On of my favorite things about reading a new issue of JPSE is the variety of strategies, tools, and methods each issue covers. Regardless of what classes I am teaching that semester, I know I am going to find something inside that will improve my teaching and engagement with students. This issue is no different.
Keeping students engaged with the material can be a challenge for even the most experienced instructors. Offering evidence from the field of instructors as well as useful tips from their own experience, Newland and Black highlight the potential ways instructors can use clickers in their political science classrooms to increase active learning and student participation. In her article, Dragseth shows us how to increase student engagement through the use of social media. Utilizing 5 different undergraduate courses, and 2 graduate courses, she finds that thoughtfully integrating social media can increase student excitement and participation.
We continue to see growth in the body of research that evaluates and demonstrates the importance of high impact practice and I’m excited to see more research that explores how we can best develop and implement these high impact practice strategies for our students. Borrowing from the laboratory model in the natural sciences, Becker describes how to foster multiple levels of research mentorship in a large International Relations class. In a particularly timely piece, Kumler and Whittaker examine the role that universities play in encouraging student engagement during elections using data from the 2016 presidential election. They found that when universities incentivize participation and make it more convenient, at least some students are able to be “nudged” toward greater participation. Tomer and Robichaud even show us, with specific examples and ideas for implementation, how simulations, a well-established high impact practice, can even be used in philosophy and ethic courses. They show us how simulations can make theoretical dilemmas come alive for students.
Wilson, Glazier, Hamman and Pollock encourage us to recognize that pedagogical choices, particularly delivery approaches, may not affect all students equally. Utilizing a large n study, they find that student choices about their mix of face to face versus online classes are shaped by their age and gender, as are their results when they take those classes. In recognizing the particular challenges that underrepresented and underserved students often face in online classes, Howard, Winkelmes, and Shegog find that incorporating transparency teaching methods can positively impact student learning outcomes so that they better mirror face-to-face outcomes.
As is the case with each issue, we see a broad array of approaches to thinking about teaching from reflections to large n surveys. We have also included reviews of everything from new podcasts that you might want to incorporate into your class to textbooks and edited volumes on the faculty experience. As many our colleagues teach in community colleges, we are excited to continue to include content which reflects the unique challenges and context of two-year institutions, including a reflection Piece by Bowman which discusses the role of contingency faculty and the importance of teaching across subfields at two-year institutions.