Baselining 1: Intro to IR

In one of my recent posts, I vowed to start pre- and post-testing in my courses so that I’d have better quantitative data for summative assessment. As an initial step toward achieving this goal, I looked at previous syllabi, writing assignments, and notes for an undergraduate course I’ll be teaching in the fall semester. Then I chose concepts that I think are most important for students to learn and phrased them to fit into a multiple choice format (the actual tests will be graded automatically by Canvas). The process caused me to think about what specific learning outcomes — at least in terms of content knowledge — I want to structure the course around.

Pre- and post-test for an introduction to IR course: 

• Sovereignty is the principle that . . .
• Nationalists typically believe that . . .
• Liberal theories of international relations claim that . . .
• Realist theories of international relations claim that . . .
• Constructivist theories of international relations claim that . . .
• Bandwagoning occurrs when . . .
• Balancing occurs when . . .
• . . .  contribute to a state’s soft power.
• . . .  contribute to a state’s hard power.
• The current international distribution of power is best described as . . .
• For a strategy of deterrence to succeed . . .
• The two-level game refers to a situation in which . . .
• Rational choice theory assumes that individuals . . .
• Hindsight bias occurs when . . .
• Cognitive consistency refers to the practice of . . .

If anyone has any suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them, even if they are of the “I can’t believe you didn’t include . . .” variety.