Using Active-Learning Pedagogy to Develop Essay-Writing Skills in Introductory Political Theory Tutorials

ABSTRACT

Building on prior research into active learning pedagogy in political science, I discuss the development of a new active learning strategy called the “thesis-building carousel,” designed for use in political theory tutorials. This use of active learning pedagogy in a graduate student-led political theory tutorial represents the overlap of several currents of political science education research. First, the graduate teaching assistant-led tutorial is a common complement to large lecture-based introductory courses in political theory. Second, where International Relations has led the expansion of active learning in political science, political theory has lagged behind other subfields (Archer & Miller 2011). The thesis-building carousel is designed to develop skills necessary for political theory classes—essay writing and peer review. The article concludes with a discussion of how active learning activities designed for specialized spaces can be modified for use in traditional classroom settings, with the example of three forms of “summary carousels.”

KEYWORDS:

• Active learning
• political theory
• tutorial
• essay writing

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Andrea Phillipson and Andy Leger at the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Queen’s University, Korey Pasch, and Professor Colin Farrelly for their assistance with the Active Learning Classrooms. The author would like to thank his students in POLS 250 for inspiring this article, as well as Launa Gauthier, Nick Klassen, Ryan Wilcox, and three anonymous reviewers from the Journal of Political Science Education for their extensive comments on earlier drafts. This paper served as the basis of a presentation at the 2017 Queen’s University Showcase of Teaching and Learning.

Notes

See Hayton (2008, especially 207–208).

The clicker is a handheld voting device that transmits a student’s response to some form of interactive classroom software. For more information, see Damron and Mott (2005, 372–375).

Trepanier (2016) suggests that SoTL be welcomed as a subfield of graduate studies in political science.

Baglione notes the importance of building the skills of writing a research paper in gateway classes (2008, 599ff).

Peterson and Gorman address that, while the active-learning classroom may be clearly superior for small-group discussion, it may result in a “loss of wider community” (2014, 68). Their suggestion to overcome this difficulty is to set aside time for large-group discussion, as advocated here with the presentation to the tutorial as a whole.

The resignation of Brooks that “the evidence that active learning techniques do not work well in a lecture classroom and lecture does not work in an [active-learning classroom] suggests that instructors should consider adjusting their pedagogy to fit the space” (2012, 8) should not be accepted lying down. If alternative adjustments are possible that engage the benefits of active-learning pedagogies in the traditional classroom, then the active-learning pedagogues do no service to students by dissuading teachers’ attempts to adapt.

Cf. Brooks and Solheim (2014).

It is an important characteristic of this active-learning strategy that it is directly relevant to the student’s success in future assessment. Damron and Mott note that any attempt at increasing student interaction faces some level of student passivity, where the goal is the least work for the best grade (2005, 370). By linking the carousel to relevant skill development, we can overcome the barrier of student passivity.

An active-learning strategy like this carousel also reinforces the importance of planning as a part of essay writing. In the words of Paul J. Silvia, “Writing good papers requires planning, sweating the small stuff, and overthinking everything” (2014, 11).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael P. A. Murphy

Michael P. A. Murphy is a graduate student in the Political and Legal Thought specialization at Queen’s University, Canada. He is a teaching assistant for tutorials in POLS250: Political Theory and has published peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Political Power and Sport in Society.