Teaching Democracy Through Instruction or Experience: A Qualitative Evaluation of Two Sets of Lessons

This study examines how different teaching methods about democracy are perceived by teachers and students in Dutch secondary vocational education. We evaluated two sets of lessons: one instruction-based (through lectures and assignments) and one experience-based (through simulations). Eight teachers implemented one or both of these sets of lessons, which were evaluated through thirty-one teacher interviews and twenty-seven student group interviews. The evaluations focus on the classroom practices that were used as design principles for the lessons, namely: meaningful embedding, providing multiple perspectives, thinking about solutions from divergent perspectives, and critical reflection on the subject matter. Overall, teachers and students found the lessons efficacious for students’ learning about democracy. Several challenges were also discussed, including how to handle emotions, the risk of students not engaging with perspectives, the risk of premature and one-sided solutions, and students struggling with argumentation.