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The current study aims to examine students' and teachers' voices and views on the outcomes of the implementation of a curriculum as relevant and appropriate to enhance students' citizenship skills by engaging them in dialogic and argumentative practices. To achieve the aim an innovative curriculum, consisting of 15 lessons per education level (pre-primary, primary and secondary) was developed. These lessons involved teachers and students in dialogue and argumentation around themes of citizenship education as cultural literacy using dialogue and argumentation as tools. The sample consisted of the responses of 134 teachers and 78 secondary school students. Overall, the curriculum was successful on supporting students on dialogue, argumentation and cultural literacy. A second finding has to do with teachers identifying changes in their practices related to dialogue and argumentation during the enactment of the curriculum. Furthermore, teachers underline the aspect of student enjoyment of the curriculum during the implementation. This finding supports the democratic and participatory aspect of the curriculum and adds a successful example of citizenship curriculum to the literature. Students emphasize as important aspects of the curriculum the fact that it makes the connection to everyday life, and is different from usual classroom related issues.

The purpose of this study was to compare the relationships that exist between computer use and science achievement for 15-year-old students in the USA and Germany, based on data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The results of this study show that what has an effect on science achievement is the way in which computers are used. The results indicated that students who used computers frequently at home, including for writing papers, tended to have higher science achievement. Students who had frequent availability of computers at school, who used them at that location, and who frequently used computers for programming had lower levels of science achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]