Assessment of progress in the area of citizenship and human rights education

EXPERT MEETING

Civic and Citizenship Education Quality: Russian

National StudyPetr Polozhevets

Council of Europe, Strasbourg, 14 October 2015

Goals Assessment of 8th year students citizenship

competence Determining perspectives of students’ citizenship

development and social activeness

Objectives Conduct comparative analysis of international civic and

citizenship education assessment, determine their main principles and the ways of using them in developing national instruments;

Determine key concepts, themes and knowledge areas for assessment of the level and quality of civic and citizenship education;

Develop unique instrument (cognitive test) of assessing the quality of civic and citizenship education which has multifunctional and complex;

Develop clear and transparent criteria of assessing the tests performed by students;

Conduct public expertise of the developed; Make analysis and objective assessment of the results, make

recommendations for developing civic and citizenship education in Russia;

Inform educational community about the assessment results.

The study instruments

Two versions of the cognitive test: part A (20 tasks), В (14 tasks), С (11 tasks).Tests with multiple choice (24 – 32 points), semi-open (3 – 13 points) and open (18 – 55 points) tasks were used.

Instructions for tests and questionnaires. Questionnaires for 8th years students. Questionnaires for teachers. Questionnaires for school

administrators. Guide for conducting the study.

Levels of students achievement

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

35

65

100

Lev

el 1

Lev

el 2

Lev

el 3

Examples of test typesPart A –choice of one answer from four variants (tests with multiple choice)

А3. Somebody who is not a mass media representative and does not have authority made an audio or video of a person without warning him/her about it and loaded this material in internet for wide audience. Which human right was violated? o For privacy.o For self-expression and freedom of creativity.o Presumption of innocence.o Freedom of expression.

А12. Today the society uses the term “persons with disabilities” instead of “invalids”. What social trend does it represent? o Transition from using foreign words to the terms clear to

Russians.o Increase of people with health problems.o Care for people and respect for dignity of all groups of

people.o Increase of social protection of a special category of people.

Examples of test types

Part B suggests a mixed format of the answer, it is a semi-open test, combination of a choice of an answer with a short comment.

В5. Look at the symbols below. Each is connected with a social problem. Choose one of the symbols and comment briefly on its meaning (which social problem is reflected in the symbols and what the image in the symbol you chose means). Write your answers in 1 (social problem) and in 2 (meaning of one of the symbols).

А. Б. В. 1. Social problem

_________________________________________________ 2. Meaning of the symbol with letter ___ -

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Examples of test types В10. Look at the scheme “Dangers and risks of the modern

world”. Write in empty blocks dangers which are not mentioned but seem serious to you. How are these dangers manifested in the modern world? Give two examples and write them in the lines below the scheme.

Example 1. ________________________________________________________________

Example 2. ________________________________________________________________

Terrorist threats

__________________

__________________

Examples of test types Part C included tasks for the extended answer (open test).

С 2. You can see the beginning and the end of a text. Write three sentences of your own to link the first and the last sentences, express your own position on the issue. Try to formulate your thoughts briefly and clearly. Use necessary terms and knowledge.

Every person on the Earth is unique, there is no other one like him or her. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One should be able to live in peace with him/herself and with other people.

Examples of test typesС10. How can the following problem be solved: “Not knowing cultural peculiarities of other people leads to conflicts, hinders friendship and mutual understanding”. Offer several ways (up to four) which can improve

mutual understanding of different peoples. 1. _________________________________________________________________2. _________________________________________________________________3. _________________________________________________________________4. _________________________________________________________________

Which of the ways seems most realistic to you? Why? Give arguments.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Areas (domains) of civic and citizenship quality assessment

Instruments assess: civic knowledge and understanding of the

main concepts; civic skills (understanding of social problems

and ways of solving them, information culture); predispositions for active participation in social

life; understanding of social and legal processes; readiness to perform civic actions and

behavior skills.

The number of participants

(respondents) 42 regions of Russia (50%) 248 school administrators 3452 teachers 5344 8th year students

Gender composition

48,76%

51,24%

Female Male

The number of participants (respondents)

12,70%

9,20%

19,76%

40,10%

18,24%

metropolis (> 1 000 000 people)

big cities (from 100 000 to 1 000 000 people)

small cities (from 15 000 to 100 000 people)

small towns

(from 3 000 to 15

000 people)

rural area (with population less than 3 000 people)

General results 2,17% of participants have less than 20 points.

(ICCS- 2009 - 10%) Medium result– 54,23 points from 100

maximum. 20-34 points - 11.77%; ICCS - 29%; 35-64 points - 55.05%; ICCS - 36%; 65-100 points - 28.61%. ICCS – 26%.

Best results

Graphic information analysis - 58,8%, General outlook - 55,69%, Understanding of terms - 54,7%, Ability to formulate problems, make

arguments, give examples, give definitions - 48,68%.

Understanding of basic civic and citizenship education concepts

Tasks connected with “tolerance and diversity” were most successfully done (65,19%).

The highest understanding was demonstrated in social support, self-realization and personal success (58,52%), and democratic governance (58,32%).

Economic literacy tasks results were lower (40,74%).

The concept of identity and does not have leading positions (55,60%), although school administrators and teacher name this issue as the most important in their schools’ work.

5 areas (domains)

Civic knowledge - 57.28% Civic skills - 53.69% Understanding of social processes

55.76% Civic predispositions 48.72% Skills of civic actions and behavior

56.76%

Migrants Students’ attitude towards migrants, one of the

most urgent problems, was assessed. Students could choose one of four opinions related to using by migrants their language, traditions, clothes and behavior.

The majority of students (60,3%) had a relatively loyal position. They stated that migrants have to respect local traditions, speak the language of the territory where they have come, their behavior and clothes should correspond to the accepted rules.

Almost 30% of students think that everybody has the right to choose the place to live and should follow its traditions.

Negative attitude towards migrants was expressed by 10,5% of students.

Attitude towards risks (dangers, threats)

War Drug addiction Environmental pollution Alcoholism Corruption Non-effective health care system Disregard of traffic rules

Conclusion

Students showed the average level of civic-mindedness.

They demonstrated high motivation in answering questions of open character.

Students had difficulties in definition and understanding of civic terms and concepts, and in knowing international symbols.

Creative tasks asking to offer a number of actions in a certain situation were mostly performed successfully.

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