Political Science Classes Research Articles

The Construction and Application of the Effectiveness and Dynamic Teaching Evaluation Model of Big Civic and Political Science Courses

Abstract How to make the teaching quality of the Civics and Political Science class continuously improve, the teaching effectiveness is highlighted in the growth of students, and the comprehensive development of students is effectively promoted, which has become an important part of the educational evaluation reform of the Civics and Political Science class in colleges and universities. Based on the construction concept of the objectivity evaluation index system, this paper determines the evaluation index system of the effect and dynamic teaching of the big Civic and Political Science class. It adopts expert knowledge to pre-process the research data. According to the judgment affiliation degree and weight set, determine the single-factor evaluation matrix of evaluation indexes, calculate the weight value of evaluation indexes, and then complete the construction of a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model oriented to the effect of big Civic and Political Science teaching and dynamic teaching and based on the data analysis software, carry out the comprehensive evaluation and analysis. The results show that the size of the weight value of the first-level indexes in order of magnitude, dynamic teaching process A2 (0.5478) > teaching preparation A1 (0.2353) > big Civics effect A3 (0.2169), indicating that the weight accounted for by the dynamic teaching and teaching preparation is relatively large and there is a not-so-small gap between the weight value of the big Civics effect A3, so the teaching of big Civics courses should focus on teaching preparation and dynamic teaching. This study can not only enrich the teacher’s Civics teaching method, but also improve the students’ Civics level, which has a promoting effect on promoting the development of the teaching of Big Civics courses in colleges and universities.

The promotion of mobile Internet to the construction of informationization of ideological and political education in colleges and universities

Abstract This paper explores the teaching path of the civics class in colleges and universities during the mobile Internet era, and uses a questionnaire survey to analyze the reality of current mobile Internet-based civics class instruction. The changes in the teaching of civics and political science classes under the influence of mobile internet are tracked and systematically analyzed in terms of differences. This study focuses on both the general effective education classroom and the effective education classroom in the mobile environment. It utilizes the Nvivo software to investigate the teaching styles of teachers and the interactions between teachers and students in these two learning modes. The results show that nearly 20% of the students are in schools that have not yet conducted mobile Internet civics instruction, and about 24.5% do not have political theory classes on mobile Internet teaching. In the context of mobile Internet, the habit of reading on a cell phone is increasing by 10% annually, and learners are paying the highest attention to public news sources, reaching 86.4%, which creates favorable conditions for teaching mobile Internet civics and politics. An effective education classroom in the mobile environment tends to be open; the ratio of teachers’ words to students’s words is about 2.09%, and teachers are more willing to use media resources, and network means to check students’ knowledge. And the classroom status is at 0%, and the teaching process is more stable.

Study on the Practice of Integrating Red Cultural Resources into Civics Classes in Colleges and Universities in the New Media Era

Abstract This paper employs the technology of comprehensive analysis and processing of information from multiple sources to integrate thematic databases of cultural resources from various collections into multiple sources. We can use virtual reality and network technology to simulate and interact with cultural resources in both red and civics classrooms. The research was conducted at the University of G on the topic of using red cultural resources in the teaching of civic and political science classes, and questionnaires were issued. The results of the survey show that only 13.14% of the students said that they know red culture very well, and the problem of insufficient knowledge of red culture persists in the current traditional civics teaching. 88.3% of the students think that there is a certain potential for using VR technology in the practical teaching of civics courses in colleges and universities about red culture. Furthermore, 65.4% of the students express a strong willingness to continue their education through the use of this innovative VR technology-based teaching method. This paper’s method has the potential to significantly enhance the effectiveness of human education.

