bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A Model for Teaching Writing in Large Introductory Political Science Classes
Authors: Pittendrigh Adele S. , Calvert Jerry W. 
Published: October 2015

For the past two years as part of the Writing Center's writing-across-the-curriculum project at Montana State University, we have been experimenting with writing assignments in an introductory American government class with an enrollment of 130-150 students per quarter. We think we have developed a way to assign and teach persuasive writing in large introductory political science classes that helps students argue effectively but does not create a grading nightmare for the professor.In the Spring 1988 issue of The Political Science Teacher, Richard A. Brumback notes that students are entering graduate school without the ability to write effectively. Brumback calls for instruction in writing, particularly persuasive writing, in public administration curricula. “The science of public administration can only take us as far as systematizing our search for information. Effective evaluation and interpretation of that information rests in the ability to use it persuasively.” Professor Brumback's argument should be extended to undergraduate education in political science. English departments alone cannot do the job of teaching students to write well in all disciplines, especially when they have students for just one or two writing courses. Students need to write often in a variety of disciplines if they are going to write well when they graduate.There are other reasons, besides helping students develop writing skills, for assigning writing in undergraduate courses. Writing about course content makes students think. It gives them a chance to apply the concepts and methods of the discipline and to interpret and evaluate information. It also helps them see themselves more as active learners, less as passive receptors whose job it is to absorb information, memorize it, and repeat it on tests.
Eliciting Expertise
Authors: Mills William deB. 
Published: October 2015

Constant change, unpredictable human behavior, and a complexity that defies mastery by any single student make international relations a field no one—least of all a beginner—can cope with by simply memorizing facts. One key to understanding international relations—whether for the college freshman or a professional researcher—is knowing how to ask the right questions. Constructing and using expert systems can be a highly instructional pedagogical tool in this regard.Expert systems are programs that reach conclusions based on a set of rules that examine evidence derived either from a database or from responses entered by the user to a series of canned questions. To design a truly “expert” system—one that reaches conclusions as reliable as those of a human expert—is an extremely time-consuming task requiring not only, obviously, the participation of an expert to formulate the rules but also a topic that can be reduced to rules. Such an endeavor is not the goal here.Instead, the goal here is the preliminary step of training students to ask the proper questions, an arena in which expert systems running on PCs can be set up to provide very pointed demonstrations. Indeed, this is easy enough so that students can easily be assigned the design of such a system themselves (see box).
The Stage as a Classroom
Authors: Smoller Fred 
Published: October 2015

Orange—In a play that recalled one of the darker moments in U.S. history, an Army Colonel walked across a dimly lighted stage Monday, handed a pistol to a lieutenant and ordered the man to put the gun to his head and pull the trigger.“You can't be serious,” stammered the horrified lieutenant as his superior officer loudly repeated the order.Upset and confused, the lieutenant let an awkward moment of silence pass, then he quietly told the colonel, a prosecutor: “I can't do it.”So went the chilling climax of a morality play at Chapman College's Waltmar Theater on Monday as students from the freshmen seminar program moved the study of war and peace out of the classroom onto the stage….This is how a local paper reported a play my class wrote and performed about the court martial of Lt. William Calley. As you may recall, William Calley was the Army Lieutenant who, during the height of the Vietnam war, led his platoon into MyLai 4, a small village in South Vietnam. Expecting to find heavily fortified North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers, Calley and his men instead encountered several hundred South Vietnamese civilians, most of them old men, women, children, and babies. The civilians were herded into groups. They were then shot. Calley was later court martialled in one of the most controversial trials in our nation's history.
Political Science as Training for the Information Age
Authors: Daniel Christopher 
Published: October 2015

