Citizenship,Social and Economics Education

The paper traces the development of citizenship in the curriculum in England since the 1960s, emerging particularly from the Crick report. It argues for lessons to be learnt from John Dewey’s ‘Democracy and education’, the centenary of which is being celebrated this year.

There is a strong belief that critical thinking should be cultivated in schools. But it is not clear how critical thinking is understood by front-line teachers who are given the responsibility of training critical thinkers. Based on a study conducted in Hong Kong, we found that some school teachers were in favor of a “positive” image of critical thinker who is knowledgeable, prudent, being critical to the critics who are ready to criticize, and being constructive after making criticisms. We try to argue that such a positive portrayal, although uncontroversial from a detached point of view, may not be adequate in the context of Hong Kong where a critical stance toward power holders and established interests is badly needed. Without paying due attention to the “aporetic” dimension, such understanding of critical thinking would make it difficult for students to adopt a critical stance to the prevailing cultural beliefs, social values, political institutions, or economic ideologies that merit the greatest attention.

Study-related prior knowledge plays a decisive role in business and economics degree courses. Prior knowledge has a significant influence on knowledge acquisition in higher education, and teachers need information on it to plan their introductory courses accordingly. Very few studies have been conducted of first-year students’ prior economic knowledge or differences among students in such knowledge. In this article, the prior economic knowledge and the influence of personal factors on first-year students’ prior economic knowledge are examined. For this purpose, an adaptation of the fourth, revised edition of the American Test of Economic Literacy was administered, which was adapted in 2014 according to the Test and Adaptation Guidelines for use in higher education in Germany. We present findings based from an assessment conducted in higher education in Germany in the summer term of 2014; the subsample for this study comprises first-year students of business and economics. Findings indicate that there are significant differences in prior economic knowledge among first-year students within universities. Influence factors include economic learning experiences prior to starting university, gender, and mother tongue. The article closes with implications for teaching and degree program design.

Service-Learning programs at school and at university level are commonly considered as reliable instruments to increase civic engagement. In the last years, within Service-Learning Research a new paradigm arose understanding itself as non-foundational and critical. This study differentiates this critical perspective by offering a secondary analysis of available evaluations of Service Learning in the empirical and normative dimension. The analysis reveals that the empirical impact of Service-Learning instruments on political participation is not as distinct and clear as commonly expected. Evaluation results are often inconsistent and make general positive statements difficult. The normative evaluation shows that one has to avoid Service-Learning programs generating depoliticized participation and to impede tendencies to misuse Service-Learning programs as a mere substitute of governmental social policy. All things considered turning Service Learning into an effective means to promote participation, the existing programs have to be improved.