CFR Education at APSA Teaching & Learning Conference 2025

Stepping into Decision-Makers’ Shoes: CFR Education Simulations Workshop

This workshop is taking place at the APSA Teaching & Learning 2025 conference in Alexandria, Virginia.

Higher education is facing unprecedented change. By embracing new pedagogical approaches and the promise of experiential learning, it is possible to see this change as an opportunity to reimagine the classroom experience for both students and instructors. Recognizing the difficulty instructors face when charged with updating pedagogy while teaching full-time, this workshop, entitled “Stepping into Decision-Makers’ Shoes: CFR Education Simulations Workshop,” hopes to provide participants with a ready-made set of pedagogically-informed activities, resources, and assignments to add to their existing repertoires.

CFR Education from the Council on Foreign Relations provides accessible, accurate, and authoritative resources to make complex global affairs and foreign policy issues accessible for students and educators. In this workshop, Dr. Abigail Meert, a CFR Education staff member and former university educator, will provide participants with a first-hand glimpse into an exciting opportunity for in-class experiential or hands-on learning using CFR Education simulations.

CFR Education simulations invite educators and their students to step into the roles of decision-makers in such forums as the U.S. National Security Council and U.N. Security Council, and consider pressing political questions and events from these influential perspectives. Simulations help students develop critical thinking, persuasive speaking and writing, and collaboration skills while giving students hands-on experience grappling with the challenges of addressing today’s most pressing global issues.

In this workshop, conference participants will receive a brief introduction to CFR Education and its resources. Participants will then move into a practical demonstration of a CFR Education mini simulation, in which participants will take on various roles within the U.S. National Security Council and guide the U.S. Government through a policy decision or crisis. Recognizing the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference theme, “Teaching Political Science Matters,” the workshop will utilize a mini simulation that enables participants to explore a contemporary, “hot-button” issue in order to demonstrate how these resources can connect students to political science in a way that is both engaging and timely. Possible options for the mini simulation include, but are not limited to: “Defending Ukraine,” “Stopping Deforestation in the Amazon,” and “Strategic Ambiguity Toward Taiwan.” In the effort to keep this workshop as relevant as possible to instructors, the workshop will determine its choice of mini simulation in accordance with current headlines in the lead-up to the conference.

After completing the mini simulation, this workshop will provide participants an opportunity to “debrief” on their experience and discuss ways in which simulations and similar activities might be used in their own classrooms. It will conclude with a Q&A session, in which participants can learn about additional CFR Education programs and resources.