Civic Skills

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan partisipasi aktif mahasiswa dalam proses pembelajaran dan keterampilan kewarganegaraan (civic skills) yang dimiliki mahasiswa melalui penerapan strategi pembelajaran berbasis masalah (problem based learning). Keterampilan kewarganegaraan merupakan komponen yang sangat penting untuk dimiliki mahasiswa sebagai perwujudan warga negara yang baik (good citizen).
Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian tindakan kelas proaktif (proactive classroom action research) menurut Schmuck (1997). Subjek penelitian ini adalah mahasiswa Jurusan Pendidikan Prasekolah dan Sekolah Dasar, Fakultas Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta yang menempuh mata kuliah Konsep Dasar Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan. Data dikumpulkan melalui observasi, wawancara, dan dokumentasi dan dianalisis dengan merefleksi hasil pengamatan selama pelaksanaan tindakan. Teknik pemeriksaan keabsahan data yang digunakan adalah teknik triangulasi.
Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa penerapan strategi pembelajaran berbasis masalah dalam pembelajaran kewarganegaraan dapat meningkatkan partisipasi aktif mahasiswa dalam proses pembelajaran. Meningkatnya partisipasi aktif mahasiswa dalam proses pembelajaran menjadikan proses belajar-mengajar dapat berlangsung secara efektif. Selain itu, melalui metode ini dapat meningkatkan keterampilan kewarganegaraan mahasiswa (civic skills) yang dimiliki mahasiswa. Hal itu dapat dilihat dari meningkatnya kemampuan melakukan analisis terhadap permasalahan yang telah diidentifikasi oleh masing-masing kelompok.


Kata Kunci:keterampilan kewarganegaraan, pembelajaran berbasis masalah

Besides the undisputable role of literature in teaching civic virtues through exposing students to characters and themes that accurately exemplify and truly represent civility, teaching literature can serve a means to inculcate in students various civic skills, such as conflict resolution, leadership, negotiation of meaning and constructive criticism. Yet, to attain such skills, teachers need to reshape their teaching practices to be in conformity with the principles of modern education that champion active learning methodologies. The present paper argues for the necessity of rethinking the traditional teacher-centered methods in teaching English literature in the Algerian context as they tend to reduce students' active participatory roles in learning. In response to this, a number of suggestions have accordingly been put forward to enable students reach more independency in dealing with literature. This orientation of thought stems from the belief that active learning is conducive to active citizenship.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Project Citizen Research Project (PCRP) in achieving teacher and student outcomes. Project Citizen is a widely used curriculum intervention that actively engages young people in cooperative, project-based learning as they work as a class to identify a problem in their community, research alternative policy-based solutions, develop a policy proposal to address the problem, and design a political action plan to convince public officials to adopt and implement the policy. PC also supports students’ development of English Language Arts (ELA) and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) knowledge and skills. The intervention includes a professional development (PD) program for teachers that increases their content knowledge, improves their capacity to effectively engage young people in PC, and increases their professional engagement with other educators.

The research studies the perceptions and social skills of pre-school and elementary school pupils in the city of Florina, in relation to the perception of the concept of citizenship. In particular, the study focuses on (a) the ability to recognize social values in visual material, (b) the ability to recognize political values, (c) social action skills, (d) common speech and action skills, (e) the ability to identify specific political leaders and attempts to correlate all of these with gender, age, class and ethnicity of the pupils.

The thrust of this study was to unearth disablers in the cultivation of civic skills among learners in selected secondary schools in Lusaka, Zambia. At the core of the study, we interrogated teaching sources, methods and evaluations in Civic Education. Purposive sampling was applied to select participants from the selected schools. Specifically, Civic Education teachers formed part of the sample. Data was generated through the use of an interview Guide. Raw data was produced, coded and organised in themes for the purposes of drawing implications in the discussions. The study revealed that teachers of Civic Education were using methods that did not empower learners with civic skills. Further, the study revealed that the teaching of Civic Education in the schools relied mainly on lecture approaches which did not support the development of civic skills among the learners. The study also revealed that the lack of teaching and learning materials coupled with over enrolments affected the abilities of the teachers in supporting the learners to develop the civic skills. The study therefore concludes that teachers of Civic Education anchor their teaching on sources, methods and evaluation and in the process fail to support the learners in the development of civic skills. Thus, it is recommended among others, given that Civic Education Syllabus for Grade 10 to 12 has only Specific Outcomes based on Cognitive Level (Knowledge based outcomes), there is a need to revise the Syllabus so as to include the Specific Outcomes based on Psychomotor Level (Skill based outcomes) and Affective Level (Value based Outcomes).