Mark clearly has a liberal bias. I am a Christian, moderate Republican and think that everyone’s personal views, including mine, influence my thoughts on ethical issues. Mark graded me down because I acknowledged that my personal beliefs influence my policy decisions. 

That RateMyProfessor.com post directed at Mark Carl Rom, an associate professor at Georgetown University, sparked a genuine interest in partisan grading bias that eventually led to a fantastic paper presented at TLC and again at MPSA. Co-authored with Paul Musgrave, a doctoral student at Georgetown University’s Department of Government, “Political Bias in Grading: The Impact of Caricature Bias on Student Grades” stimulated lots of discussion at both conferences.

Here’s the gist of their study design: They recruited a panel of undergraduate students to write essays, which were then scored by a panel of teaching assistants with experience in American politics courses. The participating TAs and students all completed a survey indicating their partisanship and ideology. The students, enrolled in an introductory American government course, each wrote two essays on the first day of class. The first essay asked them what the Democratic Party stands for, what its goals are, and who its leaders and supporters are. The second asked the same questions about the Republican Party. In the end, 60 essays from students who identified themselves as “strongly Republican” or “strongly Democratic” were sent to the TAs for scoring.

Because Rom and Musgrave are continuing to closely review their data and refine their paper, I will refrain from giving away the results that were presented at TLC and MPSA. I will say, however, that their findings are fascinating and provocative, and it could be fun to start a department betting pool over what the data will show. You can email Mark to request a copy of the paper when it’s ready. In the meantime, if you’re concerned about the potential for bias in your own grading, check out this article in JPSE, also by Dr. Rom.

Bethany Barratt, Associate Professor at Roosevelt University, presented one of my favorite papers which focused on using the Harry Potter series of novels to teach about terrorism.  Titled, “Deatheaters and Dark Wizards: Terror, Counterterror, and Other Powerful Magic,”  the paper presented the many complex facets in the study of terrorism and how these concepts can be understood through the world of wizardry. Explaining why she uses the Harry Potter series to teach, she said, “For an intro class, new students feel disengaged and overwhelmed looking at politics and Harry breaks it down into more understandable avenues.”

Other papers presented in the panel included using James Bond movies to better understand world politics (deterrence, balance of power, and role of non-state actors in the international system); involving students in the World of Warcraft online multiplayer game as a realist simulation tool (a visual for Hobbes’ argument for “a war of all against all”); and using the movie The Godfather to introduce students to IR theories and concepts (role of norms, power, alliance, etc. in the five families).

What movies, games, or books to you use to teach intro to IR? Leave a comment and let us know!

• Campaigns and the Public Policy Agenda

  The positions expressed by political candidates reveal the policy directions they will pursue if elected. This assignment explores some congressional and presidential candidates’ campaign promises from recent elections.

• What is Policy Analysis?

  A think tank is an organization, institute, corporation, or group that conducts research and engages in advocacy regarding public policy. This assignment explores some major think tanks and their roles in the policymaking process.

• Policy Positions

  Interest groups have a substantial impact on the policymaking process. This assignment explores the positions and political advocacy of some well-known organizations that seek to influence government policy.

From this infographic, I also discovered greatfirewallofchina.org, which allows users to check whether or not a website URL is censored in China. I found it entertaining to enter URLs from a few blogs I read to see if they were allowed in China or not. Only 1 of the 5 blogs I read daily passed the censorship test–The Monkey Cage. I also thought it was interesting that the New York Times website is not censored, but of course Facebook is.

Tell us, do you ever discuss Internet censorship in China with your students?

Thomas Doleys

The introduction gets right to the point. “The evidence is clear: now, more than ever before, political science faculty have something to say about pedagogy. But, is anyone listening? Specifically, is anyone reading the substantial and still-growing volume of published SoTL scholarship in political science?”

To answer the questions raised, the article provides the tentative results of 465 survey responses from political science faculty. Over half of the respondents reported that they have used SoTL scholarship at some time to “improve their teaching effectiveness.” However, engagement tends to be “shallow,” with most SoTL users reporting that they read just two or fewer SoTL-focused publications in the six months prior to the survey. Rather than engagement being motivated by department-level or institution-level incentives, faculty tend to look to SoTL scholarship to address “some personal concern about one’s teaching.” One interesting finding is that “women faculty are more likely to engage SoTL scholarship than their male counterparts.”

Panel discussant Lanethea Mathews, Associate Professor at Muhlenberg College, suggested that the gender finding is something that could be teased out and examined more carefully. She noted that while women are more likely to author and consult SoTL scholarship, they are also more likely to be employed at non-Ph.D granting institutions and more likely to receive negative teaching evaluations (which I did not know).

To request a copy of the complete article, email Thomas Doleys. He would love to get your feedback.

1) Single Sign On
Students simply click a link inside their Blackboard course and are directed into the Soomo title their professor has chosen (Central Ideas in American Government, Americans Governing, Between Nations, or Comparing Governments) without needing to sign on again.

2) Gradebook Synchronization
When students complete an assignment in their Soomo course, the scores are pushed over to your Blackboard gradebook to facilitate simple grade management.

This building block enables a seamless experience for your students and helps alleviate confusion about login credentials. If you are interested in using this techno-magic, just contact the poliscidesk@soomopublishing.com and we’ll do the work of communicating with the Blackboard wizards at your school.

If you’re interested in reading more about blended learning, you might also want to check out a recent JPSE article, “Comparing Student Outcomes in Blended and Face-to-Face Courses.” In the article, Douglas D. Roscoe, Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, compared two sections of a 300-level course in political parties and interest groups, one taught in a traditional format, and the other taught as a blended course with most of the course content delivered online. Although the blended class met together only five times during the semester, the data show no difference in academic performance. However, it was noted that the students in the blended course reported a “lower sense of community” and also showed a decrease in participation in online activities after face-to-face class sessions.

What’s your experience been with blended learning? Leave a comment and let us know!

In a review of it published in the most recent volume of Perspectives On Politics, Soomo user Joseph Lane, Jr. (Hawthorne Associate Professor at Emory and Henry College) says that the “book should be of particular value to those political theorists who teach courses on utopias or dystopias, politics and literature, or politics and film.”

Dr. Lane concludes his review with a brief suggestion of how a professor might use this book in the classroom. “Reading one or two of these works along with selections from the social contract theorists, and being informed by Curtis’s careful unpacking of themes…should stimulate very valuable class discussion and imaginative theorizing in undergraduate audiences who may have trouble seeing the fertile possibilities when reading more traditional theory alone.”

We added two Americans Governing assignments that feature this brand-new documentary. Making the News – Part 1 focuses on story selection and news gathering, and Making the News – Part 2 follows up with editing and publication. Email the PoliSci Desk to have the assignments added to your course!

Want to find out what happens next? Watch Part 2 now.