Which Teaching Practices Promote Students’ Democracy Learning? A Systematic Review

Abstract

In this systematic review, we provide an overview of research regarding the question: Which teaching practices promote students’ democracy learning? We utilized a rigorous approach to thoroughly survey the literature and report research findings. The studies chosen focused on teaching practices, with the explicit goal of enhancing students’ democracy learning in school; that is, knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values related to democracy. This review encompasses both intervention studies, which investigate the hypothesized causal relation ship between specific teaching methods and students’ democracy learning, and correlational studies, which examine the connection between the classroom environment and students’ democracy learning. The studies indicate that teaching methods involving a high degree of student participation, such as discussions, group work, role-playing, simulations, and stu dent involvement in decision-making, effectively foster democracy learning. Furthermore, the studies suggest that an open and positive classroom environment, along with teacher engagement, leadership, and attitudes, are crucial factors in promoting students’ democracy learning. There are previous systematic reviews on related areas, but only a few focus on how teachers can design teaching to promote democracy learning. The review that most closely resembles this one is a recently published systematic review by Teegelbeckers et al. (2023). One of their most important conclusions is that teaching has differential effects on demo cratic competences. Considering these differential effects, the authors concluded that some practices have general positive effects. Among these are instruction with classroom discus sion, small-group work, application assignments, civic projects, and practicing democratic decision-making in simulations or school decision-making programs. However, the focus of the review was on citizenship education more broadly, albeit with an ambition to narrow it down to citizenship education related to liberal democracy. The scope of the search was also limited to studies published between 2010 and 2020. Their review also included studies of higher education at universities and colleges. This review serves an important purpose to give a comprehensive overview of empirical research focusing on students’ democracy learning in pre-college education