Alex Lin | Arizona State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Alex Lin

Research paper thumbnail of Middle School Students Discussing Controversial Issues to Learn About Civic Engagement: A Randomized Evaluation of the Word Generation Program

Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2014

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Research paper thumbnail of Teaching urban youth about controversial issues: Pathways to becoming active and informed citizens

Citizenship, Social and Economics Education, 2015

Although American schools are required to meet civic education goals of preparing students to bec... more Although American schools are required to meet civic education goals of preparing students to become active and informed citizens, high-quality civic opportunities (e.g. service learning and volunteering) are consistently less available to youth of color who are typically enrolled in schools located in high-poverty communities. The purpose of this study is to evaluate efficacy of the Word Generation program to improve students’ self-reported civic engagement ( N = 5798) in the context of a randomized trial that was conducted in several middle schools located in a West Coast metropolitan area of the United States. Word Generation is a cross-content literacy program that instructs students to learn academic words, which are embedded in brief passages covering a different controversial issue each week. Participants completed survey items on how often they helped their friends, community, and school, as well as voting interest. Results provide support for the primary research question –...

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Research paper thumbnail of Using Controversial Issues to Help Middle School Students Become Informed and Active Citizens: A Randomized Evaluation of the Word Generation Program

Although schools are required to meet civic education goals of preparing students to become “comp... more Although schools are required to meet civic education goals of preparing students to become “competent and responsible citizens” (Carnegie Corporation & CIRCLE, 2003), high quality civic opportunities (e.g. service learning and volunteering) are consistently less available to youth of color who are typically enrolled in schools located in high poverty communities. Schools can instruct adolescents’ to learn about controversial issues, which have been found to improve civic engagement or collective action at the community level. Word Generation (WG) is a cross-content program delivered at the classroom level that instructs students to learn academic words, which are embedded in brief passages covering a different controversial issue each week. The program features topics that range from political to scientific-based controversies, such as whether the government should allow stem cell research or animal testing. Middle school students (N = 5,870) participated in a randomized study of t...

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Research paper thumbnail of Learning to Write in Middle School?

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 2013

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Research paper thumbnail of Examining Students’ Perception of Classroom Openness as a Predictor of Civic Knowledge: A Cross-National Analysis of 38 Countries

Applied Developmental Science, 2014

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Research paper thumbnail of “They Will Post a Law About Playing Soccer” and Other Ethnic/Racial Microaggressions in Organized Activities Experienced by Mexican-Origin Families

Journal of Adolescent Research, 2015

Organized activities have been found to provide positive experiences for Latino adolescents to de... more Organized activities have been found to provide positive experiences for Latino adolescents to develop confidence and learn critical life skills; however, these programs are sometimes a context where youth encounter negative experiences related to ethnic/racial microaggressions (ERMs). This qualitative study explores the types of ERMs that Mexican-origin parents and adolescents encountered in their organized activities experience. Parents were mainly concerned about SB-1070 and the associated law enforcement practices that posed a threat to transporting their children to and from the organized activity site. Adolescents reported that they encountered overt (e.g., ethnic teasing) as well as covert forms of discriminatory behavior (e.g., implicit ethnic stereotypes) from peers and adult leaders. Attention to the processes of ERM is critical to helping practitioners promote positive intergroup relations so that more Latinos will participate and stay active in organized activities.

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Research paper thumbnail of Superstar or Scholar? African American Youth’s Perceptions of Opportunity in a Time of Change

Urban Education, Apr 10, 2014

Through a Multiple Marginality Framework, this exploratory case study highlights how African Amer... more Through a Multiple Marginality Framework, this exploratory case study highlights how African American male youth in an urban high school setting perceive the opportunity structure during the historic election of the first African American President. Youth optimism generated by Obama’s election gives students a sense of hope despite the persistent inequality they face in inner-city communities and schools. Findings suggest that the pervasive influence of both structural and cultural factors—such as poverty, racial ideology, racial tracking in schools, and street socialization—help explain students’ aspirations and constrained expectations to pursue professional athletics. The implications of this study call for a reemphasis on the relevancy of school and community factors and influences in improving the perceptions of opportunity for African American males

