Introductory American Government Research Articles

Local Government Observation: A Format for a General Education Political Science Class

Assuming students acquire the habit of democratic citizenship better through a semester-long project than a shorter unit, such a framework has been embedded in the requirements of the introductory American government class when taught at a community college. A local government unit evolved which required students to attend meetings and collect official records and press accounts, while orally tracing local government actions in class. Students completed forms and ultimately wrote reports on the unit of government they selected. Feedback has been good since the format was started in 1965.

A Method to Evaluate Teaching Effectiveness in an Introductory American Government Course

A Method to Evaluate Teaching Effectiveness in an Introductory American Government Course

Reference Group Theory, Social Comparison Theory, and the Study of Politics

Summary An experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that the federal government is a major determinant of standards by which citizens evaluate public policy. Ss were 80 freshmen students (46 males, 34 females) enrolled in an introductory American Government class at Ohio University. The test instrument consisted of presenting to each of four randomly divided groups one of four different sets of standards purported to be those of the federal government. The results illustrated that effective manipulation of standards may be quite possible, especially for the issue of poverty (F = 8.50, df = 3,75, p < .001). The experiment suggests governments not only react to demands as indicated in much of the traditional theoretical literature, but also may determine the demands by means of changing expectations about government performance.

Political Change and Political Choice: A Review of Some Introductory American Government Texts

Political Change and Political Choice: A Review of Some Introductory American Government Texts

Analysis Using Primary Sources for Term Papers in the Introductory Course

Many of the problems facing higher education are not capable of correction within the classroom setting. Yet, a great deal can be accomplished by an individual instructor in order to combat the often-spoken student criticism that classroom experiences are fundamentally deficient and unsatisfactory. This article offers political scientists a reasonably simple method of increasing student interest and participation in the Introductory American Government course. It concerns the design of a term paper which attempts to gain the active involvement of students through the use of primary source material.The teacher of an introductory American Government course today is probably very encouraged by enormous student interest in the workings of the political system. At the same time, it is not improbable that he is discouraged by the generally low level of substantive knowledge of current events and historical facts. In addition, he is disturbed to find that students do not read books and rarely read newspapers, that they rely upon television and rumor to support their substantive beliefs. The instructor is, additionally, torn between the pull of current issues as a source of classroom learning, and the commitment to the subject matter and methodology of the discipline, as the focus of classroom attention.In addition, those who assign term papers to their classes must fight the widespread and probably accurate student presumption that most term papers are added drudgery complementing the deadening succession of textbook assignments and blue-book examinations; that they are time-consuming, dull and irrelevant. Furthermore, students complain, again in justice, that their work is not usually read by the professor teaching them, or if read, is considered in a cursory fashion, so that hours of student effort result in simply a grade and possibly a one sentence comment along with, of course, the correction of a few grammatical and spelling errors.

Analysis Using Primary Sources for Term Papers in the Introductory Course

Many of the problems facing higher education are not capable of correction within the classroom setting. Yet, a great deal can be accomplished by an individual instructor in order to combat the often-spoken student criticism that classroom experiences are fundamentally deficient and unsatisfactory. This article offers political scientists a reasonably simple method of increasing student interest and participation in the Introductory American Government course. It concerns the design of a term paper which attempts to gain the active involvement of students through the use of primary source material.The teacher of an introductory American Government course today is probably very encouraged by enormous student interest in the workings of the political system. At the same time, it is not improbable that he is discouraged by the generally low level of substantive knowledge of current events and historical facts. In addition, he is disturbed to find that students do not read books and rarely read newspapers, that they rely upon television and rumor to support their substantive beliefs. The instructor is, additionally, torn between the pull of current issues as a source of classroom learning, and the commitment to the subject matter and methodology of the discipline, as the focus of classroom attention.In addition, those who assign term papers to their classes must fight the widespread and probably accurate student presumption that most term papers are added drudgery complementing the deadening succession of textbook assignments and blue-book examinations; that they are time-consuming, dull and irrelevant. Furthermore, students complain, again in justice, that their work is not usually read by the professor teaching them, or if read, is considered in a cursory fashion, so that hours of student effort result in simply a grade and possibly a one sentence comment along with, of course, the correction of a few grammatical and spelling errors.

Analysis Using Primary Sources for Term Papers in the Introductory Course

Many of the problems facing higher education are not capable of correction within the classroom setting. Yet, a great deal can be accomplished by an individual instructor in order to combat the often-spoken student criticism that classroom experiences are fundamentally deficient and unsatisfactory. This article offers political scientists a reasonably simple method of increasing student interest and participation in the Introductory American Government course. It concerns the design of a term paper which attempts to gain the active involvement of students through the use of primary source material.The teacher of an introductory American Government course today is probably very encouraged by enormous student interest in the workings of the political system. At the same time, it is not improbable that he is discouraged by the generally low level of substantive knowledge of current events and historical facts. In addition, he is disturbed to find that students do not read books and rarely read newspapers, that they rely upon television and rumor to support their substantive beliefs. The instructor is, additionally, torn between the pull of current issues as a source of classroom learning, and the commitment to the subject matter and methodology of the discipline, as the focus of classroom attention.In addition, those who assign term papers to their classes must fight the widespread and probably accurate student presumption that most term papers are added drudgery complementing the deadening succession of textbook assignments and blue-book examinations; that they are time-consuming, dull and irrelevant. Furthermore, students complain, again in justice, that their work is not usually read by the professor teaching them, or if read, is considered in a cursory fashion, so that hours of student effort result in simply a grade and possibly a one sentence comment along with, of course, the correction of a few grammatical and spelling errors.