Group items tagged

Effective study habits based in research

"Close Up's High School Program curriculum is designed to inform, inspire, and empower students to become more active citizens. For over forty years, we have been dedicated to this mission. This mission and inspiration comes from a commitment and understanding of the importance that civic education plays in the health of our democracy and in the lives of each student. A National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement study in 2012, found that students who participate in civic learning opportunities are more likely to "persist in college and complete their degrees, obtain skills prized by employers and develop habits of social responsibility and civic participation." The study goes on to say, "Today's education for democracy needs to be informed by deep engagement with the values of liberty, equality…and the willingness to collaborate with people of differing views and backgrounds towards common solutions for the public good.""

Fruitvale Station has found a particular resonance with audiences this week. A brief but eloquent scene deftly illustrates the subtleties of white privilege - a reality too seldom portrayed in film and too often ignored by its beneficiaries in life. When Hollywood tackles race directly, it's usually by way of uplifting allegories like "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," "Crash" and "The Help," each of which, in its own way, perpetuates the consoling idea that eradicating racism is simply a matter of purging our negative prejudices. Rarely do films ask audiences to grapple with the deeply embedded, race-based habits that give white Americans an edge in everything from housing to employment, or the positive racial profiling that grants white people countless free passes."

"Here's the one big lesson we've learned: Agency begins with being able to ask your own questions and continues with the ability to participate in decisions that affect you wherever and whenever they are made. That's the one big lesson from nearly three decades of work and it has implications from the micro level of our daily lives to the highest levels of decision-making in our democracy. For it's possible to imagine a dictatorship that discourages citizens from asking questions, but we should not accept a democracy in which questions cannot be asked. A strong sense of agency, and self-efficacy on a fundamental level is actually a precursor, a foundation for more effective action on any level of our democracy. It's the beginning of the journey towards democratic action, not its completion. Skip over it however, and you get pretty much the status quo we've got today. If you're happy with that, don't bother to read on. How do we translate this one big idea, one big lesson into action? We've been working on trying to answer just one question in the simplest way possible: How can we democratize access to the deceptively simple yet very sophisticated skills of question formulation and effective participation in decisions? Let's focus here on just the first skill; question formulation. It is no small matter to teach the skill; it's often developed only through high levels of professional education and with years of experience. Indeed, access to them can be difficult and costly. In 2002, The New York Times asked college presidents what should students learn in four years of college. There was a consensus that students could not come out of college knowing all there is to know so college should, according to Leon Botstein of Bard College, "engender a lifelong habit of curiosity, as opposed to becoming more convinced that you are an authority." He went on to say students should learn "analytical skills of interpretation and inquiry. In other word