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85% of the Grade: Designing and Implementing Effective Assignments in Political Science Courses
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* * * DRAFT * * *
85% of the Grade:
Designing and Implementing Effective Assignments
in Political Science Courses
Amy Shuster
Ph.D. Candidate
Princeton University
Department of Politics
with co-authors
Kerry Walk, Ph.D.
Kate Stanton, Ph.D.
Director of the
Assistant Director
Princeton Writing Program
Princeton University McGraw Center for Teaching and
Learning
Abstract:
The relationship between class time (lecture and discussion) and formal written assignments (papers, quizzes, exams) is often under-theorized or only implicitly represented in the course syllabus, if there is a connection at all. Assignments ask students to perform a variety of feats from restating what they learned in lecture and reading to synthesizing and analyzing themes to extending a theory into a new context. Yet for undergraduate students who are taking courses across the university, the disciplinary conventions in political science are often not obvious and lead to unnecessary misunderstanding. Moreover, assignments are typically carried out entirely “outside” of class, and many students do not grasp the relationship between what they did in class and what they are finally graded on. As we turn to refine assessment mechanisms and elaborate learning outcomes expected of our students, we also need to clearly understand how different assignments are a factor in pre-determining these objectives. This presentation offers a typology of assignment prompts generated after a review of political science courses and practices. We argue that assignments should be designed to seek responses, rather than simply answers. Furthermore, we suggest that sequencing assignments so that they “ramp up” what is asked of the student over the course of the semester is the most effective way of imparting and assessing disciplinary knowledge. Finally, we show how more fully integrating writing into the classroom makes disciplinary conventions more visible and helps students to bridge the gap between assignments and classroom lecture/discussion.
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* * * DRAFT * * *
85% of the Grade:
Designing and Implementing Effective Assignments
in Political Science Courses
Amy Shuster
Ph.D. Candidate
Princeton University
Department of Politics
with co-authors
Kerry Walk, Ph.D.
Kate Stanton, Ph.D.
Director of the
Assistant Director
Princeton Writing Program
Princeton University
McGraw Center for Teaching and
Learning
Abstract:
The relationship between class time (lecture and discussion) and formal written assignments
(papers, quizzes, exams) is often under-theorized or only implicitly represented in the course
syllabus, if there is a connection at all. Assignments ask students to perform a variety of feats
from restating what they learned in lecture and reading to synthesizing and analyzing themes
to extending a theory into a new context. Yet for undergraduate students who are taking
courses across the university, the disciplinary conventions in political science are often not
obvious and lead to unnecessary misunderstanding. Moreover, assignments are typically
carried out entirely “outside” of class, and many students do not grasp the relationship
between what they did in class and what they are finally graded on. As we turn to refine
assessment mechanisms and elaborate learning outcomes expected of our students, we also
need to clearly understand how different assignments are a factor in pre-determining these
objectives. This presentation offers a typology of assignment prompts generated after a
review of political science courses and practices. We argue that assignments should be
designed to seek responses, rather than simply answers. Furthermore, we suggest that
sequencing assignments so that they “ramp up” what is asked of the student over the course
of the semester is the most effective way of imparting and assessing disciplinary knowledge.
Finally, we show how more fully integrating writing into the classroom makes disciplinary
conventions more visible and helps students to bridge the gap between assignments and
classroom lecture/discussion.
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