High-Impact Teaching Practices and Undergraduates’ Political Efficacy

Abstract

The scholarship supports the effectiveness of high-impact practices (HIPs) to advance undergraduates’ political knowledge and engagement. A line of inquiry asks which type of HIPs is the most effective, especially for core (required) courses with students from a variety of degree programs. In 2022, many students are from Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2000. Surveys of this generation find distinct learning preferences and a lack of political efficacy (or a limited sense of government responsiveness). Core government courses provide a means to address learning preferences with HIPs, as well as increase political knowledge and a sense of efficacy. Initially, a quasi-research project interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, this exploratory study compares two HIPs—embedded service learning and Town Hall Meeting model–and political efficacy measures of students across time and type of class. A significant body of work is devoted to service learning but scholarly investigations of the Town Hall Model are more limited. Comparing two HIPs and applying a political efficacy measure offers a guide for future research and contributes to scholarly conversations regarding the most effective teaching strategies for undergraduate students taking core government courses.