Background. Despite the renewed interest in citizenship education, relatively littleis known about effective ways to realize citizenship education in the classroom. In theliterature on citizenship education, dialogue is considered to be a crucial element.However, there is very little, if any, empirical research into the different ways tostimulate dialogue. Aim. The main aim of this study is to arrive at an understanding of how citizenshipeducation can be integrated in history classes. The focus is on the effect of a dialogicapproach to citizenship education on students' ability to justify an opinion on moralissues. Sample. Four hundred and eighty-two students in the eighth grade of secondaryeducation. Methods. Two curriculum units for dialogic citizenship education were developedand implemented. The two curriculum units differed in the balance between groupwork and whole-class teaching. Students' ability to justify an opinion was assessed bymeans of short essays written by students on a moral issue. The effectiveness of bothcurriculum units was compared with regular history classes. Results. Students who participated in the lessons for dialogic citizenship educationwere able to justify their opinion better than students who participated in regularhistory lessons. The results further show a positive effect of the amount of group workinvolved. Conclusion. The results of this study indicate that a dialogic approach to citizenshipeducation as an integral part of history classes helps students to form a more profoundopinion about moral issues in the subject matter. In addition, group work seems to be amore effective method to implement dialogue in the classroom than whole-classteaching.
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