Various types of visuals are included in social studies textbooks such as pictures, illustrations, maps, and photographs as they are considered powerful learning aids. Therefore, it is important to investigate how visuals in social studies textbooks are perceived by the students. Thus, the first purpose of this paper is to discuss how students…

Education in the United States has a foundational public purpose: to prepare students for effective citizenship. The idea that an educated and engaged citizenry is essential to the health of a democracy motivated the creation of government-run "common schools" in the early decades of the nation and remains an important value in modern…

This paper reports results from a six-state study of 62 USA social studies classrooms. We examined the extent to which intellectually challenging authentic pedagogy was present in study classrooms, the characteristics of classroom practice at different levels of authentic pedagogy, and how those characteristics may promote or inhibit high levels…

Social studies is one of the foundation subjects that takes place in curricula of 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grades. This subject aims to train good citizens. The concept of democracy is an essential topic for the students to comprehend so as to achieve this aim through this subject. Therefore, it is aimed, in this study, to determine the relationship…

Social studies is one of the foundation subjects that takes place in curricula of 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grades. This subject aims to train good citizens. The concept of democracy is an essential topic for the students to comprehend so as to achieve this aim through this subject. Therefore, it is aimed, in this study, to determine the relationship…

The aim of this study is to identify the perceptions of democracy of primary school students, identify the factors that affect these, and compare the results with those obtained from other countries. The research was carried out during the 2011-2012 school year with 1,667 students from the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades who were chosen from 26 cities in…

The current era of standards and accountability in U.S. public schooling narrows recognition and assessment to an almost exclusive focus on the production of test scores as legitimate markers of student achievement. This climate prevents rather than encourages democratic forms of exchange within and across social worlds. Via a case study of one…

The aim of the research is to analyze the effects of performance assessment approach on democratic attitude of students. The research model is an experimental design with pretest-posttest control groups. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques are used for gathering of data in this research. 46 students participated in this research, with 23…

This study highlights the power of place, and reconceptualizes geography education as integral to the larger project of teaching for democratic citizenship. Using an interactive web platform, the researchers asked 29 seventh grade girls to research and map significant cultural and historical places associated with an ethnic group, or women, in the…

Achievement goal theory distinguishes between mastery goals (the goals of developing competence) and performance goals (the goals of demonstrating competence) [Ames [1992] "Journal of Educational Psychology" 84: 261-271]. In this study, we employed this theory aiming to better understand why adolescents' motivation to learn science…

This qualitative case study examines one secondary social studies teacher's enactment of her critical constructivist beliefs in teaching for democratic citizenship education. Results are organized around the knowledge, skills, and dispositions addressed, and their consistency with critical constructivism. The teacher's practices were consistent…

The open-ended responses of 701 7th to 12th graders to the question "What does democracy mean to you?" were analyzed. In logistic regressions, age, parental education, political discussions, and participation in extracurricular activities distinguished youth who could define democracy (53%) from those who could not. Case clustering revealed three…

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Central Asian education reform discourses have become increasingly similar to distinctive Western policy discourses traveling globally across national boundaries. Tracing the trajectory of "traveling policies" in Central Asia, this article discusses the way Western education discourses have been…

Background: This investigation focuses on student attitudes and looks at school quality from the perspective of affective variables rather than students' knowledge or abilities. The concept of attitude includes ways of feeling, thinking and behaving and maintaining an expression of one's identity within the environment. The analysis focuses on…

In most ways the island nations of Iceland and Singapore could not be more different from each other: Iceland is sparsely populated, located near the Arctic Circle, and a very free and individualistic democratic society; Singapore is densely populated, located near the equator, and a very regulated and collectivist meritocracy. But both nations…