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Research paper thumbnail of Examining Students' Perception of Classroom Openness as a Predictor of Civic Knowledge: A Cross-National Analysis of 38 Countries

Civic knowledge is critical to interpreting various policy and candidate issues that are necessar... more Civic knowledge is critical to interpreting various policy and candidate issues that are necessary to participating in certain political activities, such as voting in elections or attending public demonstrations. Various studies have examined students’ perceptions of classroom openness, which reflects perceived levels of political discussion supported by peers in the classrooms, to understand how this measure relates to students’ civic behaviors. This study analyzes data from the 2009 International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, in which approximately 134,000 students were sampled from 38 countries across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Results from three-level hierarchal linear modeling suggest that students’ perceptions of classroom openness are strongly related to their civic knowledge scores. Further analyses indicate that the relationship strength between these two measures do not vary across students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. These findings reaffirm the importance of curricular approaches that emphasize political discussions in classrooms to prepare students for active citizenship.

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Research paper thumbnail of Citizenship Education in American Schools and its Role in Developing Civic Engagement: A Review of the Research

Few studies provide an overview of citizenship education from the primary to secondary grade leve... more Few studies provide an overview of citizenship education from the primary to secondary grade levels in American schools. Citizenship education consists of specific teaching practices designed to encourage students to become more involved in their communities. This review critically evaluates three kinds of
programmes related to citizenship education: (1) character education programmes, (2) political simulations and, (3) service-learning programmes. Students in the primary grades are mainly exposed to character education programmes, which emphasise the importance of developing ethical values. Political simulations are more common in high school civic courses, where students learn the importance of community-level civic engagement (e.g. volunteering). Service-learning programmes can help students in the secondary grades develop a broader range of civic engagement outcomes that pertain to the school and community-level context. This study reaffirms the importance of increasing
students’ exposure to citizenship education, while emphasising that certain instructional practices can be more effective in helping students develop civic engagement

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Research paper thumbnail of Learning to Write in Middle School? Insights into Adolescent Writers' Instructional Experiences Across Content Areas

Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Sep 23, 2013

Learning to write analytic genres may be particularly challenging for middle grade students becau... more Learning to write analytic genres may be particularly challenging for middle grade students because of the infrequency with which they are tasked with producing these types of texts.This study focused on students who were taught by three interdisciplinary teams. Two were seventh-grade teams; one was an eighth-grade team. The corpus of data represents the writing produced across 12 content area classrooms. We asked teachers in each team to identify students who were conscientious note takers and regularly in attendance, among their roughly 100 students. Four students identified by teachers consented to participate in our study by providing us with notebooks in each content area at the end of the school year and participating in an interview. Our analysis suggests that the students in this study received very little explicit scaffolding on a daily basis to produce analytic writing. Our analysis suggests several areas that teachers, coaches, and instructional leaders should consider focusing on as ways of expanding disciplinary writing practices.

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Research paper thumbnail of Retrospective program and strategy evaluation FY06-FY10

California Community Foundation Education Program, Jun 18, 2013

The evaluation team reports primarily on formative results and – to a limited degree – on summati... more The evaluation team reports primarily on formative results and – to a limited degree – on summative results. The results from the various data collection efforts are synthesized and triangulated to assess the degree to which CCF awards: 1) Increase the capacity of quality school readiness programs, 2) Increase parent engagement to support student learning, and 3) Increase teacher professional development focused on evidence-based instructional activities and the use of student performance data to improve instruction.

