Abstract

VALENCIA SERNA, Angélica  and  VIVAS PACHECO, Harvy. The opening for discussion in class and its relation to citizenship education. Rev. colomb. educ. [online]. 2014, n.66, pp.225-244. ISSN 0120-3916.

This paper analyzes the relationship between Colombian 8th grade (aprox. 14 years old) students' perception about the openness to discussion in class, propitiated by teachers, and their score in citizenship knowledge tests. In addition, the article studies the relationship between the perception of openness in the classroom and the effective participation of students in community activities (enrolment in environmental, juvenile, political, human rights, cultural and ethnic organizations, groups of voluntary work and social projects enlistment). The study uses data of 6204 Colombian students included in the sample of the International Civic and Citizenship Study of 2009 (ICCS). An exploratory analysis of Cronbach coefficients of reliability was carried out and, then structural regression coefficients (path analysis) were estimated. The initial hypothesis is that democratization of school, in this specific case, participation propitiated by teachers in the classroom, contributes to students' high scores in tests evaluating citizenship related topics and increases their social participation in community activities. The results confirm that participation propitiated by teachers in the classroom relates directly to the citizenship test score obtained by students and to participation in community activities. Regression coefficients were statistically significant in this study.

Keywords : Citizenship education; openness to classroom discussion; effective participation; ICCS.

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