Suchergebnisse

Revisits the long-standing intradisciplinary tension between political science (which ostensibly traffics in the empirical) & political theory (with its focus on the normative). Because political scientists often charge political theorists with engaging in humanistic rather than scientific research, the questions explored here revolve around clarifying the relation of political theory to the humanities & responding to "hard" scientists' specific criticisms of "soft" humanistic scholarship. That humanistic research is interested in interpretation & judgment rather than in explanation & quantifiability does not make it of lesser importance to the study of politics. K. Coddon

Since we have hardly any criteria for measuring good teaching, we have hardly any instructions on how to be a good teacher; so much so, that the issue itself is generally treated with some embarrassment in academic circles. Except as one is truly an extaordinary teacher, in which case we defer to his gift, sustained interest in teaching is viewed as something of a gaucherie. This shocks our friends and distresses our students, but it makes perfectly good sense, since we conventionally assume that good teachers are born, not made. (If they were made, then we should be able to make them; since we do not profess to know how to make them, yet they continue to turn up here and there, they must be born.)The logic is somewhat circular, and quite like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Having established that good teaching, when it happens, is essentially accidental, and hence not scientifically reproducible, we snicker at the "educationists" who profess to have identified "rules" for our work. There does exist, for example, a body of literature which employs scientific standards to identify the best methods for presenting various kinds of knowledge to students. Yet this is a literature which is almost totally unknown to anyone who is likely to make use of it. Thus its validity has not been tested, except experimentally.Although random efforts to improve the quality of teaching, and perhaps to apply the same standards in our analysis of teaching that we apply in our research, seem to be increasing, it is, on the whole, unlikely that they will grow substantially. For the most part, such efforts are directed at curricular revision, or at restructuring of course contents; they rarely deal with the nature of the relationship between the teacher and his students. And, even when they do, they must overcome an ethic of futility which is firmly established in our graduate schools.

Critics argue that the social scientific movements in political science has led to bad government. But there is no sound scientific foundation for the schism between traditional Western normative philosophy and social science. (SJK)

"Political Science Today by Wendy Whitman Cobb gives students a holistic view of the subfields that make up political science by dedicating one chapter to each of the topics at the core of the discipline. Unlike denser texts on the market, Political Science Today uses a field-based approach that allows students to engage with the material directly and dig into each of the discipline's tracks while also developing critical thinking skills, discerning the differences between politics and political science, conducting and consuming research, and broadening their future career aspirations. The book's innovative table of contents begins with foundational tools like theories and research methods, then builds up to subfield chapters on Comparative Politics, International Relations, American Government, Political Economy, and Public Policy and Administration. The Second Edition has been updated to include a new chapter on Social Movements and events like Black Lives Matter, the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict in the American political system and the January 6th insurrection, while highlighting these changes, also draws student attention to the many ways in which politics and political science impact their everyday lives"--

AT FIRST SIGHT ONE MIGHT BELIEVE THAT THE REPORT ON THE teaching of social sciences in the world prepared in 1951 by William Robson, at the invitation of UNESCO for the International Political Science Association, is still valid today in what it says about the situation in France. In fact, because of the strong traditions in the French universities, the teaching of and research in political science in France have not made the progress which had been hoped for, in spite of the continuing efforts of successive governments. Nevertheless, since the mid-1960s a major effort has been made. Some 40 chairs and nearly three times as many lectureships and assistant lectureships have been created and several large research centres have been set up, particularly in Paris where, alongside the venerable Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, many teams have been established, notably at Paris I, Paris II and Paris X, comprising lawyears, sociologists and historians.

The development of political science in Switzerland in terms of an academic recognition has its origins in the French part of Switzerland in the 1960s to 1980s, followed by the German part. Today, ten institutions in Switzerland offer political science at Bachelors and at Masters level. While in 2'000, only about 2'300 students studied political science in Switzerland this number almost doubled within ten years. One of the main changes in political science education in Switzerland consists in the replacement of the existing degrees of Lizentiat and Diplom by Bachelor- and Master-programmes according to the 'Bologna reform' in the early 2000s, by which Switzerland has pioneered the transformation processes. The first chair in political science was installed in 1959. Currently, there are about 50 full professorships at Swiss Universities. The main research fields of political science consist of international studies, democracy and Swiss politics, although Swiss politics still is considered particularly important in Switzerland due to of its unique political system within Europe such as direct democracy.