Friday, February 10, 2pm
Election 2016: A Teachable Moment
Civics Across Campus: Stockton’s Election 2016 Program and Civic Learning Outside the Classroom
The Effects of Campus-Wide Civic Engagement Initiatives during the 2016 Presidential Election

Saturday, February 11, 8am
The Educational Benefits of Practicing Politics
Vote Oswego: Developing and Assessing the Campaign-as-Course Model
Fostering Civic Engagement of College Students through Mandatory Participation in Political Campaigns
Do Early Simulations Work? Gauging the Effect of Simulations in Gateway Political Science Courses at Community Colleges  
Using Creative Assignments to Help Students Integrate their Learning in a Campaigns and Elections Class

Saturday, February 11, 10:15am
Civic Engagement Education Beyond the Classroom
Left to Their Own Devices: A Student-Centered Approach to Civic Engagement
Students as Consultants: Using Service Learning in Public Administration Classes for SubstantiveExperience
Learning by Doing: Student Evaluations of Internship Experiences 

Saturday, February 11, 3:30pm
Embedding Civic Engagement Education in Campus Life
The Long-Term Impact of Courses in Civic Engagement 
Politically Themed Residential Learning Communities as Incubators of Political Engagement
Building Long-Term Campus and Community Partnerships for Civic Engagement: Lessons Learned from a University-Sponsored Citizenship and Democracy Week
Simmons World Challenge as a Model for Student-Driven Civic Engagement        

Sunday, February 12, 8:00am
Community-Based Learning & Research
Civic Engagement through Community-Based Research: Undergraduate and Graduate Collaboration on the 2016 Little Rock Congregations Study 
Teaching Politics in the City: How Can Educators Effectively Use the City Outside the Classroom as a Teaching Tool? 
An Experiment of Community-Based Learning Effects on Civic Participation

Friday, February 10, 2pm
Keeping Students Engaged
Explaining the Value of Political Science
Perceptions of Instructor Engagement
Class Format and Student Attitudes toward Political Participation 

Saturday, February 11, 8am
Strategies for Critical Thinking and Civic Engagement
Who, When and How: Strategies for Assessing Civic Knowledge, Critical Reasoning, and Oral Communication Competencies in the Political Science Classroom
To Know or Not to Know Redux: knowledge, ideology and citizen engagement in American Government courses
Teaching Critical Thinking: Lessons from the Classroom & Lessons from Studying Citizens in the Public Sphere

Saturday, February 11, 10:15am
Research, Methods, and Course Design
Research Methods as Practical Skills: How Introductory Methods Courses Can Make the Practical Case for Studying Political Science
Innovation in Course Design: A Case Study
Balancing Scholarly Output with Classroom Teaching

Saturday, February 11, 3:30pm
Content Evaluation, Grading, and Learning Outcomes Assessment
Political Grit: A Continuing Evaluation of a Content-Based Summer Bridge Program
'When are we ever going to have to use this?': Discussing Programmatic Learning Objectives in the Classroom
Comparing Student Responses to Specifications Grading Compared to the Orthodoxy
Creating an Engaging Environment and Productive Teaching-Learning Outcomes in Political Science: Lessons from a Nigerian University

Sunday, February 12, 8am
Literacy Thresholds and Writing Assignments 
Curriculum Mapping: Strategies for Mapping Information Literacy Threshold Concepts to Course Objectives in Political Science: A Case Study
The Impact of Writing Assignments on Student Feeling and Self-Assessment
Journal Writing and Reading Outcomes

Friday, February 10, 2pm
Inclusive Environments and Teaching Techniques
Fostering Inclusive Classrooms: Approaches to Managing Diversity in the Classroom
Case Studies as Effective Learning Tool
A Pedagogy of Inclusion: Universal Design for Learning in the Political Science College Classroom

Saturday, February 11, 8am 
Engagement, Civic Knowledge, and Inclusion
Teaching Community Organizing and the Practice of Democracy
Incorporation of the Town Hall Meeting in American Government courses at CSU Chico
Why Don’t Women Rule the World? Engaging and Preparing College Women for Political Leadership
Working with Content Warnings: Concrete Strategies for Encouraging Engagement and Discussion

Saturday, February 11, 10:15am
Race and Difference
Race and Social Justice at a Predominately White Institution
From Stratification to Unification: Engaging Minority Narratives in the Political Science Classroom
Where are the Black (and Brown) Lives that Matter? Talking About Race and Class in Homogenous Classrooms