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Conference Presentations by Alex Lin

Research paper thumbnail of Engaging Middle School Students in Classroom Discussions of Controversial Issues

Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues a... more Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one’s discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, Word Generation is a cross-content literacy program that supports teachers in the four main content areas –English language arts, social studies, science, and math— to embed learning of controversial issues through classroom discussions, subject-specific lessons, and writing. Middle school students (N = 5,870) from highly diverse backgrounds participated in a randomized study of the intervention that was conducted in twelve middle schools located in an urban school district. We analyzed survey data based on students’ self-reported ratings on their communicative self-efficacy, as indicated by confidence to participate in discussions of fifteen different controversial issues related to politics, society, and science. Paired sample t-tests indicate that treatment students reported higher communicative self-efficacy than control students on a set of topics immediately covered prior to testing, but not for the set of topics covered in the previous year. This study informs curriculum developers, policy makers, and educators to consider the importance of incorporating discussions of controversial issues within a framework of subject-specific instructions.

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Research paper thumbnail of Word Generation Randomized Trial: Does Classroom Discussion Mediate the Impact of Program Treatment on Civic Engagement?

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies (2... more The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies (2010) stress the importance of engaging students in collaborative classroom discussion as a strategy to develop skills and understandings that have wide applicability outside the classroom or workplace. Moreover, the standards’ authors believe that cogent reasoning and use of evidence is essential to civic participation or “responsible citizenship in a democratic republic” (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010). However, there is a lack of empirical evidence documenting the link between classroom discussion and civic participation. One strategy of improving students’ civic participation is engaging students in discussion of controversial issues (Campbell, 2007; Hess, 2009). This study focuses on a cross-content academic literacy and engagement program (Word Generation) for middle school students – program activities requiring active discussion of social and scientific issues of the day. The proposed study will be presented as a paper session that summarizes findings from an evaluation of the Word Generation program.

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Research paper thumbnail of Content area writing in an urban U.S. middle school and implications for EFL contexts.

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Research paper thumbnail of Superstar or scholar? African American youth’s perceptions of social mobility in a time of change.

Through a Multiple Marginality framework, this exploratory study highlights how African American ... more Through a Multiple Marginality framework, this exploratory study highlights how African American high school boys perceive the opportunity structure during the historic election of the first African American President. Youth optimism generated by Obama’s election gives students a sense of hope despite persistent inequality. Findings suggest that the pervasive influence of both structural and cultural factors—such as, racial ideology, racial tracking in schools and street socialization help explain students’ expectations to pursue professional athletics. The implications of this study call for a reemphasis on the relevancy of in-school and out-of-school inequality in improving the career expectations of African American males.

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Drafts by Alex Lin

Research paper thumbnail of Controversial Issues to Help Adolescents Become Active Citizens: A Randomized Evaluation of the Word Generation Program

This study evaluates efficacy of the Word Generation (WG) to improve adolescents' (11-14 years ol... more This study evaluates efficacy of the Word Generation (WG) to improve adolescents' (11-14 years old) self-reported civic engagement (N = 5,798) in the context of a randomized trial that was conducted in several American middle schools in a West Coast metropolitan area. WG is a cross-content curriculum that instructs students to analyze weekly controversial issues on politics and science. In addition to measuring their voting interest, participants completed survey items on how often they help their
community. Results provide support for the primary research question- participation in the WG program has a significant impact on students' self-reported civic engagement, but not for voting interest. These results suggest that classroom debates on controversial issues are crucial to enabling youth to envision themselves as active and informed citizens.

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Research paper thumbnail of Assessing Adolescents’ Communicative Self-Efficacy To Discuss Controversial Issues: Findings from a Randomized Study of the Word Generation Program

Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues a... more Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one’s discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, Word Generation is a cross-content literacy program that supports teachers in the four main content areas –English language arts, social studies, science, and math— to embed learning of controversial issues through classroom discussions, subject-specific lessons, and writing. Middle school students (N = 5,870) from highly diverse backgrounds participated in a randomized study of the intervention that was conducted in twelve middle schools located in an urban school district. We analyzed survey data based on students’ self-reported ratings on their communicative self-efficacy, as indicated by confidence to participate in discussions of fifteen different controversial issues related to politics, society, and science. Paired sample t-tests indicate that treatment students reported higher communicative self-efficacy than control students on a set of topics immediately covered prior to testing, but not for the set of topics covered in the previous year. This study informs curriculum developers, policy makers, and educators to consider the importance of incorporating discussions of controversial issues within a framework of subject-specific instructions.

