Suchergebnisse

ABSTRACTPolitical science departments often require a senior-capstone course as part of the major. The Wahlke Report (1991) recommended including such a course more than 20 years ago, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities considers it a high-impact practice. Colleges and universities are also advocating broad efforts of civic engagement—an approach to academic work for which political science majors are uniquely qualified. This article describes the successes and failures of partnering a senior-capstone course with seven public agencies in a small city. By developing a multistage process for interacting with agencies, city officials, and the public, this "State of the Community" project provides students with a real-world opportunity to serve as political consultants. By emphasizing the importance of timeliness, teamwork, presentation skills, and professionalism, this project can be a turning point for political science students who must soon transition from students in the undergraduate world to citizens in the community.

Discusses the benefits of the 1994 book by Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, in undergraduate political science courses. The text is deemed helpful in persuading students of the importance of the political science discipline & motivating students to learn & care about the political world. The positive impact of the text on the author's students is praised. 9 References. L. Collins Leigh

"One is tempted to recommend the story as required reading in political science" (Arendt
1994, 171).

Examines the motivations for action in the committees and subcommittees of the US House of Representatives and Senate from 1947-98.

Self-reflective political scientists have extensively reviewed the
history of the discipline and argued over its future, but to date
there has been little effort to systematically survey undergraduate
scope and methods courses (for an exception see Thies and Hogan
2005). This lack of
data leaves the discipline unable to assess how much we are teaching
undergraduates about the scope of political science or, indeed, what
we mean by the scope of the discipline. Similarly, though there have
been many battles waged over the appropriateness of various
methodologies, it is not clear how much of this discussion, or how
many of these methods, make it into the undergraduate classroom.
Survey results from a nation-wide sample of political science
departments indicate that most departments require a scope and
methods course of their majors and that, while there is a great deal
of variety in topics covered, some common themes exist and some
common assignments are used.