ERIC Number: EJ907638
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Oct
Pages: 5
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1049-0965
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
A Unique Pedagogical Approach to Voting and Public Goods
Schuler, Douglas A.; Chappell, Matthew; Baggett, L. Scott
PS: Political Science and Politics, v43 n4 p779-783 Oct 2010
Fourth grade students at a public elementary school in Houston, Texas, participated in a one-week exercise intended to mimic the process of creating a public good through a democratic process. The exercise involved students in four separate classes designing a class party with different characteristics (theme, music, and food) through a voluntary but personally costly voting procedure. The students then held the party that they had created. A formal assessment of learning objectives and a debriefing were also part of the exercise. Some ideas investigated include the disconnection between the actual party's characteristics and the revealed preferences of the students during the debriefing--a lesson of collective action--and the satisfaction and learning outcomes experienced by a minority of students as the result of being political activists and having their preferences realized in the makeup of their class party.
Descriptors: Voting, Activism, Grade 4, Class Activities, Democracy, Democratic Values, Politics, Public Policy, Student Attitudes, Citizen Participation, Instructional Effectiveness
Cambridge University Press. 100 Brook Hill Drive, West Nyack, NY 10994-2133. Tel: 800-872-7423; Tel: 845-353-7500; Fax: 845-353-4141; e-mail: subscriptions_newyork@cambridge.org; Web site: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=PSC
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Education; Elementary Secondary Education; Grade 4
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Texas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A