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Research paper thumbnail of Middle School Students Discussing Controversial Issues to Learn About Civic Engagement: A Randomized Evaluation of the Word Generation Program

Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2014

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Research paper thumbnail of Teaching urban youth about controversial issues: Pathways to becoming active and informed citizens

Citizenship, Social and Economics Education, 2015

Although American schools are required to meet civic education goals of preparing students to bec... more Although American schools are required to meet civic education goals of preparing students to become active and informed citizens, high-quality civic opportunities (e.g. service learning and volunteering) are consistently less available to youth of color who are typically enrolled in schools located in high-poverty communities. The purpose of this study is to evaluate efficacy of the Word Generation program to improve students’ self-reported civic engagement ( N = 5798) in the context of a randomized trial that was conducted in several middle schools located in a West Coast metropolitan area of the United States. Word Generation is a cross-content literacy program that instructs students to learn academic words, which are embedded in brief passages covering a different controversial issue each week. Participants completed survey items on how often they helped their friends, community, and school, as well as voting interest. Results provide support for the primary research question –...

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Research paper thumbnail of Using Controversial Issues to Help Middle School Students Become Informed and Active Citizens: A Randomized Evaluation of the Word Generation Program

Although schools are required to meet civic education goals of preparing students to become “comp... more Although schools are required to meet civic education goals of preparing students to become “competent and responsible citizens” (Carnegie Corporation & CIRCLE, 2003), high quality civic opportunities (e.g. service learning and volunteering) are consistently less available to youth of color who are typically enrolled in schools located in high poverty communities. Schools can instruct adolescents’ to learn about controversial issues, which have been found to improve civic engagement or collective action at the community level. Word Generation (WG) is a cross-content program delivered at the classroom level that instructs students to learn academic words, which are embedded in brief passages covering a different controversial issue each week. The program features topics that range from political to scientific-based controversies, such as whether the government should allow stem cell research or animal testing. Middle school students (N = 5,870) participated in a randomized study of t...

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Research paper thumbnail of Learning to Write in Middle School?

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 2013

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Research paper thumbnail of Examining Students’ Perception of Classroom Openness as a Predictor of Civic Knowledge: A Cross-National Analysis of 38 Countries

Applied Developmental Science, 2014

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Research paper thumbnail of “They Will Post a Law About Playing Soccer” and Other Ethnic/Racial Microaggressions in Organized Activities Experienced by Mexican-Origin Families

Journal of Adolescent Research, 2015

Organized activities have been found to provide positive experiences for Latino adolescents to de... more Organized activities have been found to provide positive experiences for Latino adolescents to develop confidence and learn critical life skills; however, these programs are sometimes a context where youth encounter negative experiences related to ethnic/racial microaggressions (ERMs). This qualitative study explores the types of ERMs that Mexican-origin parents and adolescents encountered in their organized activities experience. Parents were mainly concerned about SB-1070 and the associated law enforcement practices that posed a threat to transporting their children to and from the organized activity site. Adolescents reported that they encountered overt (e.g., ethnic teasing) as well as covert forms of discriminatory behavior (e.g., implicit ethnic stereotypes) from peers and adult leaders. Attention to the processes of ERM is critical to helping practitioners promote positive intergroup relations so that more Latinos will participate and stay active in organized activities.