An investigation on the application of Ridge regression model in the optimization of virtual practice teaching innovation path of Civics and Politics courses in colleges and universities

Abstract Civic and political affairs course is a key course for colleges and universities to implement the fundamental task of cultivating people with moral character, and the rapid development of network technology and the information age has had a direct impact on the Civic and political affairs course in colleges and universities. This paper puts forward the optimization path of virtual practice teaching for Civic and Political Science courses in colleges and universities from three aspects: establishing a virtual simulation practice teaching website for Civic and Political Science courses in colleges and universities, constructing a virtual simulation practice teaching information resource base for Civic and Political Science courses and optimizing the content system of virtual simulation practice teaching for Civic and Political Science courses. In order to verify the effect of virtual practice teaching, this paper proposes a new determination method as well as a Ridge regression model for the selection of Ridge parameter K in the Ridge trace method by analyzing the existence of Ridge parameter K and the excellence of Ridge estimation. The Ridge regression model was used to examine the impact of virtual teaching on college Civics and Politics classes and found that the standardized regression coefficient beta for the virtual teaching environment is 0.113, showing significant performance. For the virtual practice teaching of Civic and Political Science classes in colleges and universities, the better the virtual teaching environment is, the better the classroom learning effect.

Research on objective evaluation methods of labor education teaching for college students in higher education

Abstract Labor education in colleges and universities in the new era is the fundamental task of implementing the principle of establishing morality and educating people, as well as an essential hand in cultivating college students with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physicality, aesthetics, and labor. This paper focuses on the objective evaluation method of college students’ labor education to conduct research. Using the improved binary tree support vector machine multi-class classification algorithm, an evaluation model for college labor education based on a binary tree support vector machine has been constructed, and an evaluation system for labor education has been developed. The results show that the majors that have compulsory labor education courses, elective labor education courses, and have added labor education modules in their major courses are all art and sports, accounting for more than 50% on average. The percentages of liberal arts, science, economics and management, art and sports, medicine and science, and agriculture, which did not offer labor education-related courses, were 26.35%, 22.16%, 19.91%, 13.59%, 11.03%, and 13.19%, respectively. It is evident that labor education courses are not distributed equally in colleges and universities, and there are still some majors that do not offer labor education courses. In terms of labor education, most of the labor education through Civics and Political Science classes is provided to students. Managers are those who choose the most specialized courses. Students also tend to participate in bicultural education and social practice activities, accounting for 29.02% and 43.01%, respectively. It shows that the algorithm in this paper can objectively and effectively evaluate labor education in colleges and universities and identify the deficiencies in education.

Exploring the Integration of Traditional Chinese Culture into Curriculum Teaching

With the development of society and the prosperity of culture, the value of Chinese excellent traditional culture in the field of education is gradually highlighted. This study aims to explore how the Chinese excellent traditional culture is integrated into the teaching of Civics and Politics courses in colleges and universities, and to analyses its influence on improving teaching quality and students' ideological education. Chinese excellent traditional culture can not only enrich the teaching content of the Civic and Political Science Class in colleges and universities, but also enhance the cultural consciousness and depth of thought of college students. Combined with the specific teaching practice, we put forward a series of effective integration strategies and verify the effect of its application in the ideological and political courses in colleges and universities.

Development of ideological and political education course field dimensions based on multi-data chain network

Abstract This paper firstly classifies the ideological and political education course field dimensions, studies the specific composition of the learning field in three dimensions: information, technology and emotion, and discusses the necessity of learning field optimization in secondary school Civics class. Secondly, on the multivariate data chain network, the MIFS model is proposed to extract the ideological and political teaching feature values, followed by the LSTM neural network to train the information related to students’ Civics classroom contents and the average function of adaptive excitation function is used to replace the excitation function in the LSTM neural network to achieve the effect of improving the output accuracy. Then, the characteristics of learners and learning resources are parametrically represented, followed by an experimental analysis of ideological and political education based on multivariate data chain networks using evaluation indexes based on the data set. The results show that there is no difference between the MAE values of CNN and LSTM except for sample one, but the MSE values of LSTM are both lower than CNN, and LSTM is more stable than CNN, indicating that it is reasonable to choose LSTM when ideological and political education based on multivariate data chain network. This study provides a reference and reference for future field optimization in ideology and political science classes.

