Engage and Connect: Sensemaking Through Meme Assignments
By Lorita Copeland Daniels, American University
Memes are commonplace and overwhelmingly used on social media. Research indicates that they can act as a form of entertainment and a way for individuals to communicate an interest or express a mood. There is a huge opportunity for professors to use memes in the classrooms to help students make sense of their learning. In this study, we employ sensemaking as a lens to explore how students make sense of their learning using the nation’s founding documents. We analyzed student-created memes and found that memes can be a tool to help students facilitate their learning, moving from ambiguity to clarity.
The Journal of Political Science Education is an intellectually rigorous, path-breaking, agenda-setting journal that publishes the highest quality scholarship on teaching and pedagogical issues in political science. The journal aims to represent the full range of questions, issues and approaches regarding political science education, including teaching-related issues, methods and techniques, learning/teaching activities and devices, educational assessment in political science, graduate education, and curriculum development.