Civic Education: What Makes Students LearnYale University Press, 2005 M05 11 - 204 pages Sound democratic decisions rely on a citizenry with at least a partial mastery of the rules and workings of democratic government. American high schools, where students learn the basics of citizenship, thus ought to play a critical role in the success of democracy. Yet studies examining the impact of high school government and civics courses on political knowledge over the past quarter-century have generally shown that these courses have little or no effect. In this important book, Richard G. Niemi and Jane Junn take a fresh look at what America's high school seniors know about government and politics and how they learn it. The authors argue convincingly that secondary school civics courses do indeed enhance students' civic knowledge.
This book is based on the most extensive assessment to date of civic knowledge among American youth--the 1988 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Civics Assessment. The authors develop and test a theoretical model to explain the cognitive process by which students learn about politics and they conclude by suggesting specific changes in the style and emphasis of civics teaching. |
Contents
Civic Education and Students Knowledge | 1 |
What High School Students Know and Dont Know about Civics | 24 |
How Students Learn about Government The ExposureSelection Model | 52 |
Exposure to Learning Civic Instruction | 61 |
Selection and Retention | 91 |
What Makes Students Learn | 117 |
The Future of Civic Education | 147 |
Design of the 1988 NAEP Civics Assessment | 161 |
PublicRelease Questions from the 1988 NAEP Civics Assessment | 164 |
Standard Errors for Chapters 2 4 and 5 | 169 |
Student Background Questionnaire from the 1988 NAEP Civics Assessment | 173 |
Coding and Distribution of Variables Used in the Multivariate Analysis and Supplementary Regression Results | 176 |
Notes | 183 |
References | 191 |
201 | |