Teaching Better, Teaching Together: A Coordinated Student Exit Poll Across the States

Abstract

Student exit polling has demonstrated value in the classroom (Berry and Robinson 2012; Evans and Lagergren 2007; Lelieveldt and Rossen 2009), but faculty typically operate these polls in isolation. When faculty collaborate, however, students gain additional benefits from the experience. Collaboration provides a geographically diverse ''student community'' that allows students to engage in experiential learning beyond the confines of their immediate classrooms. The authors have created assignments and an instructor's manual on running student exit polls in undergraduate courses. Three institutions used these assignments during the Fall 2012 semester. By using structured assignments, these instructors created an opportunity to participate collaboratively with others in survey design and data analysis. Student assessment data showed that students explored their own political communities and honed skills across learning domains. Most importantly, students applied relevant political science concepts to the electoral process, exercised critical thinking, practiced oral and written communication, and grappled with project management. This type of collaboration provides political perspective and community engagement within political science for both faculty and students.

Goal Orientation in Political Science Research Instruction

“…By bringing students on as collaborators in "research teams", students contribute to the project's completion and eventual submission fo review. Other scholars have examined the effectiveness of exit polling as a way to increase student engagement towards research (e.g., Grimshaw et al 2004;Berry and Robinson 2012;Emery, Howard, and Evans 2014). These studies show that students' efforts in polling real voters engenders enthusiasm and intimate knowledge of the voting process.…”