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Research paper thumbnail of Superstar or Scholar? African American Youth’s Perceptions of Opportunity in a Time of Change

Urban Education, Apr 10, 2014

Through a Multiple Marginality Framework, this exploratory case study highlights how African Amer... more Through a Multiple Marginality Framework, this exploratory case study highlights how African American male youth in an urban high school setting perceive the opportunity structure during the historic election of the first African American President. Youth optimism generated by Obama’s election gives students a sense of hope despite the persistent inequality they face in inner-city communities and schools. Findings suggest that the pervasive influence of both structural and cultural factors—such as poverty, racial ideology, racial tracking in schools, and street socialization—help explain students’ aspirations and constrained expectations to pursue professional athletics. The implications of this study call for a reemphasis on the relevancy of school and community factors and influences in improving the perceptions of opportunity for African American males

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Research paper thumbnail of Examining Students' Perception of Classroom Openness as a Predictor of Civic Knowledge: A Cross-National Analysis of 38 Countries

Civic knowledge is critical to interpreting various policy and candidate issues that are necessar... more Civic knowledge is critical to interpreting various policy and candidate issues that are necessary to participating in certain political activities, such as voting in elections or attending public demonstrations. Various studies have examined students’ perceptions of classroom openness, which reflects perceived levels of political discussion supported by peers in the classrooms, to understand how this measure relates to students’ civic behaviors. This study analyzes data from the 2009 International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, in which approximately 134,000 students were sampled from 38 countries across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Results from three-level hierarchal linear modeling suggest that students’ perceptions of classroom openness are strongly related to their civic knowledge scores. Further analyses indicate that the relationship strength between these two measures do not vary across students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. These findings reaffirm the importance of curricular approaches that emphasize political discussions in classrooms to prepare students for active citizenship.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Citizenship Education in American Schools and its Role in Developing Civic Engagement: A Review of the Research

Few studies provide an overview of citizenship education from the primary to secondary grade leve... more Few studies provide an overview of citizenship education from the primary to secondary grade levels in American schools. Citizenship education consists of specific teaching practices designed to encourage students to become more involved in their communities. This review critically evaluates three kinds of
programmes related to citizenship education: (1) character education programmes, (2) political simulations and, (3) service-learning programmes. Students in the primary grades are mainly exposed to character education programmes, which emphasise the importance of developing ethical values. Political simulations are more common in high school civic courses, where students learn the importance of community-level civic engagement (e.g. volunteering). Service-learning programmes can help students in the secondary grades develop a broader range of civic engagement outcomes that pertain to the school and community-level context. This study reaffirms the importance of increasing
students’ exposure to citizenship education, while emphasising that certain instructional practices can be more effective in helping students develop civic engagement

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Learning to Write in Middle School? Insights into Adolescent Writers' Instructional Experiences Across Content Areas

Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Sep 23, 2013

Learning to write analytic genres may be particularly challenging for middle grade students becau... more Learning to write analytic genres may be particularly challenging for middle grade students because of the infrequency with which they are tasked with producing these types of texts.This study focused on students who were taught by three interdisciplinary teams. Two were seventh-grade teams; one was an eighth-grade team. The corpus of data represents the writing produced across 12 content area classrooms. We asked teachers in each team to identify students who were conscientious note takers and regularly in attendance, among their roughly 100 students. Four students identified by teachers consented to participate in our study by providing us with notebooks in each content area at the end of the school year and participating in an interview. Our analysis suggests that the students in this study received very little explicit scaffolding on a daily basis to produce analytic writing. Our analysis suggests several areas that teachers, coaches, and instructional leaders should consider focusing on as ways of expanding disciplinary writing practices.

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Research paper thumbnail of Retrospective program and strategy evaluation FY06-FY10

California Community Foundation Education Program, Jun 18, 2013

The evaluation team reports primarily on formative results and – to a limited degree – on summati... more The evaluation team reports primarily on formative results and – to a limited degree – on summative results. The results from the various data collection efforts are synthesized and triangulated to assess the degree to which CCF awards: 1) Increase the capacity of quality school readiness programs, 2) Increase parent engagement to support student learning, and 3) Increase teacher professional development focused on evidence-based instructional activities and the use of student performance data to improve instruction.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Engaging Middle School Students in Classroom Discussions of Controversial Issues

Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues a... more Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one’s discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, Word Generation is a cross-content literacy program that supports teachers in the four main content areas –English language arts, social studies, science, and math— to embed learning of controversial issues through classroom discussions, subject-specific lessons, and writing. Middle school students (N = 5,870) from highly diverse backgrounds participated in a randomized study of the intervention that was conducted in twelve middle schools located in an urban school district. We analyzed survey data based on students’ self-reported ratings on their communicative self-efficacy, as indicated by confidence to participate in discussions of fifteen different controversial issues related to politics, society, and science. Paired sample t-tests indicate that treatment students reported higher communicative self-efficacy than control students on a set of topics immediately covered prior to testing, but not for the set of topics covered in the previous year. This study informs curriculum developers, policy makers, and educators to consider the importance of incorporating discussions of controversial issues within a framework of subject-specific instructions.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Word Generation Randomized Trial: Does Classroom Discussion Mediate the Impact of Program Treatment on Civic Engagement?

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies (2... more The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies (2010) stress the importance of engaging students in collaborative classroom discussion as a strategy to develop skills and understandings that have wide applicability outside the classroom or workplace. Moreover, the standards’ authors believe that cogent reasoning and use of evidence is essential to civic participation or “responsible citizenship in a democratic republic” (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010). However, there is a lack of empirical evidence documenting the link between classroom discussion and civic participation. One strategy of improving students’ civic participation is engaging students in discussion of controversial issues (Campbell, 2007; Hess, 2009). This study focuses on a cross-content academic literacy and engagement program (Word Generation) for middle school students – program activities requiring active discussion of social and scientific issues of the day. The proposed study will be presented as a paper session that summarizes findings from an evaluation of the Word Generation program.

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Research paper thumbnail of Content area writing in an urban U.S. middle school and implications for EFL contexts.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Superstar or scholar? African American youth’s perceptions of social mobility in a time of change.

Through a Multiple Marginality framework, this exploratory study highlights how African American ... more Through a Multiple Marginality framework, this exploratory study highlights how African American high school boys perceive the opportunity structure during the historic election of the first African American President. Youth optimism generated by Obama’s election gives students a sense of hope despite persistent inequality. Findings suggest that the pervasive influence of both structural and cultural factors—such as, racial ideology, racial tracking in schools and street socialization help explain students’ expectations to pursue professional athletics. The implications of this study call for a reemphasis on the relevancy of in-school and out-of-school inequality in improving the career expectations of African American males.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Controversial Issues to Help Adolescents Become Active Citizens: A Randomized Evaluation of the Word Generation Program

This study evaluates efficacy of the Word Generation (WG) to improve adolescents' (11-14 years ol... more This study evaluates efficacy of the Word Generation (WG) to improve adolescents' (11-14 years old) self-reported civic engagement (N = 5,798) in the context of a randomized trial that was conducted in several American middle schools in a West Coast metropolitan area. WG is a cross-content curriculum that instructs students to analyze weekly controversial issues on politics and science. In addition to measuring their voting interest, participants completed survey items on how often they help their
community. Results provide support for the primary research question- participation in the WG program has a significant impact on students' self-reported civic engagement, but not for voting interest. These results suggest that classroom debates on controversial issues are crucial to enabling youth to envision themselves as active and informed citizens.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Assessing Adolescents’ Communicative Self-Efficacy To Discuss Controversial Issues: Findings from a Randomized Study of the Word Generation Program

Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues a... more Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one’s discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, Word Generation is a cross-content literacy program that supports teachers in the four main content areas –English language arts, social studies, science, and math— to embed learning of controversial issues through classroom discussions, subject-specific lessons, and writing. Middle school students (N = 5,870) from highly diverse backgrounds participated in a randomized study of the intervention that was conducted in twelve middle schools located in an urban school district. We analyzed survey data based on students’ self-reported ratings on their communicative self-efficacy, as indicated by confidence to participate in discussions of fifteen different controversial issues related to politics, society, and science. Paired sample t-tests indicate that treatment students reported higher communicative self-efficacy than control students on a set of topics immediately covered prior to testing, but not for the set of topics covered in the previous year. This study informs curriculum developers, policy makers, and educators to consider the importance of incorporating discussions of controversial issues within a framework of subject-specific instructions.

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