Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Applied Learning Experience Field Research And Reporting At The 2012 National Party Conventions, Carolyn S. Carlson, Joshua N. Azriel, Jeff Dewitt, Kerwin Swint

Faculty and Research Publications

Scholarship in teaching and learning demonstrates how academic understanding may be best achieved, and values of civic engagement best inculcated, when class materials are delivered within a experiential context. The goal for instructors, therefore, is to develop pedagogic techniques and teaching platforms that enhance learning by doing by directly engaging students with educational content. Courses that focus on American political processes provide especially fruitful opportunities for such applied learning experiences. In this paper, we discuss and assess experiential learning as facilitated in a pair of undergraduate courses taught at a southern state university that focused on the study of American …