Teaching Through Informal Debate

Extract

In the Summer 1982 issue of NEWS, W. Rick Johnson in an article entitled "Some Strategies for Teaching Students Critical Thinking" delved into a subject which has often bedeviled those of us who have ever taught political science to undergraduates. Like Johnson, I found that the basic exam/term paper format is inadequate and needs to be expanded upon to excite the average student about politics and get him thinking critically and independently.

Between 1979 and 1982, I taught five semesters of a core course in politics and government to second year cadets at the United States Military Academy (USMA), four of which were for regular course students and one at a more advanced level. The other semester I taught an elective in comparative political systems and an evening colloquium series on intelligence and public policy. At that institution I found I needed to search for an even more effective tool to spark student interest due to a couple of institutional constraints not faced by instructors at civilian colleges. First of all, only recently has West Point begun to institute a major's program.