Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in United States Government Courses

Champney, Leonard; Edleman, Paul R.

doi:10.1017/s1049096510990689

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…In performing rigorous evaluation of student learning in the class, we bring the broader principles of the assessment movement to bear on a single class. On assessment in political science, see Champney and Edleman (2010) and Deardorff, Hamann, and Ishiyama (2009). 14. These survey questions are taken from Bos and Schneider's (2009) study of student learning in methods courses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming Methods Anxiety: Qualitative First, Quantitative Next, Frequent Feedback Along the Way

Bernstein

Allen

2013

Journal of Political Science Education

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Political Science research methods courses face two problems. First is what to cover, as there are too many techniques to explore in any one course. Second is dealing with student anxiety around quantitative material. We explore a novel way to approach these issues. Our students began by writing a qualitative paper. They followed with a term paper, on the same topic, that incorporated material learned in the qualitative paper with quantitative data analysis. This helps students appreciate how different methods complement one another. By starting with more familiar qualitative techniques, then moving to the quantitative, and by writing the paper in stages, we help alleviate student anxiety. Students start within their comfort zone, then move outside it once their attention has been piqued by their research question. We offer a multimethod analysis of the advantages and limitations of this approach. While not perfect, it offers another option for teaching this challenging course. We conclude by discussing how to build upon this approach in the future.Keywords qualitative methods, quantitative methods, research methods, student anxiety Recent years have seen growth in the importance of, and offerings in, research methods courses in political science (Thies and Hogan 2005; Turner and Thies 2009); the much-discussed Wahlke report (1991) included a recommendation that all students gain familiarity with research methods. Graduate programs have long had intensive (and expanding) methods requirements, but the last two decades have seen a dramatic rise in methods courses for undergraduates. Presumably, these courses help students understand better the content of what they are learning in their courses (since the professional literature is inaccessible to students not versed in the language of methodology). Such courses should also explore how knowledge is created in the discipline, how to differentiate good work from bad work, and how to ''think like a political scientist.'' 1 Methods courses, especially at the undergraduate level, immediately face two challenges. First are questions of what to teach (Turner and Thies 2009) and when to teach it (Dell and Nakazato 2007). The varied methods used in political science-surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, field study, textual analysis, etc.-all warrant treatment in a methodology course. No single course could address all these methods at anything more than a superficial level. What to cover links to the competencies we wish students to gain: Should we aim to make students better consumers of political science research, or should they produce their own original work on a disciplinary question? Finally, we must ask when this material should be taught; should it be done early on (to orient students to the discipline) or should we wait to teach methods until students feel more comfortable with the substance of political science?A second challenge is the anxiety students feel about methods, particularly (but not exclusively) quantitative methods (Bos and Schneider 2009; B...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming Methods Anxiety: Qualitative First, Quantitative Next, Frequent Feedback Along the Way

Bernstein

Allen

2013

Journal of Political Science Education

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“…This treatment was inspired by the possibility that political science might help us to “understand the manner in which complex current events are relevant to our own lives due to increasing levels of social, economic, and political interdependence” (Hauss 1995). Champney and Edleman (2010) provided evidence that students’ knowledge about current events increases with political science courses. As a result, scholars have offered advice on how to incorporate current events in courses.…”

Section: Defining Treatmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Do Students Enroll in Political Science Courses?

Bunte¹

2019

APSC

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Why do students enroll in political science courses? I conducted an experiment designed to test the appeal of three possible motivations: students might hope to develop valuable skills, look for a better grasp of current events, or expect a deeper understanding of how the world works and their place within it. The experiment involved visiting several sections of Introduction to American Government courses. In each section, I advertised a political science course offered in the following semester. However, I varied the way in which the course was described and subsequently tracked whether students enrolled in it. I find that highlighting opportunities to develop skills does not have a significant effect on enrollment. In contrast, emphasizing “how the world works” is most effective at increasing enrollment. Qualitative evidence suggests that students are attracted to this type of course because it offers the opportunity for personal development and growth.

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“… 14 In their study of relationship between taking American government classes and knowledge gain, Champney and Edelman (2010) found that those students with low and high GPAs had similar patterns in improvement in background knowledge, but those students with higher GPAs gained relatively more in knowledge of current events. They note that other studies indicate that higher GPAs are associated with greater gains in students' background knowledge.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Audiences and Outcomes in Online and Traditional American Government Classes Revisited

Botsch

2012

APSC

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In 1997 we first offered American government classes online as well as face-toface classes. We administered pre-and posttests to our students to measure their general knowledge of American government, political attitudes, demographics, and some behaviors. Following an initial report in 2001, we continued to gather data for 10 more years; this current study covers nearly 3,200 students during 13 years. We examine the sample as a whole and changes in audiences and outcomes, over time, for the two teaching formats. Although the kinds of students taking online classes have become more similar, a few differences persist. Learning outcome differences continue to be insignificant. Neither format has a clear advantage in students' changes in attitudes, but the online classes increased students' newspaper reading. Class dropout rate and faculty workload both favor face-toface classes, but flexibility in scheduling and student demand clearly favor online classes. W hen future historians study the impact of technology in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, they will doubtless note the sea change that occurred in how courses were taught with the emergence of the Internet. In the late 1990s, we began to explore alternative formats for delivery of our program's "bread and butter" class, American National Government. Our own motivation was more basic than using a new technology. At that time, our university, a regional campus of the state university with about 3,000 full-and part-time students, was an entirely commuter campus in a small town, and drew its students mostly from the surrounding counties. First-generation college students shared parental disdain for government and politics. They saw college mainly as a stepping stone to a good job. Because an American government course was not required for graduation for most students, we struggled to attract students. Thus, our web-delivered courses were born out of desperation as much as technological possibility.After one of us received release time to develop an online class, we conducted a pilot project in the fall of 1997 with four students. The following spring (1998), we offered the University of South Carolina Aiken's first completely web-based class. We have offered one or more American government online classes every semester since then and developed several web-based upper-level political science courses. Of course, online courses, and even entirely "virtual" universities, are now common around the world.Distance education has often been viewed with suspicion. Regardless of the method of course delivery, ". . . classroom instruction has been the standard to match." 1 Although many of our colleagues initially thought web-based teaching would lack the academic rigor of the face-to-face format, our early research helped put those fears to rest. We began to administer pre-and posttests to our students to determine their general knowledge and political attitudes when they began and completed the class. We also gathered demographic data on the studen...

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Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in United States Government Courses

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

Overcoming Methods Anxiety: Qualitative First, Quantitative Next, Frequent Feedback Along the Way

Overcoming Methods Anxiety: Qualitative First, Quantitative Next, Frequent Feedback Along the Way

Why Do Students Enroll in Political Science Courses?

Audiences and Outcomes in Online and Traditional American Government Classes Revisited

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