September (and the inaugural) SoTL Roundup

On a late night call at the end of August, the ALPS Editors got together to ponder future columns for the blog (as well as the shocking lack of kettle infrastructure across America). A heap of ideas came to the fore, more of which you will read about in the coming weeks. This blog is the first instalment of one such column – a monthly roundup of all the great Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) that has been published in peer-reviewed politics journals. 

Each month, I’ll be scrolling through Journal of Political Studies Education, Politics, PS: Political Science & Politics, International Studies Perspectives, and European Political Science to bring to you, dear ALPS reader, the latest SoTL publications. 

This will be, therefore, a disciplinary-specific undertaking. I’ll be honest and say this is motivated by the simple fact that, barring any major scientific breakthroughs, there are still only so many hours in the day and days in the week, etc. This means that should one of our colleagues publish an article in a non-disciplinary specific journal (say, the fantastic Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education), it will likely be missed. If you have or spot a new publication that you think falls into this bracket – please do send it over to me and I’ll look at including it in the next SoTL Roundup. 

I might also experiment with the formatting of the roundup over the next few months – should I include all the new SoTL every time? Should I include a top pick for the month? Should I include my sage comments about what each month’s coverage means for the state of the art of Politics SoTL? Well, these are the kind of things I’ll muddle my way through in the work of doing. If you have any suggestions, praise, or damning criticism, let me know – either in the comments on ALPS or if the criticism is especially scathing, you can email it to me privately at jeremy.moulton[at]york.ac.uk.

So without further ado, here is the new politics SoTL that has emerged from the firmament over the last month: 

Journal of Political Science Education

Bossetta, M. (2025). Element Design for Active Learning: A Design Thinking Approach to Assignment Development for Political Science, Media, and Communication Education. Journal of Political Science Education, 1–21. 

Otero-Felipe, P., & Sauvée, A. M. (2025). The Impact of Video Games on the Effectiveness of a Political Science Course. Journal of Political Science Education, 1–18.

Willis, C. N., & Preble, K. A. (2025). Learning at Any Age: Political Science Education and Older Adult Learners. Journal of Political Science Education, 1–17.

Politics

Mitchell, D. (2025). Transition television: Teaching peace, conflict, and contemporary Northern Ireland using Derry Girls and Blue Lights. Politics, 0(0). 

PS: Political Science and Politics

Moulton, J., & Tapscott, R. (2025). Ethical Considerations for SoTL Research in Political Science Education. PS: Political Science & Politics, 1–6.

Now, I was going to hold back on editorialising in the first edition of the SoTL Roundup but when you see a piece of work by this ‘J. Moulton’ character you can’t help but get excited… jokes aside, I will have another post on this piece that I wrote with Rebecca Tapscott soon so, as always, watch this space. 

International Studies Perspectives

Fontana, G., & Wilcox, D. (2024). Using LEGO® in Political Science and International Studies: A Flexible and Effective Tool for Playful Learning. International Studies Perspectives.

Hoban, I., Rister, A., & Adkins, M. (2025). From Awareness to Action: The Impact of a Human Rights Education-Focused MOOC on Participant Perceptions of Human Trafficking. International Studies Perspectives, ekaf011.

So, there we have it, folks. Seven brand-new pieces of SoTL to keep you going until next month’s SoTL Roundup. This month’s piece is landing on ALPS on the 1st September – inspired in part by the thrill of a novel undertaking and in part by the fact that I am not yet back within the semester-time deluge of emails. I cannot promise that it will always be first-of-the-month like clockwork from here on out but I am genuinely looking forward to sharing the latest SoTL with you every month from here. I have said it before, and I’ll say it again, there is some fantastic research into, reflection on, and evaluation of politics teaching and learning going on out there and hopefully this new column will be one way we can ensure that it’s getting the engagement that it deserves.