Conference Papers

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Over the last decade, the three introductory courses in government at Centre College
have been revised and now use a common approach that gives students an integrated
introduction to the discipline. Introduction to Politics, American Politics and Institutions, and
Introduction to International Relations all employ the same simple model as an analytical tool.
In each course, the subject matter is viewed from a historical perspective. We have abandoned
the traditional encyclopedic textbook and use primary documents as much as possible. Writing
assignments are designed to make students apply the approach in a variety of ways. We describe each course and reflect on our experience. We believe the advantages of this approach outweigh the disadvantages. Our students come into their advanced courses with a better sense of the unity of the subject matter, a familiarity with the best literature the discipline has to offer, and a common framework for analyzing political phenomena. We argue that an integrated set of introductory courses can help beginning students comprehend the increasingly diverse discipline of political science.

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Copyright on these papers is held by their authors or by the professional society which sponsored their original presentation.

Teaching Politics is published by William J. Ball (ball@tcnj.edu)