The innovation path of virtual practice teaching in college Civics class based on the Ridge regression model

Abstract The application of virtual practice teaching to the teaching of college Civics and Political Science class helps to develop a new way of practical teaching in ideological and political theory classes. This paper constructs a virtual practice teaching platform through the Ridge regression model, first calculates the least squares estimation of the virtual practice teaching model and sets up the matrix, standardizes the matrix for the original data set, and gets the estimation cluster of Ridge regression. Then the random variables under virtual practice teaching are given by variance expansion factors, the functions of the practice teaching matrix are defined, and the teaching time modeling analysis is performed with Ridge regression to derive the operating parameters of the matrix. Finally, the innovation path of virtual practice teaching is derived based on the constructed platform parameters. The simulation results show that the head-up rate of students under the virtual practice teaching class for freshmen students reaches 97.54% and 95.14% for sophomores, which is 25.13% and 13.84% higher than that of traditional classrooms. Thus, it can be seen that the platform constructed in this paper is conducive to applying the virtual practice to the teaching mode of college Civics class, promoting the innovative path of college Civics class, and improving the communication and communication ability of students.

An Argument for Integrative Learning Within Political Science: Rethinking an Undergraduate Course in European Government and Politics

Political science is ideally positioned to advance integrative learning, an initiative in higher education that fosters students’ abilities to integrate different fields of study in exploring complex real world problems. This essay focuses on ways integrative learning can be incorporated into undergraduate political science classes by developing a narrative of revisions to the curriculum of an introductory European government and politics course. Center the position of the Muslim immigrant experience in Europe while promoting an integrative form of political science that crosses subfields within the discipline, and integrates differing modes of inquiry invites students to think critically about immigration, the rise of the populist right, Liberalism and its limits, and the future of European integration. While this redesigned focus, I suggest, provides a useful model for rethinking approaches to the teaching of European politics, the main focus of the article is on promoting the foregrounding of integrative learning course design practices that can be adapted to other introductory undergraduate political science classes.

From Classroom to Community: An Assessment and Potential Implications of an Undergraduate Civic Engagement Research and Learning Program

Civic education in undergraduate institutions is of vital importance to the civic health of society, but faculty often find it difficult to incorporate civic components into existing courses and lack the resources to incorporate civic outreach into their curriculum. As a result, research has shown that time spend on civic engagement is limited. Additionally, civic engagement is rarely discussed, much less encouraged, outside of political science or other social science classes. In this article, we assess the outcomes of a unique co-curricular civic engagement research and learning program in which undergraduate students are required to work with an external partner, usually a municipal agency or nonprofit, to complete an independent research project. Using quantitative and qualitative student evaluations, we find that students had an overwhelmingly positive experience with the program. They especially appreciated the opportunity to work on “real world” issues in an interdisciplinary setting. They also expressed a desire for a longer program that extended beyond a single semester. We discuss the potential implications of these findings.

A Data Mining-Based Method for Quality Assessment of Ideological and Political Education in Universities

The procedure of assisting learning, gathering of information, skills, values, morals, beliefs, habits, and personal growth, is referred to as education. Education should focus not only on developing students’ professional abilities but also on developing and guiding students’ ideological and political perspectives. The purpose of the ideological and political education is to promote Marxist and sociology theories with Chinese features, as well as to bring students together for learning about the development of Marxist theory in China and the path to Chinese political identification. Students will be able to understand the superiority and scientific nature of socialism theory with Chinese characteristics along with actively preserving the socialism development path with Chinese characteristics. However, there are multiple weaknesses in the current evaluation of ideology and political science quality of teaching, including a misaligned evaluation goal, one object, and one-way evaluation. In order to solve these weaknesses, this study proposes an Apriori improvement approach for mining statistics from college political science classes. The important elements affecting instructors’ teaching quality are determined through a series of data collecting and data preprocessing procedures, which can assist teachers to improve and increase their teaching level as well as provide a strong foundation for teaching reform and management. During advanced stages, efficient monitoring and administration of teaching quality assessment can improve the scientific structure of teaching quality evaluation, give positive and constructive suggestions for political reform and development, and improve the college’s overall education level.

