Classroom-based experiential democratic decision-making: A field experiment.
Creators: name: Teegelbeckers, Jip
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Other Political Science
subject: Education
subject: Political Science
subject: FOS: Political science
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
subject: Citizenship education
subject: Democracy education
subject: Education for democracy
subject: Teaching for democracy
subject: Vocational education

description: We created two lesson series (i.e. interventions) about politics, democracy, government and decision-making. The interventions are implemented in Dutch vocational education (level 3 and 4). The first intervention is based on experiential learning theory: students experience democratic decision-making and reflect on their experience (treatment condition A). The second intervention is instruction focused: students receive information about government and politics and practice with that information through application assignments (treatment condition B). Both interventions have a duration of 8 lessons (60 minutes each lesson). During the experiment the interventions will be performed by +/- 20 teachers in each condition: +/- 40 teachers in total. We also use a control/baseline condition which does not receive an intervention (+/- 40 teachers). Effects of the lesson series are tested in a field experiment. We use three conditions: two treatment conditions (A and B). Treatment teachers are randomly assigned to one of the treatment conditions. Also, we use a baseline/control condition. This condition does not receive an intervention and is not randomly assigned. Students fill in three surveys: pre-test (within one week before the first lesson), post-test (within one week after after the final lesson) and a retention-test (two months after the intervention). Teachers fill in a pre-survey, a post-survey and a survey two months after the intervention. Each teacher is observed once to verify whether the lessons are implemented correctly. Teachers also fill in a logbook to indicate whether the lessons were carried out as described in the manual. We test effects on: political interest, position on the dilemma between majority decision-making and minority interests, valuing freedom rights (in general), valuing freedom rights for minorities, (political) open mindedness, internal political efficacy (skill based), internal political efficacy (knowledge based), knowledge about politics and democracy, support for democracy, and valuing living a democracy. We control for age, social economic status (SES) (measured by amount of books at home), gender, residence, open classroom climate, political activity (how often students engage in political activities), teacher confidence, importance attached to citizenship education, profession for which students are educated, educational level of the student (3 or 4), educational year of the student, full-time or part-time education, amount of lessons attended, the time a teacher can devote to one lesson, teachers educational background and experience, and additional lessons or field trips related to politics or democracy conducted at school at the time of the experiment. We also control if the lessons are performed as described in the manual by means of a teacher logbook and classroom observations.