2008 APSA Teaching and Learning Track Summaries—Track Ten: Teaching Across theDiscipline

Extract

The Teaching Across the Discipline track explored the ways in which political scientistscan enhance student learning through innovative techniques that connect political science toother academic disciplines and co-curricular activities. Participants in the discussionagreed that using such techniques require instructors willing to take a risk. That risk,which may involve borrowing from other disciplines, sharing power with students in theclassroom, requiring students to engage with civic leaders, pitting students in debate andcompetition with each other, and recognizing that political science does not exist in avacuum, can have great rewards for students and faculty alike. Those rewards includestudents' true engagement in the learning process and with it enlightenment on politicalissues and theories; and for professors, the satisfaction of knowing that they have helpedto bring their students “out of the cave.”