Computers inspire mixed emotions among political scientists. Love, hate, fascination, ennui, and frustration sometimes occur during the course of a single computer work session. Individuals come to terms with the beast in varying ways; obviously personal work style and level of computer dependency are each scholar's own business. However, expanded use of information technology in the disciplinary curriculum is a common concern deserving discussion. Like earlier debates between behavioralists and traditionalists, the current discussion raises questions about the discipline's central purpose. This essay reviews proposals to “computerize” political science curricula in light of contemporary theories about information and managerial work.Historically, political scientists' computer involvement has been limited, but it is now intensifying in response to educational, technological, and environmental influences. Political scientists have used computers as teaching tools since at least the early 1970s, when the APSA “SETUPs” began appearing, but as novelty items, diversions reflecting the devotion of idiosyncratic individuals. This publication has disseminated many such “experiments,” as have Social Science Computer Review and the National Collegiate Software Clearinghouse. Even as desktop machines began proliferating in the early 1980s, their use in the classroom was considered to be optional, something peripheral to the discipline which one could attempt if one had the inclination.This laissez-faire ambience may be ending in the face of societal transformations. In the classroom political scientists foster intellectual skills broadly useful to former students. A student may be an activist or an avid pre-lawyer, but his or her future professional development will be built on analytical, and communications skills honed in political science courses. This linkage between political science classrooms and the professional world could weaken if we do not adopt to societal change.
Some Considerations Regarding Teaching Evaluations
Authors: Rutland Peter 
Published: October 2015

These comments are mostly derived from my teaching experience at the University of Texas at Austin, which has a sophisticated and elaborate teacher evaluation system, and in the universities of London and York in England, which don't.1. Students' evaluations of their teachers do not depend solely on the qualities of the teacher. If objective evaluations are to be obtained, a multivariate statistical analysis should be conducted, controlling for such factors as:a. class size—the smaller the class, the better the evaluations.b. expected grade—one of the strongest correlates of teacher evaluations proved to be the grade the student expects to receive—the higher the expected grade, the “better” the course. This too can be controlled for—by asking the students on the form what grade they expect to receive.c. whether the class is required or optional—compulsory courses will obviously be less popular. One way to test for this is to ask students on the evaluation form to rate the class relative to their expectations of the class (above, below, or as expected).2. A statistical study at Texas by J. Sidanius showed that student evaluations of teachers tend to be biased against women and minority teachers. Apart from the intrinsic worries this raises, such information, if true, could be used in court actions over denial of tenure for women/minorities where teacher evaluations played a role.3. There is of course the general philosophical question of whether students are best able to assess whether they are learning anything from a given teacher.
Putting the Final First
Authors: Morris Stephen D. 
Published: October 2015

The familiar final exam survives as a fundamental component of most college courses, but usually proves frustrating and disappointing to both student and instructor. The culmination of the undergraduate teaching and learning experience, the completed exam usually exhibits a rapid display of facts and figures gleaned from countless lectures and months of readings. It rarely reflects thoughtful, mature analysis or the application of the substantive knowledge acquired during the course to particular problems or themes. A strong factual knowledge of course material hardly prepares the student for such a task. Even if the final challenges the student to exercise rudimentary analytical skills, the end product tends to suffer from time constraints as the task of writing generally outweighs that of organizing and pursuing thoughts.Instructors normally entertain certain objectives in elaborating a course which may or may not be incorporated into the syllabus. These demarcate the scope of material to be covered and the theoretical and analytical abilities to be mastered by the student; but rarely are these incorporated or represented in the content of the final exam. Usually, these pedagogical goals are more comprehensive and rigorous than what is actually tested or graded on the final given its traditionally limited and constrained format. Consequently, the final's impact on the student's grade tends to surpass its role in shaping the learning experience; the course suffers from treating the final as solely an evaluative instrument rather than a learning device.Just as central research questions and an elaborate strategy guide sophisticated scholarly research, issuing the final exam questions at the course's outset can help focus and steer the learning process and more appropriately correspond to course objectives. A number of advantages result from issuing the final exam up front.
Undergraduates for a Better Education— A Lesson in Politics
Authors: Coplin William D. 
Published: October 2015

Undergraduates for a Better Education (UBE) is an official student organization at Syracuse University which grew out of an informal study group that started in the fall of 1986. The purpose of this article is not just to tell you about this organization but to exhort you to try a similar activity on your campus. Working for UBE provides students with the opportunity to develop skills and test theories about politics in a policy area that is very important to them. And even if you don't buy the proposal on pedagogical grounds, you certainly can appreciate the justness of UBE's cause —to pressure administrators and fellow faculty to give higher priority to teaching. However, you may want to think twice before embarking on this road especially if you are not a tenured full professor.A study group composed of seven students in my freshman course, PAF 101: Introduction to the Analysis of Public Policy, met in the fall of 1986 to discuss public policy issues. From this small number of students, a highly visible student organization emerged with representation from across the university. The organization has had an impact at Syracuse University and has held two national conferences attended by twenty different schools from across the United States. As its faculty advisor, I played a major role in its creation but at this time play a smaller role. (I talk or meet with officers about once a week and attend a meeting once a semester.) Michael K. O'Leary, a political science professor, has served in an advisory role on several projects. Other professors have offered private support but kept a public distance from the organization.
Opposition in International Law – Alternativity and Revisibility as Elements of a Legitimacy Concept for Public International Law
Authors: LEY ISABELLE 
Published: October 2015

