Teaching Writing and Critical Thinking in Large Political Science Classes

Abstract

In the interest of developing a combination of teaching techniques designed to maximize efficiency and quality of instruction, we have experimentally tested three separate and relatively common teaching techniques in three large introductory political science classes at a large urban public university. Our results indicate that the (short-answer) skeleton essay approach in large classes does not provide any significant benefit over full writing assignments or even a lack of writing assignments. Essay and multiple-choice testing techniques produce similar results, though both types of testing have their strengths and weaknesses. We conclude that using a blend of the two testing techniques may be the best approach.

Keywords:

• essay exams
• large classes
• multiple-choice testing
• teaching critical thinking
• teaching writing
• testing
• Writing Across the Curriculum

Notes

Note: Significant results in boldface text.

Most introductory American National and State Government classes at our university are capped at 200 students and generally are filled to capacity.

Our university is ranked in the top 20 in terms of diversity in a recent poll of American colleges and universities.

For example, see the vision statement for Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP), prepared by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (2012a). Another important consideration is retention, progression, and graduation to meet President Obama's stated goal of a 60% graduation rate, but that goal is beyond the scope of this article.

See The WAC Clearinghouse (n.d.) for a comprehensive resource on Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC).

According to the National Science Foundation, per-student state funding for public research universities dropped about 20% between 2002 and 2010 (as cited in Kiley 2012).

Furthermore, it is very difficult for students to disguise their level of knowledge or lack thereof in such a bare bones assignment.

See Association of American Colleges and Universities (2012b). Note that the Inquiry and Analysis VALUE Rubric includes specifications on topic selection and design process. Because students in this experiment were all asked to answer the same question topic and were not asked to draw up a research design, these two categories were dropped as not appropriate criteria for evaluation.

For similar results, see Scouller (1998).