识"需要注意的事项。这种教学形式不仅可以降低分科教学的不利影响,而且可以突出综合性教学对学生学习数学的积极作用。     

Quantitative methods,economics, and or models

Training in quantitative methods is seen as essential for policy analysts, public administrators, and public managers if they are to make cogent and informed data‐based arguments. If our objective is to help students and future practitioners identify credible evidence, to make sense of that evidence, link it to their substantive knowledge, and thereby develop a defensible case for action, then this paper argues that our current approach to teaching methods is inappropriate. We need to take into consideration the learning styles and needs of our students in designing the delivery and content of our courses. Our current emphasis on teaching techniques needs to be replaced by an emphasis on teaching about the concepts underlying these tools and techniques. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Using Experimental Research to Test Instructional Effectiveness: A Case Study

Cross-cultural competence is now regarded as a critical student learning outcome by many U.S. higher educational institutions. It requires in part that students be able to empathize with people whose ethno-cultural, economic, political, and/or geographic backgrounds are different from their own—a quality that we are labeling global empathy. Yet colleges and universities frequently find it difficult to develop global empathy among their students. We conducted an experiment to investigate whether different instructional techniques—traditional lecture, video news reports, and an online game—or undergraduate students’ academic majors are associated with variations in indicators of global empathy. Statistically significant variations in survey data were found only among students majoring in psychology and in responses to two survey questions. Two behavioral measures did not reveal any statistically significant variation. A larger sample, longer exposure to treatment condition, or other changes to the experimental design might elucidate stronger evidence that instructional method or undergraduate academic major affects the development of global empathy, but this type of research may not be feasible at colleges and universities where enrollments are small and faculty lack necessary resources.     

Using Creative Assignments to Help Students Integrate Their Learning in a Campaigns and Elections Class

The ability to integrate learning—to make connections across classes or even within a single class—is integral to students becoming better learners, and to growing their capacity to perform as civic actors. We discuss an upper-level Campaigns and Elections class in which the course structure and assignments were set up to encourage students to integrate their learning. As part of the class, students played the role of state party committees during the 2016 presidential election, at first making arguments to devote more national party resources to their state campaign and then reporting back to the national party on how the election went in their state, and what the party must do to maximize its future success. Through coding of student final exam essay questions, we explore the degree to which students were able to achieve the integrative learning goals we had set for them, and examine factors that might help predict which students achieved these learning goals. We conclude by generalizing from our experience to discuss best practices for achieving integrative learning in our courses.     

Transforming Bloom’s Taxonomy into Classroom Practice: A Practical Yet Comprehensive Approach to Promote Critical Reading and Student Participation

This article presents the Critical Reading Topics approach, a pedagogical method employed to promote deep thinking in a variety of politics courses. Derived from principles articulated in active learning, critical thinking, backward design, and flipped classroom literature, this method utilizes Bloom’s Taxonomy as the scaffolding for students to create and evaluate pointed and relevant discussion topics written by themselves and their peers. By utilizing this method, faculty can increase students’ contemplation of the course texts, enhance students’ classroom contributions and quickly gauge the extent to which students understand the readings’ main ideas. This approach also enables students to gain authorship of the material, and it gives them additional in-class time to process the complex information they encounter. Evidence collected from six different political science courses is provided to document the approach’s effectiveness. Key findings include an improvement in the quality of relevant and focused discussion topics, a high percentage of students completing reading assignments with corresponding high quiz grades, and significant participation and recognition for all students, even those who are traditionally quiet in class.     

Variability or Moderation? The Effects of Ambivalence on Political Opinions

Prior research theorizes that ambivalence makes opinions about an object unreliable in the sense of being haphazard, unpredictable, or variable. As such, ambivalence is a prominent explanation for seeming nonattitudes in opinion surveys. This study proposes an alternative account of the effects of ambivalence on attitudes. It posits that people who are ambivalent about an issue split the difference between their conflicting considerations by taking a position near the middle of the bipolar opinion scale, which reflects a moderate attitude. I show how the widely-used method of modeling the supposed variability of ambivalent opinions conflates variability and moderation. This problem is addressed by modeling variability and moderation of attitudes separately, without this confound. Using this strategy in analyses involving four datasets and three policy domains, the results show that ambivalence is associated with moderate, not variable, attitudes. Ambivalence does not increase the variability of opinions but, rather, moves them quite predictably toward the middle of the response scale. The results recast our understanding of the effects of ambivalence on political opinions and raise questions about the ability of ambivalence to explain nonattitudes in surveys.     

