"Effective teaching is especially important to those of us in political science because we teach subjects – politics, governance, democracy, authoritarianism – that are vital to everyone in our world, not excepting ourselves and our families. We may be especially aware of the fragility of democracy now, but democratic systems are always fragile. Maintaining them requires work. So it isn’t simply a privilege to teach political science. It’s a necessity. Moreover, teaching it engagingly is a learned skill."
Marjorie R. Hershey | Professor Emeritus, Political Science, Indiana University - Bloomington
How to Teach American Politics (and Other Subjects) Effectively, Third Edition
Marjorie R. Hershey
After spending several decades leading her department's graduate seminar introducing the mechanics of political science education, Dr. Marjorie R. Hershey shares her ideas, experiences, and perspectives. In the third addition, Hershey provides new comments on ChatGPT, student protests, preventing uncivil behavior in classes, assembling a teaching portfolio, increasing enrollment, and what if your employer is downsizing.
— Table of Contents —
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………
- Delivering a Lecture
- The First Day of Class
- A Teacher Walked into a Classroom…
- Presenting the Lecture
- Using Active Learning and Discussion in a Large Lecture Course
- Pacing Your Lecture
- Helping Students with Note-Taking
- Lecturing Online
- Synchronous and Asynchronous Online Teaching
- Guest Speakers
- Handing Back Exams and Papers
- Assessing Your Lecture
- How to Get Students to Do the Readings
- Teaching While Female, Young, Black, Latino, LGBT, Nonbinary, or…
- Grading – the Dark Side of Teaching (and Ways to Make it Easier)
- Safety and Civility – In and Outside of Class
- Preventing Uncivil Behavior
- Resolving Student Complaints
- Civility toward Other Class Members
- Keeping Students Safe
- What to Do about Device Use in Class and Non-Attendance
- What to Do about ChatGPT and Other Forms of Artificial Intelligence
- A Note about Partisan or Ideological Bias
- Dealing with Students Outside of Class