Saturday, February 11, 3:30pm
Cultural and International Diversity
Developing a Modern Political Science Curriculum in a Country with Disincentive for Scholarship: A Focus on Nigeria
Creating Learning Environments for Native Hawaiian and Indigenous Students
Inclusive Classroom: Knowledge Giver and Knowledge Receiver

Sunday, February 12, 8:00am
Developing an International Education 
Inclusive Classroom and Teaching Techniques
Inclusion and Pedagogical Goals
Inclusion for International Education

Friday, February 10, 2pm
Demonstrating the Value of the Discipline
What Can I Do with This Class? Building Employment-Related Skills in International Relations Courses
Teaching in the Moment: A Comparative Study of Strategies for Addressing Current Events and Political Crises in the Classroom
“We the Teachers”—Innovative Course Assessment Strategy for Political Science

Saturday, February 11, 8am
Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Curriculum Innovation
Smaller Departments/Bigger Impacts
Beyond the Campus: Extending your influence through k-12 lesson plans
Testing the Impact of Curriculum Scaffolding on Research Literacy, Undergraduate Engagement and Achievement
Teaching American Government in Communities of Practice: A Non-Traditional Approach at California State University, Chico 

Saturday, February 11, 10:15am
Teaching Community Engagement and Deliberation
Political Decision-Making, Deliberative institutions: A Case Study
Using a Community Engaged Learning Model to Teach Public Policy
Bringing Contemplative Practices to a Political Science classroom: How to cope and how to act?

Saturday, February 11, 3:30pm
An International Curriculum and Perspective
Engaging in the Globalized World: International Studies Curriculum Design
Teaching Qualitative Research Methods in Brazil 
American Politics in Comparative Perspective

Sunday, February 12, 8am
Subfield Games and Simulations
Teaching Public Budgeting in an Age of Austerity Using Role Play Simulation
War and Negotiation in Two Dimensions
Games, Movies, and Zombies: Making IR Fun for Everyone 

Friday, February 10, 2pm
When Are Simulations Useful?
Digital Dilemmas in Political Simulations and Games
Bet Out the Vote: Prediction Markets as a Tool to Promote Undergraduate Political Engagement

Saturday, February 11, 8am
What Outcomes Do Simulations Produce?
Simulations and Student Engagement: The Good, The Bad, the Ugly
Effects of Student Simulation Design and Community Engagement on Global Empathy
Use of Active Learning Techniques and Feelings of Student Educational Efficacy and Excitement
Knowledge Surveys as a Potential Assessment Tool of Simulation Course Outcomes

Saturday, February 11, 10:15am
Institutional Opportunities and Constraints
Short and Sweet: Illustrative Short Exercises & Games to Illustrate IR & Comparative Theory
Policymaker: A flexible platform for authoring and implementing role-playing simulations in the classroom
Ethics Through Earthquakes: Using University Administration as a Resource for Simulation Exercises

Saturday, February 11, 3:30pm
Game and Post-Game Design Strategies
Decoding the Debrief: A Comparative Analysis of Three Models for Debriefing Simulations
The Room Where It Happens: A Modular Approach to Simulating Political Summits
Coaching Moot Court: Practices and Experiences

Sunday, February 12, 8:00am
How Can Simulations Teach Content and Skills?
An Exercise in Bureaucracy 
Political Science Madness! A Bracket-Style Tournament Competition for Teaching Key Concepts
Zombies as a Tool for Teaching Public Policy Decision Making

Friday, February 10, 2pm
The Socratic Method in Plato’s Dialogues
Skepticism, Recollection and the Socratic Method
Poetic Questions: The Role of the Poetry in the Socratic Method
The Socratic Method: Guiding Eros Towards Wisdom in Alcibiades I

Saturday, February 11, 8am
The Teacher and Wonder in the Socratic Method
The Courage to Recover Student Centered Learning: Plato’s Laches
The Socratic Method and Anamnesis in Plato and Kant
One of These Things is Not Like the Other: The Socratic Method and John Dewey’s Discovery Learning

Saturday, February 11, 10:15am
The Socratic Method in Cultural Context
The Americanization of the Socratic Method
Is the Socratic Method Culturally Imperialistic?
Against the Socratic Method

Saturday, February 11, 3:30pm
The Socratic Method in the Classroom
Perilous Dialectics: The Continuing Hazards of the “Socratic Method” in Contemporary Universities
“No Guru, No Method, No Teacher”: Socrates and Education
The Search for Standards and Ideal Types in the Socratic Classroom

