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Awarded each spring, Glennan Fellowships are
administered by the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and
Education (UCITE) and designed to reward excellence in faculty and to
nurture their growth as teachers and scholars.
Kelly McMann designed a project titled "Hands-on
Research Methods for Undergraduates" to address concerns about
undergraduate research methods courses. In the discipline of political
science, most undergraduate research methods courses do not provide
students with the experience that makes research exciting--the ability to
better understand something that interests us. Students learn the tools of
the trade but they only have the opportunity to apply them to other
people's concerns. This reduces not only students' enthusiasm for research
methods, but their incentives to learn them well. McMann's solution has
been to use a Glennan Fellowship to overhaul the political science
research methods course into a hands-on experience where students practice
using the tools of the trade on a project of their choosing. The course
was offered this fall and students completed their own research designs
on topics ranging from the impact of Islamic banking on political activism
to the influence of gender quotas on women's representation in
legislative bodies.
[adapted from Case Daily, January 6, 2009]
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