Monthly Archives: February 2012

Building a multiple-choice quiz

Posted on February 28, 2012 by

One of the things I’m trying out this semester is a open-book multiple-choice quiz, both of which are new things for me.  My traditional mistrust of MCQs is that they promote closed thinking and don’t allow the student to express … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, European Union, Exercises, Feedback & Reflection, Simon Usherwood | Tagged | 4 Comments

Taking Student Motivations Into Account

Posted on February 22, 2012 by

Great session at TLC this year, with lots of interesting papers and ideas for simulations and games, including another wonderful workshop by ALPS’ own Victor Asal. My own paper (with Nina Kollars) dealt with the issue of student motivation and … Continue reading →

Posted in Amanda Rosen, and Simulations, Games, Nina Kollars, Role-playing | Leave a comment

Don’t start what you can’t finish

Posted on February 21, 2012 by

One of the more regular observations I make of (and to) students is the way they start to make a point – either in class or in their coursework – and then don’t follow it up properly.  This offends both … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Feedback & Reflection, Simon Usherwood, Writing | Tagged | 1 Comment

Time Well Spent

Posted on February 20, 2012 by

Maybe it doesn’t matter what techniques we use in the classroom; maybe it’s how much time students spend with the material we want them to learn! I got this idea after an experiment on the learning efficacy of a collaborative … Continue reading →

Posted in Exercises & Projects, Group Collaboration, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Waffle Shopping and James Franco

Posted on February 19, 2012 by

Two minor personal takeaways from this year’s Simulations & Role Play II track at the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference: The James Franco Effect: When students fail to demonstrate as much learning as expected because the instructor is not James … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, and Simulations, Chad Raymond, Exercises & Projects, Feedback & Reflection, Games, Role-playing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Live from the TLC

Posted on February 18, 2012 by

A few thoughts from the initial day of the 2012 APSA Teaching and Learning Conference: I missed the opening speakers due to a fog-induced flight delay. The Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC, is pretty swank. The conference sessions are being … Continue reading →

Posted in and Simulations, APSA, Exercises, International Relations, Reading, Victor Asal, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Pain: The Ultimate Teacher

Posted on February 16, 2012 by

My father, a former drill instructor in the USMC, once told me that he’d stomp on a recruit’s foot to teach him right from left — “your right foot is the one that hurts.” Last night in an aikido class … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Chad Raymond, Comparative Politics, Exercises, Feedback & Reflection, Group Collaboration | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Today’s lucky winner is…

Posted on February 14, 2012 by

It’s teaching time again here in the UK, so I’m rolling out some new (for me) techniques to build student participation and engagement.  This semester’s lucky group are our first year undergraduates (freshmen), with whom I’m trying out a whole … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, European Union, Exercises, Seminars, Simon Usherwood | 3 Comments

Exams as Evaluation Tools, Not Practice

Posted on February 9, 2012 by

One problem with the traditional ’2 exams’ format of many polisci classes is that we are never offering students an opportunity to learn the material.  We test to see if they’ve learned the material, but fail to offer students  low-stakes … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Amanda Rosen, Exercises & Projects, Feedback & Reflection | 2 Comments

The Durango Zip Code learning moment

Posted on February 7, 2012 by

Somewhat incredibly, it’s nearly a year since the APSA Learning & Teaching conference in Albuquerque, where the idea for this blog first took seed.  with this year’s event in Washington looming, I was taken back to reflecting on what I’d … Continue reading →

Posted in Exercises, Feedback & Reflection, Simon Usherwood | Leave a comment