The Journal Club Module: A Co-Learning Tactic for Demystifying Academic Research and Building Classroom Culture in Undergraduate Courses

This project uses the lenses of co-learning and a pedagogy of vulnerability to assess the effectiveness of 'the Journal Club Module,' a tactic to increase critical thinking, build classroom culture, improve student research skill development, and model lifelong learning in undergraduate classes. In the Journal Club Module, instructors assign recent articles that they have not yet read, and then the students and instructors read the articles for the first time together in preparation for each class. Leveraging survey data and written self-reflections of undergraduate students in an upper-division Judicial Politics course, this project finds that the Journal Club Module is associated with improvements in critical engagement with assigned readings, the authenticity of classroom culture, and comfort with academic research.