Project for the Advancement of Civic Teaching and Learning

Through a variety of ongoing projects, Project for the Advancement of Civic Teaching and Learning (PACTL) provides opportunities for GSU students to develop career skills while they gain civic knowledge and skills by working in teams to create resources that help high school and college teachers lead their students to develop civic knowledge and skills. All projects involve research on topics related to American democracy and the creation of high-quality digital resources civic educators can use for better preparing their students for responsible and effective democratic citizenship. We welcome students with a diverse range of skills, interests, backgrounds, and ideological orientations–although all must be committed to serving PACTL’s mission of preserving and improving American democratic governance by advancing the art of civic teaching and learning. Dr. Michael Evans from the Department of Political Science (Atlanta Campus) is leading this Project Lab.

Learning Objectives:

For all students

1. News literacy / information literacy
  - Understanding value of scientific method and journalistic best practices for maximizing factual accuracy (minimizing factual errors)
  - Understand the power of information and the importance of science and free press for democracy.
  - Understanding why science and journalism can nevertheless fall short
  - Know and understand the full landscape of political information available on Internet
  - Learn how to check or identify the trustworthiness of information sources
  - Evaluate sources according to a framework / rubric we develop that takes into account factual trustworthiness, slant, and other possible biases.
  - Develop a plan for a healthy political news diet
  - Develop skills for conducting research on a contentious political issue (electoral integrity / suppression) and producing publishable report for civic educators to be published on U.S. Civitas website.
  - Develop digital information curation skill
2. Particularized
  - Develop digital information curation skill
  - Specific civic educational knowledge or skills (depends on project)
  - Web design
  - Media production
  - Leadership
  - Project management

The EPIC Program