Pilot Study on Civic Knowledge and Attitudes of the Secondary Shool Students in Southeastern

PILOT STUDY ON CIVIC KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES OF THE SECONDARY SHOOL STUDENTS IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

I PART

1. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA(shorten: B&H)

The sample of the research was representative for the population of students who are attendingDemocracy and Human Rights in secondary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The researchis consisted of 213 secondary school students all over B&H.Out of that number, 101 students or 47,7% were males and 112 or 52,6% were females. Among the questioned students 128 or 60,1% attended gymnasiums and 85 or 39,9% four-year vocational or technical school.Most of the parents from the pattern finished secondary school (60,6% fathers and 57,7% mothers), after that high school or university (24,4% fathers and 19,7% mothers).Around 10% more mothers in comparison to fathers,finished only primary school.

In the first part of the questionnaire was assessed students' knowledge of citizenship, human rights and democracy. The students answered correctly 21 question (out of 36), with over 50% of correct answers, while on 9 questions two thirds of the students did not know the correct answer. What is interesting is the contrast in the percent of correct answers on the question 23, since a percent of correct answers that appeared in this question candidates the question for the first place (abbreviation and activity of UNESCO) and the last place (abbreviation and activity of OSCE). Based on the average value on the part of the questionnaire related to the knowledge on citizenship, human rights and democracy(M=18,89; SD=6,30), as well as on the frequency analysis of correct and incorrect answers, we may conclude that the students have a satisfactory level (52,47% out of the maximum score that is 36 points) of knowledge in the area of civil upbringing and education. Therefore, the least knowledge the students have is in the field of relations among and toward the cultures, activities of some European institutions and the way political authority the best protect political interests of its citizens.

The results of research from the second part of the questionnaire, which is related to attitudes and opinions about civic education in school, show the following: the most significant source for the questions on citizenship, democracy and human right is concrete school subject. Students are the most satisfied with the textbook, then with class atmosphere, teachers’ approach, and the least with the content of the subject itself. The atmosphere on the classes was evaluated as positive, friendly, cooperative, working and relaxing, and the least uncontrolled, boring and authoritative. In realizing teaching process, the most positive grades are given to following elements: encouraging students to debate, encouraging students to express personal opinion, respect for the students’ opinions. During the realization of the teaching process the most commonly used methods are: discussion, lecture, analyzing newspaper articles and debate, but the least used are analyzing video materials, internet and volunteering. Learning Democracy and Human Rights mostly influence development of following personal characteristics: accepting responsibility for own decisions, cooperation with others in solving problems, evaluation that a truthful proof is important in stating personal attitude. Students assessed that the content of subject had the least influence on understanding that individual engagement is important for a social change, engagement in activities that benefit to the well-being of others, interpreting political events based on the truthfulness of information and better understanding of the responsibility for school. So, the subject develops the highest characteristics in students which belong to the group “relationship toward myself”, and the least those that belong to the group “relations toward others”.The most significant suggestion for improvement of the teaching process is related to correlation of the subject with voluntary work in a community, then suggestion such as to have more discussions about important social and controversial themes, and more usage of contemporary media, especially internet. And least suggestions were related to replacing lecture with active teaching methods.

Summary of the results of the third part of the questionnaire related to political culture of the students, show the following: the students are mediocre informed about the political events in the country. The most significant source of the information is TV, the concrete school subject and family. Beliefs about civil and political engagement show that the students do not see themselves in political engagement in the future, while the civil engagement is mostly about reacting at superiors at a future work. Assessing the personal values, most of the given values are of the great importance for the students, and specially: friends, privacy of home, family, equality of all people and personal freedom and the lowest is the freedom of media. Asking about the level of trust in some persons and institutions showed that the students have more trust in themselves, friends and parents. The highest level of distrust the students showed for public (government and parliament) and international institutions (multinational companies, NATO and international finance institution). Social distance is the least expressed for: Muslims, Jews, Bosniaks, Serbs and Catholics, and the highest for: Macedonians, Slovenians, Germans and Protestants.

