In this article, the authors review higher education's evolving role in this nation's democracy. They then describe a new collaboration, the Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement (CLDE) Coalition, which responds educationally to the challenges facing our democracy. The CLDE Coalition aims to (1) reclaim and revitalize higher education's public…

Amid rapid technological advancements, it is increasingly crucial for educational technology research to move beyond a narrow focus on tools and gadgets, addressing instead the broader social and ethical challenges these technologies bring to education and human performance. Translational research, with roots in the biomedical sciences, is…

Scientific statistical working in a team is a special challenge for students in high schools, especially with a civic statistical problem. Ideally, they are following the PPDAC cycle: they formulate a problem together, plan an investigation, collect the data, use software to analyze the data, and formulate results in a seminar paper. This article…

This chapter focuses on effective preparation for civic reasoning, discourse, and problem solving. It reviews literatures, including major synthetic reviews and studies from the science of learning and development (SoLD), civics education, and mathematics education. Based on these reviews, the authors make the case for a more comprehensive form of…

Issues in society such as immigration and racial inequality threaten to derail classroom discussions. Likewise, issues in higher education such as general education (GE) reform threaten to obstruct faculty committee discussions. We want students to engage in classroom discussions through a comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, and events…

Maintaining undergraduate interest in STEM is a formidable challenge. Numerous studies have reported that structured, authentic research experiences in the classroom increase retention rates and introduce students to the skills needed to conduct independent research as upperclassmen and beyond. Most importantly, these strategies are inclusive,…

The social studies curriculum travels through time and space and is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. To an outsider, the social studies curriculum is a single line on a program of studies, 45 minutes of a student's school day. Those on the inside, however, know that the field covers history, geography, civics, economics, and much…

This brief explains what civics education skills are and why they are important. It describes what skills students need to function effectively as parents, workers, and citizens of the United States and provides tips for integrating civics education in the adult education classroom.

The result of a three year state-led collaborative effort, the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards was developed to serve two audiences: for states to upgrade their state social studies standards and for practitioners--local school districts, schools, teachers and curriculum writers--to strengthen…

Norwood Elementary, a Title I science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) school in Baltimore County, MD, recently realized that traditional behavior management programs and processes were not working with their students. Over time, school administrators discovered more successful approaches, and restorative practices became the way to…

In light of the U.S. Senate's designation of March 15, 2016 as "National Speech and Debate Education Day" (S. Res. 398, 2016), it only seems fitting that "Communication Education" devote a special section to the role of speech and debate in civic education. Speech and debate have been at the heart of the communication…

In the advent of the development and mass adoption of the common core state standards for English language arts and mathematics, state and local agencies have now expressed a need to the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO or the Council) for assistance as they upgrade existing social studies standards to meet the practical goal of…

In this article, the authors describe how they used student's complaints about limited salad choices in the cafeteria as the focus of a class project. Following steps of the Project Citizen protocol of the Center for Civic Education, the authors facilitated students' efforts, which included researching the problem, talking with adult…

Last summer, the Democracy Imperative and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, two national networks linking academics and deliberative democracy practitioners, hosted a national conference, No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative Democracy for Educators and Practitioners ("No Better Time," 2010). Over 250 civic leaders,…

Throughout the world, today's students are being characterized as digital natives, the "net generation." This twenty-first-century student cohort is adept at multi-tasking and at using a variety of tools and resources including electronic search engines, blogs, wikis, visual images, videos, gaming platforms, and social networking.…