This study examines the effectiveness of the Center for Civic Education's Project Citizen teacher professional development program and curriculum intervention in producing positive student learning outcomes that support civic engagement. Through Project Citizen, students identify and research a problem in their community, explore solutions,…

The requirement to assure the teaching of critical thinking put the school in front of its own weaknesses. A profound criticism highlights limitations, hindrances and obstacles that are difficult to pass without the personal efforts of the teachers. Following criticism, one can identify a set of requirements that would allow for improvement and…

Recent decades have witnessed a proliferation of nationally organized school reform interest groups like StudentsFirst. While historically active at the state and federal levels, these organizations are increasingly involving themselves in local school board elections by recruiting candidates, making donations, and offering policy advice. However,…

This chapter presents an analysis on civic values in the Mexican and German youth population (high school education students), considering the set of capabilities and civic dispositions that mobilize young people of both countries, and which together reflect the calls "civic virtues", with the purpose of knowing what characterizes the…

American political and civic engagement was examined by life stage and educational attainment levels in 2008 political data. Engaged proportions of older Americans were larger than young Americans for Memberships, Voting, and Social Trust. A larger proportion of Young Adults (23%) than Older Adults (19%), however, was found for Online…

This paper introduces the practice and theoretical framework for a new generative learning environment that creates shareable electronic artefacts from reflective dialogue across a whole-group. These artefacts are quantitative and qualitative representations of student experience. By grouping these student-generated products new measures of…

Considers the assertion that majority rule is Pareto inefficient, shows that this inefficiency is related to the shape of individuals' utility functions, and shows that rank-order voting is likely to improve efficiency. Journal availability: see EA 511 898. (Author/IRT)

This paper describes how the computer program "Elections," was used to trace voting patterns during Super Tuesday, the U.S. presidential primary elections held on March 5, 1988. The voting results were entered into the computer as the primary returns were reported on national television. The computer mapping provided an improved means…

A study was conducted to learn more about voters' use and perception of endorsements in the 1984 presidential election. Six interviewers were trained and then assigned to a random sample of precincts in Orlando, Florida, on the day of the 1984 presidential election. Each interviewer stopped every third voter and asked those willing to cooperate 12…

Data from a 1976 election study were used to compare the effects of different types of television watching (daytime, evening entertainment, news, campaign programing, presidential debates) on voter turnout and to compare these effects with those of other media (radio, magazines, newspapers). After controlling for the effects of the traditional…

Political campaigns are major, high-budget marketing efforts, but because they are usually managed by people with little training in either marketing or communications, they fail to persuade voters to vote in the desired way. Political targeting can be treated as a segmentation problem, one of identifying and responding to the specific qualities…

Time of final vote decision in a national presidential election campaign was explored as the dependent variable in a media effects study conducted earlier as part of the National Election Study of 1980. Political identity, a new measure of partisanship and independence known as the Partisan Supporter Typology, was used as an important contingent…

To investigate the temporally ordered process in image and issue learning as it affects the voting decision, a study conducted a secondary analysis of panel survey data from Wisconsin during the 1976 presidential elections. The study hypothesized that, because of the difficulty in understanding complex issues, voters rely on image evaluations for…

Voter behavior is assessed toward female candidates for state legislatures in six states during 1970 to 1980. The sample consisted of 4,910 female and male candidates in state legislative elections to the lower house in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. The relationship of party, incumbency, and urban or rural residency…

The 1984 campaign between Republican Jesse Helms and Democrat Jim Hunt of North Carolina was one of the most expensive campaigns in history. The Helms campaign spent an estimated $15.6 million and Hunt is believed to have raised $9.8 million. Both sides relied heavily on television advertising. A study was conducted to measure the link between…