Summary of research of the students’ opinions about the importance of European integrations and changes that could happen during the process shows that: 55% of the questioned think that it is of mediocre value and there is much higher percent of those who think that joining European union is important (39%) in comparison to those who think that this process of integration is not important (7%). Positive changes which are expected by joining EU are: better relationship with other countries, legal system would be more just and efficient, better quality of education. Negative aspects of joining EU are: prevailing of materialistic interests, national treasure would end up in the hands of foreigners and increase in social differences among citizens. Evaluation of the students for positive and negative changes that would be brought by joining EU show that the students avoided to express the clear attitude by circling the neutral level of agreement, which in comparison to the entire questionnaire, happened only in this question. If they had clear attitude for some change, it mostly expressed disagreement with positive changes, and agreement with negative changes.

Calculating correlations showed us the following:

-no statistical significant difference between boys and girls in knowledge in the area of democratic upbringing and education,

-students attending 4-year technical or vocational school accomplished the higher average score that those who attend gymnasium, but that difference is not statically significant,

-it was shown that there is a significant difference the better grade the better knowledge,

-differences that exist and better students are those whose parents have lower level of education, but are not statistically significant,

-no correlation between knowledge and being informed,

-low, but statistically significant correlation which means that with the increase of knowledge the participation of students increases as well,

-low, but statistically significant correlation which means that with the increase of students knowledge a higher level of students' trust develops in persons and institutions,

-there is a positive, statistically significant correlation between being informed and participation, which means that with the increase of informing the higher is participation in social life, but it is possible to increase a level of informing by participation,

-correlation is low, but statistically significant between informing and trust, the students who are better informed have more trust,

-there is a statistically significant correlation between participation and trust, with the increase of participation in social activities of the students their trust in persons and institutions increases as well.

Results showed that there was statistically significant correlations in answers involving direct personal engagement of student.

2. SERBIA

The sample of the research was representative for the population of students attending Civic Education classes in 4th grade of gymnasiums and 4-year vocational schools in Serbia. In total, 258 4-grade students of secondary schools were surveyed. Out of this number, 75 respondents (around 29% of the total sample) were students of gymnasiums (general educational profiles), whereas 183 students (79%) attended some of the 4-year vocational education schools. This proportion corresponds to the proportion of these two groups of students attending 4th grade of secondary schools. Among the respondents, there were fewer boys (97 or 37,6%) than girls (146 or 56,6%), while 15 students did not state their gender. Lower representation of boys in the sample demonstrates that the boys choose Civic Education as an elective subject in Serbia less compared to the girls.

In the first part of the questionnaire was assessed students' knowledge of citizenship, human rights and democracy.The students answered correctly 11 question (out of 36), with over 50% of correct answers.Questions with the highest percentage of correct answers were the following: freedom of religionand which group of rights does the right to assembly belong to. Approximately 4 out of 5 students correctly answered to these questions. Questions with the highest percentage of incorrect answers were the following: position on superiority of own culture over other culturesand question on activities of international organizationOSCE. Correct answers to these questions were provided by a bit less than one tenth of students. The areas with the highest percentage of incorrect answers are: negative forms of relations towards other nations, the work of nongovernmental sector and the work of international institutions.Based on the average value on the part of the questionnaire related to the knowledge on citizenship, human rights and democracy (M=14; SD=5), as well as on the frequency analysis of correct and incorrect answers, we may conclude that the students have a satisfactory level (39,8% out of the maximum score that is 36 points) of knowledge in the area of civil upbringing and education.

The results of research from the second part of the questionnaire, which is related to attitudes and opinions about civic education in school, show the following: in general, 27,1% of students are satisfied with the Civic Education subject in secondary school. The analysis shows that the students are most dissatisfied by textbooks. One third is satisfied with the teacher's approach to teaching, while they are most satisfied by the atmosphere in the class.The teachers rewarded pluralism and freedom of thought the most, and least encouraged direct participation of students in the teaching (joint assessment, critical thinking). Lectures, debate and discussion as the most commonly used methods of teaching confirm this data. Even more symmetrical participation of students in the subject may be considered a new challenge for this subject.The atmosphere in the classes was extremely positively assessed- as being friendly, relaxed, extremely cooperative. On the other hand, boredom, toughness and poor control (as features of image of the classical teaching methods) were least present. It could be thus concluded that the experience of open cooperation is the highlight regarding this subject.The greatest influence of Civic Education subject topics on development of personal characteristics was reflected in understanding that truthful evidence is crucial to expressing one’s point of view and readiness to accept personal responsibility. Since these topics are essential for the identity forming period and preparations for the status of an adult, autonomous individual in adolescence, this data suggests that secondary school students see the subject of Civic Education also as support to their personal development. Fewest students think the subject influences interpretation of political events based on truthful information. This does not allow for a clear conclusion whether the students regard the subject irrelevant in regard to understanding of political events or after these classes they realize the shortcomings od their political cognition, but are of the opinion that it hasn't been significantly changed.Judging from the students’ answers, elements with most potential for the subject innovation may be the following:more emphasis on teaching using the Internet and other media;more emphasis on students’ initiatives; more emphasis on daily- political topics.