AbstractAs international law is widening in regulatory scope and intensity, it arguably suffers from a legitimacy deficit. This article conceives of this deficit as a deficit in possibilities to politicize, criticize, and contest international law-making proposals in the way a loyal opposition does in a domestic constitutional context: through the representation of relevant societal interests, the voicing of critique, and the safeguarding of alternative proposals for the future. The author of this article tries to bring together the current debate in political theory on the value of legitimate disagreement and dissent in political institutions and the ongoing discussion on the legitimacy of international law. Therefore, a concept of an institutionalized opposition for international law-making processes is developed, referencing authors such as Hannah Arendt and Claude Lefort. Next, the author analyses whether one can already find instances of an institutionalized opposition in international law – in parliamentary assemblies and in international agreements which are designed to present a legal–political counterweight to specific legal concepts and institutions.
Narrative Kill or Capture: Unreliable Narration in International Law
Authors: WINDSOR MATTHEW 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThis article evaluates the benefits of a ‘turn to narration’ in international legal scholarship. It argues that significant attention should be paid to the narrators who employ international law as a vocabulary to further their professional projects. Theories of unreliable narration help map consensus within international law's interpretive community in a manner that is acutely sensitive to point of view and perspective. The article examines the existence and extent of unreliable narration through a case study: the practice of targeted killing by the Obama administration in the United States. The struggle for control of the narrative, by narrators with different professional roles and cognitive frames, is ultimately a struggle for interpretive power, with the resulting ability to ‘kill or capture’ divergent narrative visions. Unreliable narration offers a critical heuristic for assessing how narratives are generated, sustained, and called into question in international law, while fostering reflexive inquiry about international law as a professional discipline.
Arctic Networks and Legal Interpretations of the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
Authors: GRABEN SARI , HARRISON PETER 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThe United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is expected to play an essential role in delineating the rights of the Arctic states to seabed resources in the Arctic Ocean. In this article, the authors look to the effect of scientific discourse on Commission authority. The authors argue that in addition to the conferral of its authority by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Commission draws its authority in the Arctic from the way its regulatory frameworks, aimed at containing or closing off disputes about jurisdiction and sovereign rights, correlate with discursive practices used by transnational networks to reach scientific agreement.
Vultures in Courts: Why the UNCTAD Principles on Responsible Financing Cannot Stop Litigation
Authors: MEGLIANI MAURO 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThe decision of the US Supreme Court rendered in NML v. Argentina has enabled the vulture funds to enforce in full their claims against the payments to be made by Argentina in favour of those holders who had tendered their bonds under a previous exchange offer. This scenario may have a disruptive impact on the functioning of the financial markets and endanger the restructuring processes of sovereign debt. The race to the courts by the vulture funds could be stopped under the UNCTAD Principles on Responsible Financing where the behaviour of those creditors who acquire debt instruments of sovereigns in distress and remain aloof from a restructuring to secure preferential treatment is marked as abusive. Unfortunately, so far the legal status of this abusive behaviour is unable to overturn the interpretation of the pari passu clause under New York law given by the US Federal Courts which stands at the base of the problem. To overcome this impasse the suggestion is to insert in the UN proposal of a multilateral legal framework for sovereign restructuring processes a specific provision qualifying as overriding a mandatory restructuring plan approved through a certain quorum which has received certification by the IMF. This qualification would serve the purpose of applying the plan to all creditors, and not just to those who register under the process. Moreover, this qualification would be considered as part of the public policy of the states participating to the UN proposal so as to block the enforcement of judgments rendered in non-participating fora.
Balkanizing Jurisdiction: Reflections on Article IX of the Genocide Convention in Croatia v. Serbia
Authors: AKHAVAN PAYAM 
Published: October 2015

