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In an effort to promote learning in classrooms, political science instructors are increasingly turning to interactive teaching strategies--experiments, simulations, etc.--that supplement traditional lecture formats. In this article, I advocate the use of student-generated data as a powerful teaching tool that can be used in a variety of ways to support learning. The "data-driven classroom" is one in which original student data are collected via survey at the beginning of the course and the results presented throughout the term. Examples and case studies across multiple courses and classroom settings are used to illustrate how the method may be applied in practice. Feedback from student assessment surveys reveals strong support for the method, even among nonmajors. The article concludes with recommendations for instructors interested in creating more data-driven classrooms.

Cultural debates over gay rights have prompted a great deal of scholarship assessing the nature and resiliency of citizen attitudes toward homosexuality in American political life. We posit, however, that more attention should be devoted to LGBT individuals themselves as potential office holders. Specifically, we argue that in an era of increased affective polarization and partisan sorting, party identification of candidates, as well as affectual and ideological attitudes of voters, must be integrated into analyses of the effects of sexuality as a voting heuristic. Drawing on social identity and subtyping theories, we contend that candidate sexuality will influence attitudes about some candidates, but not others. We then present the results of an original survey experiment in which candidate partisanship and sexuality are both manipulated. The data reveal substantial support of our theory: while sexuality is a relevant consideration in the candidate evaluation process, both partisanship of candidates and political attributes of voters can severely condition its effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Some primary voters cast their ballot for a candidate they do not most prefer in hopes that doing so will increase their party's chances of winning the general election. However, the emergence of party "outsider" candidates challenges prevailing assumptions about the persuasive pull of electability arguments on voter decision making. In this project, we analyze whether and when supporters of "outsider" candidates resolve strategic dilemmas relative to supporters of "insider" candidates. Methods: We administer survey experiments to Republicans and Democrats immediately before the 2016 and 2020 primaries, respectively. Results: Although voters in both parties are willing to vote strategically, there are critical differences when it comes to the loyalty primary voters feel to outsider primary candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Conclusion: Strategic voting decisions are not based merely on electability, particularly in the case of "outsider" candidates. Scholars should integrate additional factors into future work on voter behavior in primaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Some primary voters cast their ballot for a candidate they do not most prefer in hopes that doing so will increase their party's chances of winning the general election. However, the emergence of party "outsider" candidates challenges prevailing assumptions about the persuasive pull of electability arguments on voter decision making. In this project, we analyze whether and when supporters of "outsider" candidates resolve strategic dilemmas relative to supporters of "insider" candidates. Methods: We administer survey experiments to Republicans and Democrats immediately before the 2016 and 2020 primaries, respectively. Results: Although voters in both parties are willing to vote strategically, there are critical differences when it comes to the loyalty primary voters feel to outsider primary candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Conclusion: Strategic voting decisions are not based merely on electability, particularly in the case of "outsider" candidates. Scholars should integrate additional factors into future work on voter behavior in primaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) requires social work education programs to assess both the implicit curriculum and the explicit curriculum. There is a divergence in the literature regarding these types of curricula; research on explicit curriculum is prevalent, while research on implicit curriculum is nominal. The implicit curriculum for social work education provides a powerful mechanism for assessing the atmosphere and culture of the learning environment for students. The field program is a natural, if challenging, venue for social work programs' assessment of their implicit curriculum. As such, the role of the faculty field liaison becomes a critical piece in understanding the implicit nature of the field education experience. This research project explored for purposes of program evaluation the role and responsibilities of faculty field liaisons over five years, using exit surveys completed by graduatelevel social work students (N = 168) and their assigned field instructors (N = 244). The findings suggest that the role and responsibilities of the faculty field liaison--especially when staffed by a full-time tenure-track faculty member--for both groups of respondents contributed to higher rates of satisfaction with the overall field experience, a desire for more site visits, and more effective relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research assessing how voters evaluate political candidates often focuses on the effects of particular attributes (e.g., race, gender, partisanship). I submit that voters' perceptions of candidates may depend not only on candidates' own traits and features, but those of other candidates running against them. Drawing on literature on reference dependence, I argue that the same candidate may be perceived in significantly different ways depending on whether or not voters evaluate the candidate as a single entity or as one option in a multicandidate field. An original survey experiment reveals that under certain circumstances, Republicans and Democrats both adjust their evaluations of party candidates as a function of the presence of other candidates. I conclude with a discussion of this project's implications for a larger body of work looking at reference dependence in American elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on COVID-19 and Emergency e-Learning in Political Science and International Relations. Topics include COVID-19 pandemic accelerating an integration of online learning into higher education; offering insights for political science educators from colleagues across the discipline; and referencing the challenging learning environment posing by the remote-learning transition.