Clued in to Politics: A Critical Thinking Reader in American Government - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 087289441X ISBN 13: 9780872894419

Publisher: Cq Pr, 2006

Synopsis

Instructors frequently worry that their students are simply parroting lines from the previous night s reading, and not thinking critically about important topics. Nowhere is this more important than for students just learning the ins and outs of American government. So how do you get students to move beyond merely describing an author s point of view? How do you get them to dig deeper, to actually uncover evidence and evaluate conclusions? The answer is to model critical thinking and close reading. Barbour and Streb have created an effective and simple device that pushes students to actively engage with readings and tease out each writer s argument. Through a series of probing questions, students are trained systematically to read through a selection and: Consider the source, Lay out the argument, Uncover the evidence, Evaluate the conclusion, Sort out the political implications.

About this title

About the Author

Christine Barbour teaches in the political science department and the Honors College at Indiana University, where she has become increasingly interested in how teachers of large classes can maximize what their students learn. At Indiana, Professor Barbour has been a Lilly Fellow, working on a project to increase student retention in large introductory courses, and a member of the Freshmen Learning Project, a university-wide effort to improve the first year undergraduate experience. She has served on the New York Times College Advisory Board, working with other educators on developing ways to integrate newspaper reading into the undergraduate curriculum. She has won several teaching awards at Indiana, but the two that mean the most to her were awarded by her students: the Indiana University Student Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Faculty (1995-6) and the Indiana University Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists Brown Derby Award (1997). She is currently working on a book about local politics, development and the fishing industry in Apalachicola, Florida. Matthew J. Streb is assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies in the department of political science at Northern Illinois University. He specializes and teaches in areas of political parties, elections, polling and public opinion, and Congress, and regularly teaches sections of Introduction to American Government. Streb is the author, editor, or co-editor of seven books, including The New Electoral Politics of Race (2002), Law and Election Politics (2005), and Academic Freedom at the Dawn of a New Century (2006), and has published articles in journals, including Political Research Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, Election Law Journal, and Politics and Policy. His most recent research examines the role that political parties play in judicial elections. Streb received his PhD from Indiana University in 2000.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cq Pr
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 087289441X
• ISBN 13: 9780872894419
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 375
• Editor: Barbour Christine, Streb Matthew J.