AbstractWhen it first encountered the Genocide Convention in its 1951 Advisory Opinion, the International Court of Justice recognized that the treaty reflected the ‘most elementary principles of morality’. Its provisions were to be read broadly, in light of the Convention's transcendent object and purpose. This expansive approach stands in contrast with the narrow interpretation of Article IX in the recent Judgment in Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Croatia v. Serbia) case. This article is a commentary on the retroactive obligation to punish genocide under the Convention with regard to acts occurring prior to its entry into force for that state. It concludes that the Court's narrow interpretation of its jurisdiction ratione temporis raises wider questions for its contemporary jurisprudence, namely, whether it will interpret human rights treaties enshrining fundamental values any differently than other international instruments.
When Ethnic Cleansing is not Genocide: A Critical Appraisal of the ICJ's Ruling in Croatia v. Serbia in relation to Deportation and Population Transfer
Authors: STEINFELD MARTIN 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThis article critically examines the concept of ethnic cleansing in light of the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Croatia v. Serbia. It suggests that the lack of overt reference to it in the Genocide Convention constitutes a significant lacuna in judicial recognition and protection of atrocities committed in both the Former Yugoslavia and more generally, which the ICJ categorically refused to address. Having examined how the ICJ attempted to conceptualize ethnic cleansing as evidence of both the actus reus of genocide (particularly in relation to Article II(c) of the Convention) and its mens rea, the article then critically assesses the Court's reasoning in its refusal to rule that a violation of the Convention had taken place in relation to deportation and forcible transfer. The article then concludes by contending that the Court simply failed to provide a much-needed and workable precedent to properly include ethnic cleansing within the legal and factual matrix of genocide.
Indirect Perpetration Theory: A Defence
Authors: GRANIK MARIA 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThe aim of this article is to show that the concept of perpetration by means as it appears in Article 25 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute) accurately reflects liability for crimes committed by high-level perpetrators who exercise control over the actions of the lower-level (fully responsible) perpetrators. Finding the proper mode of liability in these cases is crucial to the International Criminal Court's (ICC) mission of ending impunity for serious international crimes. While international criminal law may be unlikely to deter criminals, especially heads of state and other powerful leaders, itcanprovide some sense of justice for the victims by convicting and punishing those responsible for their suffering. As such, the functions of international criminal law are to a large extent expressive and retributive. At the same time, it is important to keep the focus of international criminal law on individual responsibility of the perpetrators. It is, therefore, crucial to find proper labels that reflect culpability well. I hope to make a contribution to this search in what follows.This article is divided into five sections. First, I provide a background to the move, recently articulated by the ICC, from the concept of joint criminal enterprise (JCE) to that of indirect perpetration (and indirect co-perpetration) (section 2). Second, I analyse the original presentation of this idea by the German jurist Claus Roxin (section 3). Third, I examine the application of this concept by the German courts, particularly in the 1994 trial of three high level GDR officials held liable as indirect perpetrators for the killings (carried out by the border guards) of refugees at the East/West German border (section 4). Then I present a recent (Winter 2011) proposal by Jens Ohlin to abandon both JCE and indirect perpetration in favour of another mode of collective liability based on joint intentions (section 5). Finally, I defend the concept of indirect perpetration against Ohlin's criticisms, arguing that it offers a more accurate way to label the conduct of high-level perpetrators who carry out crimes by means of direct perpetrators who are themselves liable (section 6).
Approach and Avoidance Temperament
Authors: Bipp Tanja , Kleingeld Ad , van Dam Karen 
Published: October 2015

Abstract. In four studies, we investigated the factorial structure and the construct and predictive validity of the approach-avoidance temperament questionnaire (ATQ; Elliot & Thrash, 2010 ) for attitudes and behavior at work. In Study 1 (N = 395 university students), we showed that a Dutch translation of the ATQ can be best described by a two-factorial structure. In Study 2 (N = 295 senior-year students), we documented approach and avoidance temperament as predictor of students’ career adaptability and engagement. In Study 3 (N = 103 employees), we demonstrated that approach and avoidance temperament have incremental predictive validity for work engagement beyond goal orientation (three-dimensional model). In Study 4 (N = 93 employees), approach temperament was positively related to peer ratings of job performance, independent of achievement goals (four-dimensional model). Overall, we showed that individual differences in terms of a predisposition for the orientation and reaction to positive/negative stimuli across situations can be used to increase our understanding of behavior at work. Our results support the practical utility of approach and avoidance temperament for work settings.