Journal of Political Science Education

The Impact of Video Games on the Effectiveness of a Political Science Course The use of video games in university classrooms has emerged as a promising tool for improving student performance and motivation. However, their application in political science remains underexplor...

Do video games work as teaching tools in political science? A randomized controlled trial shows gains in knowledge and higher student satisfaction, supporting their classroom use. Check it out below.

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Engage and Connect: Sensemaking Through Meme Assignments Memes are becoming increasingly commonplace in social media and on the Internet. According to research, it can act as a form of entertainment and a way for individuals to communicate an interest, a...

Memes are commonplace and overwhelmingly used on social media. Analyzing student-created memes, we found that they can be a tool to help students make sense of their learning, moving from ambiguity to clarity. Check it out below! @danielsloritac.bsky.social

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We Read The Syllabus: Historically Marginalized Groups in Intro to American Government How inclusive of all of the American story are introductory American government courses? Do these courses include everyone, or does the historical marginalization of some people continue in our syl...

How inclusive are introductory American government courses? Do these courses include everyone? We analyzed textbooks, course schedules, and other items to see how and where they included coverage of civil rights and specific historically marginalized groups. Read it below.

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An Assessment of Scaffolding in Senior Capstone Courses Academic research, reporting in higher education, and institutional assessments document the decline in undergraduate writing skills. Colleges whose enrollments include first-generation students, l...

High-level scaffolding in senior capstones boosts student success --more feedback, more growth, better grades. Read the full study below.

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Developing Critical Thinking Skills in a Comparative Politics Course: The Choice of Constitutional Design Over several semesters, I have engaged students in a country-writing project as their final. The project builds upon an earlier assignment in which students are assigned a UN member-state and requi...

This article describes a project in which students utilize critical thinking skills to design a constitution for a hypothetical country addressing rights and freedoms and institutional design. Check out the article below.

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Does Modality Matter? Evaluating the Effects of In-Person and Online Simulations on Student Learning in Introductory Classes In this article, we compare learning outcomes for simulations that take place in the classroom and simulations that take place online. We approach this issue in the context of three different simul...

Does modality matter? A new study finds equivalent learning outcomes between online and in-person simulations in three distinct courses across political science subfields. See the article below!

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Learning at Any Age: Political Science Education and Older Adult Learners While most pedagogical research in political science focuses on teaching undergraduate and graduate students, teaching political science to older adult learners is often overlooked. However, this i...

Are older adult learners that different from undergrads? We share insights from teaching OLLI courses that keep older adults engaged—and help us grow as educators. More below! @cnwillis.bsky.social

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From Classroom to Crisis Room: Active Learning Through Crisis Response Simulations in International Relations This article examines crisis response simulations (CRS) as transformative pedagogy that challenges traditional International Relations education. Through two case studies at Richmond American Unive...

#1: How do we prepare IR students for a world of cascading crises? We explore crisis response simulations bridging theory & practice. #2: We deliver crisis response simulations in higher education to prepare students with the skills needed to engage with them. More below!

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Connecting Classrooms to Communities: A Practical and Effective Guide for Involving Community Development Practitioners in Graduate Seminars This article examines the pedagogical impact of a strategically structured guest speaker series in a graduate-level community development seminar. Drawing on four cohorts of qualitative student fee...

Guest speakers in graduate seminars build civic engagement, career readiness & critical thinking. Learn how to make it work in your classroom. #HigherEd

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Grading for Equity? The Limits of Course-Level Interventions in Closing Achievement Gaps in Political Science Education Can grading practices and course policies reduce achievement gaps in higher education? This study examines whether course-level grading policies are associated with student success and equity outco...

Grading for equity? Our study of 197 poli sci syllabi shows grading tweaks alone won’t close equity gaps. Structural inequities—not just pedagogy—must be addressed to reduce achievement gaps. #HigherEd #grading

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Toward a Pedagogy of Hope for the Political Science Classroom There is a growing sense of hopelessness among college students. Rather than being apathetic or uninformed, students are often acutely aware of major political and societal issues confronting them,...

How do we teach politics and address current events without deepening student despair? This framework offers 8 guiding principles for instilling hope and empowering students.

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Popcorn and Politics: A Course on American Foreign Policy and Film Integrating film into traditional political science courses can provide powerful benefits. Most notably, it can increase student excitement about and thus engagement with a course. This paper offer...

Ever wanted to teach an engaging—but rigorous—course on American foreign policy through the lens of film? Of course you have! @JoshuaASchwartz explains what musicals, satirical comedies, war dramas, and science-fiction movies can teach students about world politics.

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Political News Literacy in Indonesian Classrooms This qualitative exploratory study investigates how civic education teachers in Indonesia perceive and implement political news literacy in senior high schools, amid rising concerns about misinform...

How do Indonesian teachers help students navigate political misinformation? This study explores how civic education promotes political news literacy.

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Using AI to DIY? Incorporating AI-Generated Learning Tools in the Classroom Generative artificial intelligence has changed the classroom experience, for better and worse. We contend that instructors can leverage GAI to assist them in quickly creating and implementing class...

How instructors can use GAI tools like Claude to quickly create interactive classroom simulations: from game theory to congressional markups! Check it out below! #PolSci #AIinEducation

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Dungeons and Dictators: A Role-Based Simulation of Authoritarian States This article introduces the simulation “Dungeons and Dictators”, a role-playing simulation designed to mimic the logic of authoritarian states. While teaching democracies and international organiza...

Using an original simulation that focuses on the internal dynamics of authoritarian states, we report an increase in students’ overall understanding through surveys. Read the article below!

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Social Annotation Platforms: Hypothesis and Perusall Social annotation platforms can promote direct interaction with course materials and foster a collaborative learning environment. Social annotation also offers a potential solution to reading compl...

Social annotation platforms can promote direct interaction with course materials and foster a collaborative learning environment. Check it out below!

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YouTube video by Rabbi Daniel Levine Top International Terrorism Expert Weighs in on Israel Hamas War

An interesting interview I did with Rabbi Daniel Levine on the Israel Hamas War- you can see it here in full on YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb1Y...

Implementing Statistical Literacy in Civics Teacher Education The growing importance of data in many areas of social life requires the education system to teach students the ability to use data and statistical information. Studies show that data literacy amon...

How can future civics teachers foster #DataLiteracy? the article below shows how ‘Civic Statistics’ can be integrated using open web tools. #StatisticalLiteracy

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Making Identity Tangible: A Virtual Field Trip to the House of European History How can we teach students in EU Politics about European Identity? In this article, I present a novel virtual field trip to the House of European History, utilizing the museum’s digital offerings an...

In “Making Identity Tangible: A Virtual Field Trip to the House of European History” (2025), @jostojski showcases the benefits of virtual field trips in the Political Science classroom.

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A Review of Social Media for Civic Education: Engaging Youth for Democracy Published in Journal of Political Science Education (Ahead of Print, 2025)

Check out the book review below of Amy L. Chapman's Social Media for Civic Education: Engaging Youth for Democracy!

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Promoting Youth Political Engagement Through Serious Games: A Quasi-Experimental Study on Local Election Boardgame in Thailand This study examines the effectiveness of serious games in enhancing political engagement among youth through a quasi-experimental design. It compares traditional video-based education with an innov...

“Can serious games boost youth political engagement? This study finds that Thailand’s ‘Local Election Boardgame’ enhances enthusiasm, cognition & efficacy in governance.” Read more below! #CivicEngagement #SeriousGames”

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