Civic Education and Deeper Learning
From the resource summary: “This report proposes that the turn toward deeper learning in education reform should go hand in hand with a renewed emphasis on high-quality civics education. Not only does deeper learning have great potential to promote civic outcomes and strengthen our democracy but, at the same time, civic education exemplifies deeper learning, in that it provides students with challenging, collaborative, and engaging experiences. The report addresses evolving contexts for civics education and suggests a shared agenda, calling for new approaches in teaching civics that involve deeper and more collaborative learning, take better advantage of advanced technologies, are assessed in more authentic ways, and pervade the entire high school curriculum.”
This report lays out a compelling argument for the necessity of providing students with a civics education. It also describes potential pitfalls related to partisan opinions of what should be taught and for what purpose. Ultimately the report provides several practical guidelines for developing a “neutral” civics curriculum for students to support on-going civic engagement. This report would be helpful for teachers and teacher leaders who develop and support instruction.