A unique pedagogical approach to voting and public goods

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 debriefinga lesson of collective actionand 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. Copyright © American Political Science Association 2010.