Recent research in civic education suggests much for shaping and focusing secondary social studies methods course work. This Digest: (1) provides an overview of selected findings from recent studies of secondary students' civic understanding and engagement; and (2) offers five research-based suggestions for social studies methods instructors.…

This instructional package, consisting of a text and 27 transparencies, is designed for the middle and secondary school classroom. The unit focuses on three topics: (1) "Germany in the European Union (EU)" (four lessons focusing on history of the EU, characteristics of member states, and EU governance); (2) "Economic Issues in…

Founded in 1854 as the Ashmun Institute, Lincoln University in southern Pennsylvania is the nation's oldest historically black university. Classical rhetoric and canonical literature were taught at Lincoln since its founding. Lincoln's writing program emerged fully and autonomously in 1978 and grew roughly at the same time that the discipline of…

Teachers of first-year college composition, particularly instructors and graduate teaching assistants with little or no teaching experience, are caught up in a debate concerning the appropriateness of social action as a facet of their personal pedagogical strategies. On the one hand, they are encouraged to promote social activism by individuals…

The theme explored in this personal narrative is that of the life of a rhetorician, in writing and in speech. The narrative muses about what goes into the making of a rhetorician, questioning whether it might be ritualized education, proceeding along lines of traditional methodology, or whether it could be informal education, hit-or-miss, with its…

This paper outlines the background and preliminary findings of a study currently in progress in Perth, Western Australia, to investigate the relationship between competence based training and the development of lifelong learning skills. The paper explores both the underlying aims of competency-based training (CBT) and the educational antecedents…

This paper examines the issue of national curriculum standards within the context of social studies education. The paper explores both the recent "conservative-liberal" consensus in favor of (at least) the idea(l) of national curriculum standards and the nascent opposition movements to national curriculum standards growing within both…

This study guide, intended for high school and college classrooms, provides background information, timelines, and program synopses for the various programs which make up the public television series, "A Force More Powerful." The series is about popular movements battling entrenched regimes or military forces with weapons very different…

Public affairs instructors must routinely contend with the reality that stressing the importance of political knowledge is challenging in an era of declining student interest in politics and political institutions. Yet enhancing students' knowledge about public affairs can stimulate more interest and engagement in public affairs, particularly if…

This paper outlines major trends affecting both the nature of urban problems and the shape of much public interest problem-solving in the urban United States. Trends affecting cities and regions include the continued suburbanization of jobs, wealth, and political power; the evolution of a skill-intensive and networked global economy in which…

This collection of essays and references addresses the problem of the disengagement in public affairs and politics by U.S. youth and young adults. The collection brings together evidence of youth disengagement and reports on promising practices for civic education. Several chapters are devoted to research findings on the impact of service and…

This instructional guide is intended to be used with the six-part videotape "Russia and the Other Former Soviet Republics in Transition." The guide comprises essays that provide critical background information needed to understand the issues and events under discussion, which are the new countries that have grown out of the former Soviet…

Explores some salient attributes of university students, as well as sociopolitical conditions conducive to their vigorous political activism and social movement, focusing on the particular characteristics of Korean student political activism, and probing the sources of frustrations of Korean student leaders of the April revolution. (Author/JM)

Study results show that most citizens did not consider a week-long campus disturbance to be a legitimate form of social protest and that their attitudes toward campus dissent were related to attitudes toward campus freedom of expression and beliefs about campus life. (Author)

An exploration of communications and the approximately one million Indian people who live in the U.S., by people in film, television, radio, and print news; condensed from the transcript of a panel discussion held July 6, 1973 in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. (Author/JM)