The Teaching Effectiveness of Civics Class Based on the Optimization of Integrated Teaching and Deep Learning

Due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia outbreak, offline teaching was conducted to varying degrees in schools and universities nationwide in spring 2020. After the epidemic was effectively controlled, students in various schools around the country returned to school one after another, and offline teaching was resumed. In order to deeply promote it, the School of Marxism of Guangdong Second Normal College developed and built an on-campus online open course on “Outline of Modern Chinese History” and carried out the reform and practice of a hybrid teaching on the basis of abandoning traditional teaching. The reform and practice of online teaching go hand in hand. Information technology is a high-tech product; hybrid teaching is a new thing; reform of Civics and Political Science class should be combined with the actual front-line teaching, for students’ ideas and cognitive characteristics of continuous improvement and student growth. Due to some shortcomings of the process of the current teaching mode of college teaching, such as large evaluation errors and long time, the paper proposed the evaluation method of college teaching mode with the goal of improving the accuracy of college teaching mode evaluation. Firstly, we analyze the current research status of college teaching mode evaluation and find the reasons for the poor results of current college teaching mode evaluation; then, we collect the college teaching mode evaluation data, adopt deep learning algorithm to learn the college teaching mode evaluation data, and establish the college teaching mode evaluation model; finally, we conduct the application example test of college teaching mode evaluation.

The (Coffee) Grounds of Change: An Experiential Learning Approach to Sustainable Development

Drawing on six years of experience teaching Political Science classes with field experiences in the Dominican Republic, I discuss the design and implementation of effective sustainable development projects. What started as a one-off field experience has grown into a long-term relationship with the coffee growing community of El Naranjito, which provides opportunities for students to learn through purchasing our campus coffee and collaborating with producers on navigating the international specialty market. Beyond efforts to assist farmers raise their standard of living through the sale of their primary commodity, students are also involved in projects addressing quality of life issues, such as access to reliable, affordable solar energy and safe drinking water—all funded from profits of our College-branded Warrior Coffee. Discussion includes learning objectives specific to Political Science and how an intentionally crafted experience can assist in the development of students’ cultural competence, global awareness, and soft skills—including effective communication, teamwork, and resilience. Finally, special attention is paid to the importance of building collaborative, mutually beneficial relationships with host communities in order to ensure sustainable economic and community development that seeks to avoid dependency and neocolonial power dynamics. The lessons learned can be applied to other contexts.

Tuning into Student Learning: The Music of IR Theories

The theories of international relations (IR) are often difficult topics for students to understand: What are these and how are they useful? This is especially true among students who have likely never taken a political science class, are not political science majors, and are attending a rural regional university with limited exposure to the world. So, how do we, as instructors, make IR theories more relatable to students and their daily lives? Cue the music! As part of an innovative new learning arc framework, students in sections of the Intro to World Politics course were asked to identify which of their favorite musicians embody the four main theories of IR (realism, liberalism, constructivism, and feminism). Students were then asked to explain what theories they identified the most with and why based on their music choices. They were also asked to imagine other theories as musicians as a way to help them improve their understanding of IR theories. We find that utilizing music as a pedagogical tool to teach IR theories has a net positive impact especially on freshmen and sophomore students whose major is not political science.

