Preparing to Teach Political Science: Sources and Approaches.

This paper, one of a series which present materials that should be useful for precollegiate teaching of the social science disciplines, provides resources for the use of secondary teachers of political science, problems of democracy, comparative political systems, and international relations. The author believes that classroom teachers are the key to improvement in social studies education. The major goal of the paper is to give practical suggestions to teachers for obtaining and using resources to improve political science instruction. Among the topics discussed are the following: (1) approaches to the study of political phenomena; (2) curriculum materials reflecting discipline approaches; (3) approaches based on salient features of political life; (4) curriculum materials using salient features approaches; (5) ways to restructure existing course structures; and (6) general resources for the teacher. (Author/RM)