Participation as Assessment: Political Science and Classroom Assessment Techniques

From the beginning of my teaching career I had been drawn to class participation (Cohen 1991; 1993). I enjoyed posing questions and problems to the class, and they seemed to enjoy the interaction. At the same time, intuitively I was drawn to discussion and participation as ways to enhance learning. Later I learned that these were part of what was known as “active learning,” and they really did have the ability to enhance student learning (Barr and Tagg 1995; Chickering, Gamson, and Barsi 1989; Pascarella and Terenzini 2005, 101–2). My faith bolstered, I continued to explore ways to actively engage students through developing thought-provoking questions, assigning in-class writing, utilizing small group work, and integrating short presentations. Eventually I began to share my ideas with colleagues at conferences and publish them in respected journals. I discussed what I was doing in class, the basic principles underlying my approach, the challenges it provided, and the hoped-for results when it came to student learning.