Changing the paradigm? Creating an adaptive course to improve student engagement and outcomes in introductory political science classes

Adaptive learning (AL) courseware holds promise for helping break down challenges students face in college. In 2016–2017 we developed an AL Political Science course, Global Issues, implemented it across 51 classes and more than 5,200 students over the next two academic years, and initiated a study to assess student perceptions and performance. In each semester, except spring 2018 when half the sections used non-AL courseware, all sections were taught using the AL courseware. Across these AL sections and on every question in a survey of student perceptions, students gave highly positive perceptive ratings of the courseware. In the spring 2018 assessment of the AL courseware versus non-AL courseware, the perceptive differences between the adaptive and non-adaptive sections were statistically significant on 12 of 14 questions (though the difference in online classes was not significant and we found significant differentiation based on instructor rank). As for student performance, the difference between AL and non-AL classes again showed overall significance, though with marked between-instructor differences and again not in online classes. It is also important to note that first-year status informed the performance results, and the average DFW rate fell significantly once the AL courseware was introduced. Our findings support the case that AL courseware can be one tool that helps provide a useful foundation for student progression, satisfaction, and performance.

Paris Calligrammes par Ulrike Ottinger

Reviewed by: Paris Calligrammes par Ulrike Ottinger Maria G. Traub Ottinger, Ulrike, réal. Paris Calligrammes. Int. Jenny Agutter, Fanny Ardant. Zero One, 2020. The decade known as the “sixties” was a period of intellectual activity and social unrest, fomenting upheaval and breaks with tradition. Arriving in Paris as a hitchhiker, Ulrike Ottinger, an artist from Germany, accepts transport from a group whom she suspects are bank robbers. Her entry into Paris is thus heralded by adventure and surprise. In his Saint-Germain bookshop, “Librairie Calligrammes,” she meets Fritz Picard, a German expatriate, who becomes a good friend and literary mentor. He includes her in his intellectual social circle, and suggests books for her to read. Picard’s guest book is a virtual who’s who of renowned artists, writers, thinkers, and journalists working in or visiting Paris and having stopped by his shop. Titled film sequences showcase meetings or work sessions with famous artists and memorable events. In one, we observe Ulrike’s studies under Johnny Friedlander, noted expert on the art of etching. Welcomed as his guest at family dinners, she met many artists. Living in Saint-Germain, she encountered Raymond Duncan, brother of dancer Isadora Duncan. Raymond habitually dressed in a toga he had woven for himself, following his philosophy of life: one should limit one’s needs to what one could make. From one eccentric’s lifestyle, we move to that of Algerian immigrants in the bidonvilles at the outskirts of Paris, followed by scenes of the October 1961 protest which began peacefully but morphed into a brutal and bloody conflict. The protests against the French involvement in Vietnam as well as the student protests of 1968 appear in film clips that give visual testimony to the efforts of bringing about change, either peacefully or violently. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the well-known student leader challenging the educational system, is shown as a provocative spokesperson in the footage. Culturally, we are treated to clips of world-class performances at the Odéon Theater, celebrities attending film premieres and noteworthy museums. Ottinger shows samples of Pop Art or Nouvelle Figuration which became part of her own work. From this perspective, the phenomenon of Dadaist influence is apparent in her way of portraying images and scrapping traditional approaches. Presenting an array of historical photographs and documentary footage, we follow experiences and influences in Ottinger’s life in Paris. A poetry reading of Walter Mehring’s work concerning the persecution of German writers by the Nazis is a long, plaintive cry against suppression. Not only exploring intellectual and cultural circles in the city, she also observed and discussed political and social incidents, as well as iconic Parisian places such as Les Halles, which has unfortunately disappeared. These dimensions of the film make it an historical time capsule. The information this film provides both visually and verbally is useful for the study of French civilization. A drawback is the lack of in-depth coverage of any one issue. Used in the classroom in short clips, it provides immersion into the decade’s zeitgeist. As a documentary, it is an interdisciplinary tool for history, political science, or art and film classes. [End Page 219] Maria G. Traub Neumann University (PA) Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

The Changing Landscape: The Role of Civic Education on Political Efficacy Among Latina/os and Asian Americans

