Neal Allen
University of Texas
Prepared for Presentation at the 2005 APSA Teaching Conference
Using the 2004 Presidential Election to Stimulate Active Learning
The 2004 American presidential election, characterized by heated debate about
core political issues, heavy turnout and public interest, presented an opportunity for
teachers of politics. This “teachable moment” was likely used by many, if not most
teachers of introductory American politics courses to increase student interest and
stimulate student interaction with course material. My particular attempt to
systematically incorporate the election into an introductory course yielded some potential
insights into using current events to serve course objectives. I have also created an
assessment tool that uses the contemporary American elections to stimulate active
learning and critical thinking whether a presidential election is occurring or not.
This paper is both narrowly focused on a particular paper assignment suitable to
introductory political science courses, and broadly oriented toward certain core issues
faced by college teachers of political science. I first discuss how a presidential election
might be used in an introductory political science course, describing a particular paper
assignment I used last fall, and modified for use this spring. I then discuss how this paper
is directed at particular goals common to teachers interested in stimulating active learning
and critical thinking. The third section outlines a strategy for assessing the effectiveness
of the paper assignment, and presents some preliminary data. The paper will be revised
after survey data is collected at the end of the current semester. The paper concludes with
a discussion of the appropriateness of the paper assignment to other kinds of courses, and
of the general issue of connecting assessment and learning objectives in political science
teaching.
In the fall semester of 2004 I taught Introduction to American Government at the
University of Texas at Austin. The course had 35 students, and was required of all
students for graduation. I attempted to integrate the presidential election more directly
into the course for two reasons. First, I knew that as someone deeply interested in
American elections, I would often talk about the fall elections in the natural course of
lecture and class discussion. My students would also be primed to discuss the election
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