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Methodology

Close Up Methodology

 

Founded in 1971, Close Up informs, inspires, and empowers young people to be active and engaged participants in a democracy. Through experiential programming, classroom resources, and professional development, Close Up reaches approximately 30,000 students and teachers across the country each year.

Close Up Foundation’s education and learning methodology rests on the following key principles:

Experiential Education: Learn by Doing
Constructivism: Meaning and Knowledge Are Socially Constructed
Cooperative Learning: Students Must Make Meaning Together
Issue-Centered Education: Controversial Public Issues Should Be at the Heart of Civic Education
Multiple Perspectives
Educating for Democracy

Taken together, these principles permeate and influence all aspects of Close Up’s work. Using these principles as our guide, we select and develop curriculum that will help students work together—in discussion groups, projects, and whole-class debate—to better understand their political world. It is our aim to help teachers do the same in their classrooms.