Sunday, February 12, 8:00am
Open Session for Track Summary

Friday, February 10, 2pm
Increasing Student Engagement
Challenges to Teaching Engagement in Online Learning: Notes from the Virtual Classroom
Groupme!  Integrating Technology Outside the Class to Foster Student Ownership and Engagement Inside the Class.
Teaching Civics in the Digital Age: The Use of Traditional and Innovative Pedagogies
GrowingVoters.org: Using Technology-Based Learning Experiences to Inculcate Civic Participation Toward Greater Youth Voter Turnout

Saturday February 11, 8am 
Innovative Teaching Tools
Corrective Feedback as Catalyst for Critical Thinking and Deeper Learning: A Pilot Study
Modular Approaches to Teaching Writing and Reinforcing Academic Integrity in the Discipline
Podcasting and the Public Voice

Saturday, February 11, 10:15am
Active Learning
Beyond Polls: Using Science and Student Data to Stimulate Active Learning
Integrating Team-based Learning in Active Learning Classroom
Active Learning in an Online Environment

Saturday, February 11, 3:30pm
Improving Classroom Participation 
Using Video Messaging to Enhance Reading Compliance, Critical Thinking, and Class Participation
Using Blogs in the Political Theory Classroom
Producing Political Knowledge: Students as Bloggers, Students as Podcasters in the Political Science Classroom

Sunday, February 12, 8am
Virtual Discourse
Philosophic Problems Presented by Modern Use of Technology
Social Media in the Classroom: Lessons from a Pakistani University
Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold, Just Right
Teaching Media through Media: Political Communication & Digital Media  

The Campuses Respond: Using Findings from the National Survey of Student Leaders (NSSL) to Improve Political Socialization in Student Organizations

Political science’s pedagogy and substantive expertise are becoming increasingly relevant to the outcomes prioritized by academia overall. Failure to participate in the civic–democratic engagement movement represents a lost opportunity to situate our discipline at the center of a liberal arts education. It also would mean that those who lack our discipline’s expertise will assume responsibility not only for defining but also for teaching and assessing engaged citizenship, democratic decision making, and effective political leadership. In short, political science’s teacher–scholars should be actively involved in developing, assessing, and promoting well-documented best practices for civic and democratic engagement. Doing so requires that we extend our assessment and teaching–learning scholarship beyond not only our own programs but also our own campuses. New resources in the discipline are advancing this work. The National Survey of Student Leaders (NSSL) is an example of how political science insights can be used to assess political socialization in the campus version of civil society—that is, student life. The NSSL is the inaugural and ongoing project of the Consortium for Inter-Campus Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Research (CISR), which was founded to facilitate member-initiated, multi-campus research projects designed to identify and promote best practices for civic and democratic engagement. Despite social scientists’ awareness of the importance of associational life, few have studied the structure of campus civil society. The NSSL is the first attempt to rely on political science expertise to systematically assess the quality of learning experiences provided by student organizations. With campus-recruiting assistance provided by the CISR, the APSA, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and the American Association of State College and University’s American Democracy Project, the NSSL was administered to student officials who represent every registered student organization on 36 participating campuses. Included were community colleges, regional public universities, small liberal arts colleges, and research-intensive universities located in every major region of the continental United States and one European country. Student officials were asked to report their own demographic traits—as well as the demographic composition, mobilizing capacity, and purpose of their groups—to determine whether campus civil society provides adequate opportunities for all types of students. Additional descriptive information was requested to ascertain whether campus groups have adopted the organizational structures, cross-cutting interactions, activity levels, and decision-making procedures recommended by scholars of associational life. Other questions derived from established political science instruments assessed student officials’ perceptions of bridging–bonding social capital and of organizational pursuit of civic and political goals. A final series of questions measured their levels of social trust, political interest, anticipated political participation, and efficacy. The NSSL serves numerous purposes, but one of the most important is to enhance the learning that takes place in student life. Participants received an in-depth campus report, which established a baseline assessment of each institution’s civic infrastructure and offered suggestions for improvement.  This roundtable/workshop brings together several participants in the first wave of the NSSL, with the goal of sharing their experiences working with student affairs on their own campuses and their successes/failures in making desired improvements in students’ political socialization and civic engagement.  