Opening up to OERs: Electronic Original Sourcebook Versus Traditional Textbook in the Introduction to American Government Course

Traditional American Government textbooks are expensive and often unpopular with students. New technologies and Open Educational Resources (OERs) open up the potential for change, but questions of quality are ever present: can OERs really help students learn better, or are they just cheaper? I developed an OER based on original sources and compared student learning outcomes with the OER section to those in a free digital textbook section. While the OER I created did not work as well as I had hoped, I nonetheless developed a redesign of my course and my approach to teaching, which is the true benefit of adopting OERs.     

网络多媒体在大学英语阅读教学中的应用研究

网络多媒体为大学英语阅读教学提供了重要的方法和手段。笔者通过对哈尔滨医科大学98名非英语专业本科学生进行的实证分析证实:网络多媒体教学比传统教学更能激发学生的英语阅读兴趣并能够有效地提高学生的英语阅读能力。建议要通过合理地选择阅读材料、发挥网络互动优势、建立科学的评估体系,从而激发学生的英语阅读兴趣,促进大学英语教学整体水平的提高。     

Learning By Doing: The Long-Term Impact of Experiential Learning Programs on Student Success

Abstract

As the advisers for the Model United Nations and Judicial Internship programs at our university, we have witnessed first-hand the benefits of simulations and experiential learning. Specifically, students are able to apply knowledge from other classes to real-world situations, all while honing their writing skills and communication skills, as well as their ability to analyze and synthesize information—skills that are critical to success in a wide variety of careers. This practical experience also gives students confidence as they prepare for and make decisions about their future career paths. While we have anecdotal evidence suggesting that these programs contribute to student success, we use survey data from former students to assess formally the longer-term impact of participating in these programs. We find that experiential learning programs contribute to student success by improving time to graduation and increasing the likelihood of attending graduate school or law school and/or finding employment after graduation. In addition, the students’ own assessments indicate that these programs instill numerous practical skills and provide insights that help prepare students for success in their future careers.     

浅议英语文体学理论与大学英语教学的结合

英语文体学理论对改进大学英语教学起到很大的作用,它能帮助学生提高阅读欣赏能力,在交际中更准确地理解对方所表达内容的实质,并恰当地选择能表达自己意图的语言手段与方式。在大学英语教学中与英语文体学理论进行紧密结合将会带来极好的实际效果。     

Who Cares? Explaining Perceptions of Compassion in Candidates for Office

Although prior research establishes the important effect perceptions of compassion have on vote choice, no systematic research examines why some candidates are perceived as more caring than others. In an era where television and social media put candidates’ personalities front and center, the lack of research on this topic is problematic. In this article, I explain why voters view some candidates as more caring than others. I argue that voters view politicians as compassionate when there is a commonality to link them. A commonality demonstrates an empathetic connection, or the ability to understand another’s feelings. This, in turn, convinces voters that the politician is sympathetic, or willing to do something to help. Without an empathetic connection, claims of sympathy by politicians will be viewed with greater levels of skepticism. I generate a classification system for the sources of commonality that link voters with politicians, including shared experiences, shared emotions, and shared identities. Using three survey experiments, I show how candidates can build empathic bonds with voters and better their chances of election.

     

试论体育教学中学生的心理训练

在其整个体育教学过程中,学生随时都会产生各种心理矛盾。因此,它不仅要遵循人体生理机能的活动变化规律和体育动作技术形成的规律,还必须讲求心理学方法,遵循学生的心理活动规律,运用心理训练的手段,使学生不断克服体育教学中产生的心理矛盾,发展学生良好的心理品质和素质。主要论述心理训练在体育教学中的作用和意义以及体育教学中对学生进行心理训练的几种有效方法。