Empirical approaches to understanding student learning outcomes and teaching effectiveness in political science

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Teaching and learning in college and university classrooms has received increased attention in recent years, including in political science. While historically, political science college education was dominated by the model of lectures and perhaps discussions in brick-and-mortar classrooms, the last two decades have witnessed changes in instructional techniques and considerable variation in pedagogical approaches across instructors and classes. At the same time, we sometimes lack the empirical evidence that these innovative approaches are effective and result in improved learning outcomes. We suggest that sharing our innovative pedagogical approaches becomes even more valuable to the academic community when we add an empirical evaluation of their effectiveness on students’ success and learning.