| Publication |
2010.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Fourth grade students at a public elementary school in Houston, Texas, participated in a one-week exercise intended to mimic the process of creating a public good through a democratic process. The exercise involved students in four separate classes designing a class party with different characteristics (theme, music, and food) through a voluntary but personally costly voting procedure. The students then held the party that they had created. A formal assessment of learning objectives and a debriefing were also part of the exercise. Some ideas investigated include the disconnection between the actual party's characteristics and the revealed preferences of the students during the debriefing-a lesson of collective action-and the satisfaction and learning outcomes experienced by a minority of students as the result of being political activists and having their preferences realized in the makeup of their class party.
|