Games Without Frontiers: Reacting to the Past in the Political Science Classroom

Reacting to the Past (RTTP) consists of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. Class sessions are run entirely by students; instructors advise and guide students and grade their oral and written work. It seeks to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve intellectual and academic skills. Reacting to the Past was honored with the 2004 Theodore Hesburgh Award (TIAA-CREF) for outstanding innovation in higher education. The pedagogy has been featured in recent works on pedagogy including Teaching Naked (Bowen, 2012) and Small Teaching (Lang, 2016). Accumulating assessment studies provide evidence of the effectiveness of Reacting to the Past pedagogy in stimulating student engagement, promoting student solidarity, and other desirable outcomes.   While Reacting to the Past has been adopted in a number of political science courses (and some games have been written by political scientists), the pedagogy is better known and more widely used among historians than political scientists. However, the pedagogy has great potential for political science courses.  The workshop will introduce participants to Reacting to the Past pedagogy by playing a “microgame” set in 1791 revolutionary France. Using excerpted texts from Rousseau and Burke as the intellectual basis for gameplay, workshop participants will take on a variety of roles including members of the Catholic clergy, the Feuillant Club, the Jacobin Club, and crowd members from the Parisian street.   Following gameplay, the workshop organizers will lead a discussion and present materials to show how the French Revolution game would be scaled up for classroom use. Other questions related to teaching and learning will also be discussed. These will include the presentation of assessment results demonstrating the effectiveness of Reacting to the Past pedagogy in promoting a number of learning objectives and outcomes; discussion from experienced “Reactors” to address possible concerns about how to adapt existing courses to use Reacting to the Past pedagogy, presentation of resources currently available to support Reacting instructors, and examples of “ready-to-play” games and games-in-development that would be suitable for various political science courses.

Opportunities for Political Learning: How to Facilitate Difficult Coversations in the Classroom

2017 marks the 60th anniversary year of the seminal U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Keyishian v Board of Regents (1967), in which Justice Brennan solidified the academy’s place as “a marketplace of ideas” where students are trained by exposure to “that robust exchange of ideas which discovers truth out of a multitude of tongues…” Sixty years later, however, academic and expressive freedom continue to be the subjects of institutional policies, debates, media reports, legislative attention, watchdog oversight, and anxiety among educators. The dilemma is this: to fulfill their research, teaching, and civic missions effectively, American colleges and university must provide all students with opportunities to study, deliberate, and assume responsibility for the most difficult and politically charged issues facing communities, the nation, and the world. At the same time, hate speech and repeated, offensive language directed at people because of their gender, race, or other legally protected status can create toxic and discriminatory learning environments that cannot be ignored by institutional leaders. The 2016 presidential election was particularly divisive and difficult for some groups of people who felt denigrated by hateful and discriminatory remarks by candidates. At the same time, academics were accused of being overly “politically correct” and “coddling” students in the name of supporting their emotional well-being and “creating a culture in which everyone must think twice before speaking up, lest they face charges of insensitivity, aggression, or worse” (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2015). These competing interests create a difficult balancing act for educators. Because of their expertise, political science professors are often on the front-line of this challenge, both in and beyond the classroom.  For the past two years, we have been studying colleges and universities with high (and low) levels of political and electoral engagement. We have found patterns among these campuses regarding how they manage academic and expressive freedom and a welcoming campus climate. During this workshop, we will briefly share these research findings. We then will spend the majority of the workshop introducing an important tool for managing political conversations in the classroom. This tool is a workshop designed to teach faculty members how to facilitate and manage contentious, emotional, and difficult dialogue in the classroom while capitalizing on important learning moments.    During this interactive workshop, participants will experience a variety of exercises designed to provide a fundamental understanding of how to facilitate political discussions in the classroom productively and inclusively. They will learn how to establish ground rules, how to work with different types of participants, and how to introduce pedagogical exercises that promote robust but difficult dialogue in the classroom. Through interactive activities, they will then learn how to manage these types of learning spaces for their students while navigating the inevitable tensions that come with free speech. Afterwards, participants will have access to the full workshop that they can take to their individual institutions and share with other faculty members.

Designing and Using a Semester-Length Role-Play Simulation 

Role-play simulations, which require students take on the positions of various stakeholders and play through a hypothetical scenario, have become increasingly popular in social science courses. Individual professors design specific exercises for their classes, or employ off-the-shelf simulations that are flexible across many curricula. However, deploying a semester-long simulation that ties traditional curricular components together, (e.g., lectures, scholarly literature) throughout the entire course presents a unique challenge. The design and delivery of this kind of simulation involves myriad considerations in the curricular design and course delivery. How do you match the curricular design to an appropriate topic? How do you pace the progression of classwork with the simulation exercise? How many students do you need to facilitate the simulation but not overwhelm participants? How do you measure student success and comprehension along the way?  The ICONS Project, an educational simulation g