Summary of the results of the third part of the questionnaire related to political culture of the students, show the following: the students are somewhat familiar with political events. Main information channels are TV and press. Civic Education subject is not considered an important source of information on politics.Recognition of democratic principles is at the low level.In practice, the students are apolitical and socially unengaged. When imagining personal future, social and political engagement takes up quite a little space.The overview of values and institutions the students have trust in provides the only possible explanation for the low level of their political culture. Namely, they trust least state and local authorities, and then also international institutions. Contrary to that, they most trust themselves, their families, friends and religious institution; appreciated values are personal freedom, justice, family and friends.

Summary of research of the students’ opinions about the importance of European integrations and changes that could happen during the process shows that: majority of students (48,8%) consider it important for the country to join the EU.The things most expected from Serbia's accession to the European Union are the following: living standard improvement, reduction of unemployment and enhanced workers' rights, better relations with the neighboring countries and improved education.On the other hand, they are afraid most that the investors will take over all big national companies, as well as that the material interests will prevail in the society.

Calculating correlations showed us the following:

-no statistical significant difference between boys and girls in knowledge in the area of democratic upbringing and education,

-gymnasium students have higher scores (by approx. 4 points)than students from vocational schools;

-students with higher marks tend to have higher scores at the knowledge scale;

-no statistically significant between knowledge and parent education;

-students who assess themselves as more informed tend to have higher scores at the knowledge scale;

-those who participate in family decision making tend to have higher scores at the knowledge scale;

-those who assess themselves as more informed tend to help others more, are more willing to give money to charities, and participate more in civic protests or sign a petition;

-no correlation between informing and trust;

-no correlation between knowledge and trust;

-those who have higher level of trust in social institutions tend to be more willing to take part in different forms of civic participation.

The two highest correlations (0.270 and 0.254) are those showing that the students with the higher level of trust in their parents and themselves will take more active participation in making important decisions in their family.

3. KOSOVO

The selection of schools was random ensuring the students remain anonymous.62,29% of the surveyed were female and 37,71% male. In our selection were included the schools from: Prizreni, Gjilani, Mitrovica, Peja and Gjakova. Therefore, the selection of schools and participantsis representative of the whole high school student population.

In the first part of the questionnaire was assessed students' knowledge of citizenship, human rights and democracy. The students answered correctly 5 question (out of 36), with over 50% of correct answers.It is interesting percent of correct answers on question 23, there is 50% and more correct answers which menas that students know abbreviation and activity of international organization.A considerable number of student respondents were able to link the international organization acronyms to their main missions. This showed that students are highly informed about international organizations.The highest percentage of correct answers (69%) have a question about the role of ombudsman.They correctly indicated (57,14%) the case in which media threaten public security as the only case when government may limit media freedoms,55,61% of students recognized that the international legal instrument on human rights protection is a Convention, 55,41% of students indicated “Everyone’s equality before the law” as the correct answer, 51,40% of the respondents rightly answered that freedom of religion means that people have the right to profess religion.

The results of research from the second part of the questionnaire, which is related to attitudes and opinions about civic education in school, show the following: when asked about their level of satisfaction with the way teachers approached the subject both in primary and secondary school, students showed a better impression of teachers in secondary school. Teachers mostly use traditional didactic methods in their work with students.However, most of students think that they have been encouraged to express their opinion and that the method of “Checking students understanding of key concepts” has been often used. Most of students said that they have been using “role playing”, internet, analysis video materials, newspapaer articles sometimes or very rarely during class. Most of them are satisfied with textbooks. Students are generally satisfied with atmosphere during class hours. Students express more positively about the atmosphere in the secondary school.The most frequent suggestion on how to improve teaching of democracy is to “increase number of hours per week”, reduce lectures, increase active methods of learning and more link instruction with volountary world in the community.