The breadth of material covered in introductory U.S. government and politics survey courses creates a situation in which the textbooks used may serve as the primary source of information students receive about the country's political system. At the same time, their content represents a conscious choice by the authors, editors, and publishers of…

A model presidential nominating convention gathered 4,000 students from three states in May 1984 and selected Gary Hart as the Democratic nominee. Preconvention training prepares students to run the convention themselves while learning the political process in action. (MD)

The concept of political culture has provided a promising way of incorporating psychological insights into the study of political systems; progress in the use of the concept calls for effective means of describing total systems and for identifying critical factors in improving the ability to understand and predict'' system performance. (Author/JB)

Drawing upon the large national surveys conducted in 1969 by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, along with data collected more recently, the authors provide a basis for understanding distributions of political attitudes among political scientists. Political science is one of the more left-of-center academic disciplines. (Author/DE)

Viewing all students as potential voters, the author asserts the need for including political education in school curricula and suggests the viability, as well as form, of its inclusion. (JH)

Project 18 is a course developed to encourage student involvement in the political system. It attempts to teach the importance of an active, concerned citizenry for the democratic process. (Author)

Discusses using popular detective and espionage fiction in courses related to area politics, international relations, political terrorism, socialization, and bureaucratic politics. Suggests several novels and ways in which they may be integrated into courses. (KC)

A political science course at Adelphi University that uses films for instruction is described by its design, content, and problems. (ND)

Examines the attitudes of Irish secondary school students toward political parties and the influence of the parties on the students. Results showed high student awareness of party differences, parental disposition to be an important influence, and party attitude to be an important influence on certain issues. (Author/CK)

Describes how six case study institutions were selected by the Political Education Research Unit, outlines some of the questions which the research team attempted to answer, and describes the approaches adopted to these questions. (Author/CK)

This monograph contains five papers concerning political education in Canada. Chapter 1, "Political Education and the Teaching of Politics," considers the historical and philosophical connections between education and politics. Chapter 2, "Civics, Citizenship and Politics: Political Education in the Schools," explores…

Briefly reviews the research literature on political socialization across several nations and presents the results of a study concerning the level of political knowledge for 453 10- to 22-year-old British youth. Results showed greater knowledge of local and national political leaders than of parlimentary and political party affairs. (JDH)

Political psychology is the study of the bidirectional interaction of political and psychological processes. This academic discipline was founded after the First World War by Harold D. Lasswell. The content of political psychology is discussed and illustrative studies of the field are briefly summarized. (CS)

The main purpose of this volume is to provide information and ideas which might contribute to the improvement of secondary school instruction about voter behavior and elections. The focus is on the real political world and why people behave as they do. Facts and ideas are drawn from the work of social scientists, and the questions raised are those…