Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Can a class requirement to "keep up with current events" become habit forming? Institutions of higher educaiton and the public expect faculty, especially political science faculty, to provide civic education. This paper provides an overview of the emerging consensus on what civic education means and focuses on the "keeping up with current events" component of civic education. It is a very small pilot study on the habit forming nature of a class requirement to pay attention to the news. There is modest evidence that "keeping up with current events" is habit forming. Some of the measurement issues - how do we determine if students are keeping up with events - are also presented.