Computational methods have become an integral part of political science research. However, helping students to acquire these new skills is challenging because programming proficiency is necessary, and most political science students have little coding experience. This article presents pedagogical strategies to make transitioning from Excel, SPSS, or Stata to R or Python for data analytics less challenging and more exciting. First, it discusses two approaches for making computational methods accessible: showing the big picture and walking through the workflow. Second, a step-by-step guide for a typical course is provided using three examples: learning programming fundamentals, wrangling messy data, and communicating data analysis.

Introductory undergraduate courses in American politics often center the Constitution and focus on fundamental principles, structures, and processes. Unfortunately, this focus allows less space to discuss the role that norms play in supporting formal rules and institutions in the American political system. As a political science professor teaching an introductory course on American politics in 2019 and 2020, I became acutely aware of the limitations of this course design. This context showcased the ways in which many of these norms are taken for granted by many, including American politics scholars. Moreover, it sparked conversations among my colleagues about whether we should adapt to the moment and update our instruction to place greater emphasis on norms to contextualize the present political moment for our students. My answer was yes. However, doing so requires instructors to be attentive to issues of objectivity, authority, and partisanship. This article shares strategies that I plan to implement when I teach this course again. In particular, I discuss three guiding pedagogical principles when teaching about presidential norms. I then provide discussion questions that instructors can use to spark conversations about the relationship between adherence to presidential norms and the stability of American political institutions.

Political science courses often address difficult topics that can take an emotional and psychological toll on students, including burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious traumatization. There is a growing awareness of the importance of reflective and self-care practices in teaching, especially considering the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on student mental health. However, this is a rarely discussed topic in political science. This article discusses the results of our pedagogical research on the emotional impact of learning about atrocities, the challenges of studying during a global pandemic, and the benefits of self-care activities (e.g., meditation) for student well-being. Our research is based on two different courses and includes student self-reflections and our analysis of class discussions. We conclude that our students struggle with the emotional costs of studying difficult topics (especially during the pandemic) and are receptive to doing self-care activities and find them beneficial for their mental health.

Undergraduate research labs have long been recognized as having educational and professional benefits, but much less attention has been given to how they can promote diversity and inclusion. Without a conscientious effort to promote these goals, labs are likely to replicate and perpetuate existing inequalities. This article discusses our experiences and lessons from launching an undergraduate research lab in a political science department at a research-oriented state university. It concludes with suggestions for other departments interested in starting undergraduate research labs. Promoting diversity and inclusion by working with undergraduates is unlikely if faculty are recruiting students individually outside of a lab, if the burden is on students to approach faculty, or if labs do not take practical steps to make this happen.

This article presents an original simulation, called Tick, Tick, Boom, which is designed to help students examine the use of torture in counterterrorism interrogations. The simulation is designed to be embedded in a larger array of course content but needs only one 50-minute class period to play. Unlike many similar games, students participate individually, learning the consequences of their actions through dice rolls. The article summarizes the gameplay and debriefing, presents a brief assessment of the simulation as an activity, and offers suggestions for future extensions.

With the increase of data availability, knowledge about quantitative methods is more important than ever. Indeed, students need quantitative methods to understand quantitative academic research, to conduct this research themselves, and to increase their employability in the labor market. Yet, students often experience quantitative methods as difficult to learn and, in turn, instructors find the topic difficult to teach. To make both learning and teaching easier, this article provides seven concrete suggestions regarding the teaching of quantitative methods.

Teaching research design is a core component of a political science curriculum. In our pedagogy, we often do two things separately: expecting students to (1) read and digest the work of established scholars, and (2) explore their own interests in the form of a research design or research paper. In a reverse research design, I bridge these two components with a pedagogical tool. I use a published book or article relevant to the course and students retrace the published author’s process, placing themselves in the author’s shoes. Rewinding some years, students imagine that they are this author writing a grant proposal to conduct the (now-completed) study. This helps students to work through the steps of research design, putting aside until later the more intimidating hurdle of articulating their own research question and project. This article explains reverse research design and describes the teaching resources and methods for implementation.