Culminating projects offer a sharp contrast to predominant practice in civics education. Although many schools require students to volunteer for a certain numbers of hours, most leave it up to the student to find a broadly defined "community application" of their learning, and students seldom inform their action with rigorous research.…

With contributions from leading experts across disciplinary fields, this book explores best practices from the field's most notable researchers, as well as important historically based and politically focused challenges to a field whose impact has reached an important crossroads. The comprehensive and powerfully critical analysis considers the…

This staff development handbook is intended to help teachers and other professionals prepare, design, and lead staff development programs for middle school educators interested in augmenting their curriculums with service. Designed to be used as a comprehensive guide to planning and delivering staff development training, the book suggests a…

Participation in Service activities can be a vital component to civics and social studies education. The sources selected for this topic ERIC bibliography on civics, social studies, and services are intended to aid practitioners in thinking about the developing service activities in their classrooms, schools, and communities. Divided into three…

Citizenship education is an important part of the development of young people. By enabling them to learn about their rights and responsibilities, to understand how society works, and develop knowledge and understanding of social and political issues, citizenship prepares them for dealing with the challenges they face in life. Through citizenship…

Civic education is essential to sustaining constitutional democracy. Each new generation presents a new group of people who must acquire the knowledge, learn the skills, and develop the disposition or traits of private and public character that undergird a constitutional democracy. Citizenship training means teaching students to think critically,…

This book describes the program Active Citizenship Today (ACT), a hands-on learning project to make learning come alive for students and integrate student learning with the larger community. This handbook accompanies the student book, "The ACT Field Guide." The book is divided into two sections with six chapters. Section 1, "The Whats and Whys of…

Outlines approaches for student evaluation in service learning projects. Maintains that most service learning project participants' goals fall into three broad areas: civic development, academic achievement, and personal or social development. Assessment in these areas can be accomplished through tabulation of service hours, student journals, and…

Maintains that self-esteem is more than simply "feeling good" about oneself. It derives from having experienced meaningful success. A service learning program can accomplish this and avoid the self-preoccupation and narcissism that occasionally accompany self-esteem efforts. Service learning can replace this with empathy and commitment. (MJP)

Presents six service learning lesson plans from the Constitutional Rights Foundation. Each lesson plan represents a step in a larger service project. The plans include "Defining and Assessing Your Community"; "Choosing and Researching a Problem"; "Examining Policy"; "Exploring Options"; and "Taking…

Examines factors contributing to youth violence and suggests ways that service learning can mitigate their influence. Community-based programs can fill the void of unstructured, unsupervised time tempting many youth. Peer education and cross-age teaching can help create positive attitudes towards cooperation and responsible behavior. (MJP)

Briefly describes resources that educators and students can use to design service learning projects. These resources include free materials, books, web sites, information on grants, videos, journals, and organizations. The resources cover a broad range of approaches, projects, and methods. (MJP)

Briefly describes a service-learning grant program and provides examples of elementary, middle, and high school projects awarded grants in 1996. Projects included efforts to educate the community about river pollution, multicultural murals, and a school activities news show. Includes application form and general guidelines and suggestions. (MJP)

Violence-Prevention Outcomes in Civic Education (VOICE) is a curriculum program for elementary social studies that incorporates conflict resolution, law-related education, and service learning. These three elements are among those considered to have promise in addressing youth violence. The VOICE curriculum is designed to complement the…

Instead of a bane to the future of democratic living in the United States, technology could be a tool to build democratic understanding and ways of living. Using techniques described in this article, which focus on three democratic principles, classroom teachers can incorporate technology as an instructional tool while at the same time furthering…