This paper examines the influence of civic education on political engagement across racial groups. While scholars focus on the political efficacy gap between Black and White students, we extend attention to Latina/os and Asian Americans. This is because universities are becoming increasingly more diverse and defined by inclusion of these historically underrepresented groups. We theorize that the White-centered nature of political science classes as well as other structural disadvantages that Latina/os and Asian Americans face within and outside of the university may lead to inequality in their political efficacy gains after taking the same civic education courses, relative to Whites. Toward testing these expectations, we conducted an original panel study. We find that while Latina/o and Asian American students start out at higher levels of internal efficacy at the beginning of civic education classes, they leave more uncertain about their own understanding of politics after the course ends. Our findings suggest that amid universities’ demographic change, the promise of civic education is unevenly realized by Latina/os and Asian Americans, racial groups that colleges will increasingly need to serve. In the conclusion, we offer several suggestions on tailoring civic education to students of color in political science.

Combining the Theory and Practice of Peace and Conflict Studies through an Experiential Conflict Analysis Activity

ABSTRACTHow can political science classes best prepare undergraduate students for the field of peace and conflict studies (PACS)? We argue that well-designed experiential learning activities provide opportunities for students to embrace complexity and practice adaptability, fusing the theoretical and practical in ways that prepare them to engage in PACS. This article presents one such experiential learning approach: a conflict analysis activity. Through engaging in a messy learning process, students (1) gain an increased theoretical understanding of the complexity of conflict, (2) practice adaptability, and (3) increase their self-efficacy. We provide a step-by-step description of the Conflict Analysis Tool exercise and reflect on how well the activity enables the use of knowledge and skills relevant for PACS. Our goal is that the insights gained through our approach will be helpful to other educators—from PACS to international relations to American politics and beyond.

Chico-to-Cairo: An Analysis of International Virtual Discussions of Terrorism

In a globalized world, bringing international voices into the political science classroom takes on renewed urgency. Whether focusing on the readings included in a syllabus, the learning activities that expose students to other perspectives, or physical travel to a foreign locale, political science classes – especially Comparative Politics and International Relations courses – face the pedagogical task of conveying the different political perspectives held diverse groups and states. In this article, I build on prior calls for internationalizing the classroom and develop a videoconference discussion of terrorism between students in Chico, California and Cairo, Egypt. In addition to reviewing my collaboration with a faculty member in Egypt and the structuring of this discussion activity, I present survey data from students who attended the international videoconference and those that attended class instead. Both groups reported an increased confidence in their knowledge of terrorism however the students that took part in the videoconference displayed more nuanced understanding of terrorism as well as less stereotypical thinking about the Middle East. Based on this study I argue for the creation of a more formal networking opportunities between US-based and foreign-based instructors in order to facilitate the availability of simple, low-cost international experiences as part of a more globally inclusive classroom.

What do students learn from political simulation games? A mixed-method approach exploring the relation between conceptual and attitudinal changes

In civic education and political science classes, simulation games are increasingly recognised as a teaching tool to promote active learning, expecting them to enhance participants’ motivations and to convey transferable knowledge and skills. Furthermore, they have been described as a promising teaching approach with regard to the complex multi-level system of the European Union (EU). Empirical studies have underlined positive effects of simulation games; however, they usually either use purely qualitative or very small-N quantitative approaches. More systematic studies conducted recently didn’t focus on causes of the measured effects and have lacked depth due to a closed items design. The study presented here uses a mixed-method approach, analysing the effects of simulations of European Parliamentarian decision-making conducted with secondary school classes in Germany on students' political knowledge, motivations and attitudes. In addition to a standardised questionnaire with pre- and post-tests (N = 308), qualitative interviews were conducted (n = 12). The paper focuses on the relation between participants' conceptual changes and changes in perceived responsiveness of the EU. The results highlight relevant learning effects students experience in EU simulation games that are not yet captured appropriately by questionnaire studies and can stimulate the development of measurement tools for assessing process-oriented learning outcomes more adequately.