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…

Civics education in America is in crisis, and Americans should recommit themselves to the teaching of civics in the classroom and at home. As students understand how the past connects to the present, they will come to safeguard the sanctity of the American idea and appreciate the validity and relevance of its ideals to all Americans, especially to…

The purpose of this article is to examine the nature of appropriate social studies education in the Kindergarten and Pre-Kindergarten years. The importance of social competence development as a basic foundation of the social studies in the early years of schooling is examined, with particular attention to the commonalities shared between goals and…

The urgency of the current research devoted to civic and patriotic education of pre-school children is determined by the contradiction between the necessity of civic-patriotic education of children in the current context, their readiness to defend their Motherland and the lack of the development of this issue both in pedagogical theory and…

While many Americans might agree on the importance of preparing young people for democratic life, civic education receives relatively less attention than other school subjects. Student performance on civic assessments reflects the limited focus of schools on civic learning. While many individuals and organizations have sought to address the poor…

Technological change has proven one of the few constants of the early 21st century, providing social studies educators with the challenge and opportunity of preparing digital citizens in a global setting. This requires rethinking the type of social studies learning necessary in the 21st century. As the National Academies concluded in the…