Teaching students to be skilled citizens

Abstract

Interest in improving civic education is growing, but there’s no clear definition of what civic education should be. To understand what kinds of skills civics education should promote in students, Jack Schneider, Eric Soto-Shed, and Karalyn McGovern surveyed 100 experts and 500 ordinary citizens, asking them to name the tasks that skilled citizens engage in. The activities respondents named most frequently involved political engagement, building an informed community, interpersonal tasks, and volunteering. These findings provide a starting point for the development of civics education curricula.