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Frequently Asked Questions
The Choices for the 21st Century Education Program is a national education initiative based at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. The program develops teaching resources on historical and current international issues, provides professional development for classroom teachers, and sponsors programs that engage students beyond the classroomWhat is the mission of the Choices Program?
The Choices Program seeks to empower young people with the skills, habits, and knowledge necessary to be engaged citizens who are capable of addressing international issues with thoughtful public discourse and informed decision making.What kind of curricular resources does the Choices Program develop?
Choices develops curriculum units and online resources for use at the secondary level. Choices teaching resources are designed to make complex current ahd historical international issues understandable and meaningful for students.
Curriculum units include extensive background readings, rigorous student-centered lesson plans, and a role-play or simulation exercise that encourages students to apply their knowledge in an authentic setting.
Choices' Teaching with the News initiative provides online curriculum materials and ideas to connect the content of the classroom to the headlines in the news. Topics cover a range of foreign policy and international issues.
Choices' new digital initiative, Scholars Online, brings scholars who have participated in the development of teaching resources into the classroom via the internet. Videos of scholars are provided in an interview format. Designed to be used with Choices printed curricula, these short, informative videos can be used in conjunction with student readings or with lessons that accompany each unit. Each video discusses a specific question and includes graphics to help students better understand the scholar's answer to the question.
Using Choices' student-centered approach, students develop critical thinking and an understanding of the significance of history in our lives today—essential ingredients of responsible citizenship.
How do Choices materials and approach fit in the curriculum?
Choices curriculum materials offer teachers a flexible resource for covering course material while actively engaging students and developing skills in critical thinking, deliberative discourse, persuasive writing, and informed civic participation. Curriculum materials incorporate the latest scholarship to make connections between historical events and contemporary international issues. Teachers integrate Choices curricular resources into a range of courses including U.S. history, world history, global studies, and government. Materials include extensive background readings, classroom-tested lesson plans, and a role-play or simulation exercise that encourages students to apply their knowledge in an authentic setting.
How does the Choices Program engage students in historical content?
Choices teaching resources involve students in a dynamic conversation between the past and the present that is brought into focus by a specific turning point in history or current challenge.
Topics framed around historical turning points are selected for their relevance to policy issues today. Students explore the history leading up to this turning point and then examine the options that were considered at the time. Each option is supplemented with primary source materials from the period. Finally, students trace the results of decisions made and consider the impact on our lives today.
When studying a current dilemma, students examine the history that has led to this moment and then consider a balanced range of perspectives on the issue, including the pros and cons, risks and tradeoffs of each. Their exploration of the choices facing us today requires a comprehensive understanding of the history that has come before. Finally, students are expected to articulate their own considered views on this issue.
The Choices Approach provides a chart comparing units focused on current issues and those focused on historical turning points.
Are Choices materials interdisciplinary?
Yes. Choices curriculum materials are developed by classroom teachers in collaboration with scholars from a variety of disciplines including history, literature, art, anthropology, ethics, geography, environmental science, and social and political philosophy. Lesson plans incorporate elements of all of these disciplines.
Does the Choices Program have a point of view?
The Choices Program takes its commitment to non-partisanship very seriously. In the world of public secondary education students need to experience an environment in which there is room for consideration of a range of perspectives. The Choices Program is committed to providing opportunities for students to weigh all sides of an issue and listen to the views of others before coming to their own decisions. It is this attention to balance that has allowed us to gain wide acceptance within the public education system in the United States.
Where are Choices teaching resources used?
Choices teaching resources are integrated into the curriculum in classrooms throughout the United States. Choices teaching resources are currently used in more than 7,500 secondary schools representing all fifty states.
Does the Choices Program address state standards?
Yes. The resources and pedagogical approach of the Choices Program fit in well with the need of classroom teachers to address state standards. Lesson plans emphasize higher order thinking skills, including the ability to understand multiple perspectives and competing interpretations; to differentiate among fact, opinion, and interpretation; to weigh the importance and reliability of evidence and explain its significance; to understand and use primary sources; and to formulate rational conclusions. See Alignment with National and State Standards for details.
Does the Choices Program offer professional development?
The Choices Program offers a wide range of professional development. Professional development programs include summer institutes, full-day programs, workshops at professional conferences, and in-service programs. Check the Choices Program calendar for a full listing of programs this year.
Does Choices offer programs to engage students beyond the classroom?
The Capitol Forum on America's Future is a civic education initiative that engages high school students in deliberation on current international issues within their social studies classroom and beyond the classroom at their state capitol. The content of the Capitol Forum grows out of the curriculum work of the Choices Program.
back to topChoices materials seem sophisticated. Are they designed only for high-level students?
No. Teachers of students at all levels—from middle school to AP—have used Choices materials successfully. Many teachers make adjustments to the materials for their students. Each unit includes suggestions to help teachers adjust the materials for students of differing abilities. Lesson plans incorporate skills and activities for a variety of learning styles.
Aren't some of the issues addressed in Choices curriculum materials controversial? How does Choices handle these issues responsibly in the classroom?
The Choices Program does not shy away from controversial issues. History is full of controversy. Indeed, it is the unsettled nature of controversial issues that engages students. Choices engages students in the controversy of an issue as it draws them into a deeper understanding of the history leading up to the issue and the consequences of the decisions made. Students using Choices discover that history was not inevitable; it was made by real people facing difficult and often controversial choices.
back to topWhat does research tell us about the Choices approach to learning?
The Choices Program has been involved in two formal research efforts. FIve years into its work in this field, a national evaluation of the Choices Program's resources and approach demonstrated that there is a statistically significant difference in students' ability to understand multiple perspectives on topics studied, and to apply these skills to additional topics, when the students are introduced to the Choices methodology in place of a read-and-discuss format. Further, the research demonstrated that students' acquisition of content knowledge is improved (with the same time allotted to the subject) using the Choices methodology. As a result of this evaluation, the Choices Program was validated by the Program Effectiveness Panel of the U.S. Department of Education.
Currently, an independent research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is investigating classroom deliberation on public policy as a methodology to increase civic engagement. The Choices Program is a centerpiece of this research. This research is funded in part by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE), based at the School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland.
Does Choices offer any special programs?
The Choices Program offers a range of special programs. The Capitol Forum on America's Future is our best-known program. This is an experiential civic education initiative that gives high school students a voice in public consideration of current international issues. The program is run on a statewide basis in participating states and involves students both within the social studies classroom and beyond the classroom at their state capitol. New forum models are currently being explored. These adaptations take place on a classroom, school, district, or regional basis and allow for any content topics that fit the curriculum and inform the ultimate question of the role of the United States in the world.
Other projects include our work with the U.S. Department of Education's Teaching American History program, our efforts to link international and civic education and gain more support for this within the core curriculum, and a range of content specific programs. See Special Projects for more on these programs.
How did the Choices Program get started?
The Choices methodology has its history in research begun in 1982 by Brown University's Center for Foreign Policy Development in collaboration with the Public Agenda Foundation. The methodology was used in 1985-1988 as a research tool to understand public thinking on U.S.-Soviet relations. This methodology has been adapted by the Choices Program for use in secondary education
NOTE: We would be interested in feedback about this page. What was helpful? What other questions do you have? Please send input to choices@brown.edu. Thank you.
A Catalog providing a detailed description of our curriculum units, digital resources, and professional development programs can be request from the Choices Program at choices@brown.edu.
An interview with the Director of the Choices Program is available online.