Research suggests that student learning is enhanced when students are engaged through active learning strategies. In studying public opinion and polling, challenges include the provision of meaningful active learning environments when resources are limited. In this article, I discuss the design and implementation of telephone surveys as a teaching tool for use in introductory American politics as well as upper-level public opinion courses. I emphasize polling situations in which there are limited resources or no established survey research center is available. Topics include student involvement in survey design and implementation, logistics, and budgeting. Student satisfaction with participation in the survey process is also discussed.

This year's participants in the Civic Engagement II track agreed with last year's participants that civic engagement is both a means and an end. Active learning through community or political engagement can provide students with a deeper understanding of political science concepts while also helping them develop the skills they need to become engaged citizens. Participants in this year's track focused on how to assess the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that students develop through coursework, internships, and extracurricular programs.

A preview of some of the articles in the January 2012 issue.

People often make choices that go against their own best interests. In the controversial bestseller Nudge, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein argue that people can benefit from simple “nudges” to improve their decision-making. In an upper-level undergraduate course on political decision-making, I created a series of assignments around Nudge. In the project, students designed their own “nudges” to solve a variety of political and social problems. Students gave this assignment rave reviews, not only for the course content they learned, but also for what they discovered about their connections to society and its problems. In this article, I describe the assignment and report students' evaluations of it. This assignment could be tailored to any course on political behavior, public policy, or public administration.

A considerable amount of research exists about political science careers at community colleges and liberal arts institutions, as well as about training and hiring practices across different types of institutions. However, there is virtually no commentary available on political science careers at comprehensive institutions, where a significant proportion of those in the field will spend their professional careers. The primary goal of this article is to initiate a conversation about working at a comprehensive university, which has both similarities to and important differences with Ph.D.-granting universities and liberal arts institutions. In doing so, we seek to highlight and discuss unique subtleties and complexities in the areas of teaching, research, and service that may provide insight into careers at comprehensive institutions and assist those who may be seeking or have just gained academic positions at such institutions.

Issues addressed in the Core Curriculum and General Education track at this year's conference are more important than ever. With the release of Academically Adrift (Arum and Roksa 2011), increasing budget shortfalls as a result of the economic recession, and calls for assessment and accountability, higher education and its usefulness have come under scrutiny. While this increasing scrutiny is a concern that others besides those in political science should address, our field's expertise within the political arena would suggest that we have insight into political decision-making and can act as experts that translate information from the classroom to the real world in a variety of ways.

During the annual APSA All Member Business Meeting on September 3, 2011, APSA Council Committee on Election chair, Julie Novkov, certified additional nominees for seats on the APSA council. An all-member electronic election is being held to determine the eight council members who will serve on the 2011–13 council, in addition to the officers who were declared elected without contest. The election began on October 3 and ends on November 2, 2011.

Prior research in political science and other disciplines demonstrates the pedagogical and practical benefits of active learning. Less is known, however, about the extent to which active learning is used in political science classrooms. This study assesses the prioritization of active learning in “gateway” political science courses, paying specific attention to simulations, structured debates, and the case method. Nearly five hundred individual course syllabi for introductory-level political science courses are examined. Although the level of active learning prioritization is surprisingly low, the dimensions on which it varies suggest opportunities for adoption across subfields and classes of varying size.

The eighth annual meeting of the Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Equality (DIE) track at the 2011 APSA Teaching and Learning Conference focused on issues of difference, diversity, and equality as they relate to political science classrooms, departments, and institutions. This year, DIE included 22 participants and seven research papers on a broad range of issues. Subject matter included the incorporation of diversity topics into political science curriculum, the impact of campus demographics and diversity, and challenges faced by faculty in teaching diversity in politics.

