A Practical Guide for Integrating Civic Responsibility into the Curriculum. Second Edition

This curriculum guide is intended to provide practical, easy-to-use applications for the widest range of faculty who would like to develop their students' citizenship skills by integrating civic responsibility concepts and practices into their college courses. The authors recognize that community college faculty teach courses that reflect varying levels of student development, so they have incorporated ideas that can be applied to a large number of courses, from developmental to honors. Similarly, because some faculty may have more flexibility than others in course content or structure, they present activities that can work at several levels of involvement. The authors have also taken into account the various disciplines and certificate and degree programs offered at community colleges, so that faculty members from liberal arts, social sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, and vocational and technical programs all may find this guide useful and appropriate for their classes. This guide contains 5 chapters. Chapter 1 looks at the need for service learning and civic responsibility in the curriculum, as a response to larger changes and trends in society and the mission of higher education. In this chapter the authors also ask teachers to consider their own classroom practices as related to civic responsibility. Chapter 2 examines the meaning and implications of civic responsibility--how it can be defined, how teaching civic skills is highly compatible with the larger mission of higher education, and how civic responsibility is related to service. Chapter 3 focuses on the practice of civic responsibility. Here they explore strategies that classroom teachers can use to integrate civic responsibility concepts and activities into their courses so that students come away with a greater understanding of what is expected of them as citizens in their society. These strategies, all of which can be used with service learning, range from one-time experiences or activities to multi-class or semester-long involvement. Chapter 4 addresses assessment. Although it may prove difficult to assess the level of civic responsibility acquired by students because the goals of a civic curriculum are not as easily quantifiable as many other learning objectives, several strategies are offered that have been used successfully in community colleges. Chapter 5 poses closing questions about the mission of teachers' courses and their college and the challenges they may face as they integrate civic responsibility into their curriculum. Six appendices are included: (1) Films, Quotations, and Articles; (2) Reflection Resources; (3) Reflection Exercises; (4) Bibliography; (5) Organizations and Web Sites; and (6) Supplemental Materials. (Contains 3 tables.) [This document is based upon work supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service.