U.K. government policy is placing a heavy emphasis on “essential” and “employability” skills in an effort to help individuals cope with changing social and economic circumstances. Delivery of these skills falls to a range of education providers. This is a particular difficulty for university lecturers who teach non-vocational students who are increasingly concerned about their ability to compete in the job market after graduation. Transferable skills are therefore a key issue in student learning and support in U.K. political science, as well as other disciplines. Through assessment of one U.K.-based political science research methods module, this article suggests effective group-based ways of embedding such skills for political science students in a way that puts the student, and not the teacher, at the center of the learning process. These ideas are confirmed by survey evidence. In particular, student group research projects underline the idea that instructors should go beyond the classroom to help students apply theory. Importantly for both U.K.- and non-U.K.-based lecturers, the assertion can now also be extended to include transferable skills in addition to learning and applying theory.

On July 27, the Democratic minority on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee (SST), Ranking Member Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), released a staff report, Out of Focus: A Critical Assessment of the Senate Report, “The National Science Foundation: Under the Microscope.”

The political science program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces its awards for basic research support and dissertation improvement grants for fiscal year 2010.

The Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs is an invaluable resource to political and social scientists. Since its opening in September 2003, the Center has housed more than 100 scholars. The center, located in the APSA headquarters near Dupont Circle, provides a great base of operations for scholars researching in the DC metro area. The Center offers visiting scholars furnished work space, telephone, fax, computers, Internet access, conference space, a reference library, and access to George Washington University's Gelman Library. Visiting scholar stays range from a few days to 12 months. Space is limited to APSA members and is available for faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and advanced graduate students from the United States and abroad. Scholars are expected to cover their own expenses and a modest facilities fee for the use of the center. Prospective visiting scholars may apply at any time. Positions are awarded on a space-available basis.

Traditional writing assignments only teach students to write for academic settings. Assigning students policy briefs and policy memos gives them the opportunity to practice the type of writing they will perform both inside and outside of academia while still developing critical thinking skills and an understanding of the political world. Including policy-style writing assignments in the curriculum teaches undergraduates the skills demanded by their future employers, helps future academics learn how to write grant and conference proposals, offers students practice at the highest levels of Bloom's taxonomy of learning, hones synthesis and analysis, teaches students to be client-oriented, and makes students more effective citizens.

Given the unique challenges of graduate education, the need for dynamic and up-to-date research is paramount. Changes in the delivery of postgraduate education and the postgraduate job market necessitate that faculty continuously develop and improve graduate programs and professional development. While much of the scholarship concerning undergraduate education and curriculum is relevant to graduate studies, dedicated research on graduate education in political science is also necessary.

The Integrating Technology in the Classroom track provided valuable insights into both the benefits of incorporating technology into undergraduate political science classrooms and the concerns these interventions can generate. The benefits discussed by the track's 24 participants were numerous and varied, ranging from enhancing participation in very large lecture classes to increasing students' “political Internet literacy” and public trust in government and to making learning more participatory and active through technological simulations. Concerns fell into three main categories: (1) legal concerns regarding student information posted publicly online and the necessity (and challenges) of obtaining institutional review board (IRB) clearance for classroom research; (2) the time required to adopt new technological techniques; and (3) the need for stronger research designs and evaluative measures to effectively assess learning outcomes of different technology interventions. Despite these concerns, there was broad consensus among track participants that technological interventions have the potential to enhance and ultimately transform undergraduate political science education. Here we highlight the central benefits, challenges, and concerns addressed by the track's five papers, and the discussions they generated.

Founded in 1953, the APSA Congressional Fellows Program is the nation's oldest and most prestigious congressional fellowship. The program remains devoted to its original objective of expanding knowledge and awareness of Congress. For nine months, select political scientists, journalists, doctors, federal executives, and international scholars gain “hands on” understanding of the legislative process by serving on congressional staffs. Through this opportunity, the association enhances public understanding of policymaking and improves the quality of scholarship, teaching, and reporting on American national politics. For more information, please visit http://apasnet.org/content_3031.cfm. Individuals selected for the proram for 2011-12 are listed below.