In this article we revisit and re-analyse data from the 1999 IEA CIVED transnational study to examine the factors associated with the ways in which young people learn positive attitudes towards participation in, and knowledge and skills about democracy. Less formal learning, wherever it takes place, has recently been conceptualised as a process of social participation, and we explore its effects using Lave and Wenger's and Wenger's understanding of learning through communities of practice. This is then contrasted with the effect of the volume of civic education. The analysis shows that learning through social participation, both inside and outside school, and in particular through meaning-making activities shows a strong positive relationship with citizenship knowledge, skills and dispositions across a wide range of countries. Moreover, it demonstrates the usefulness of situated learning theory in the field of civic learning, and its applicability in large-scale, quantitative studies.

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There is little doubt as to the importance of creativity for both economic and social progress and of the need for educational systems to enhance and nurture it. However, are educational systems promoting creativity? The general feeling is that it is, in fact, being ‘killed’ in schools. The educational systems were designed for a different type of economy that valued a different set of skills. They were not designed for the so‐called knowledge‐based society that requires highly creative individuals, ready to be lifelong learners and to apply their knowledge and skills in a variety of settings and forms. This article maintains that a first step for the promotion of creativity, in education in particular and in society in general, is to advance in its understanding and measurement. Within the context of the Open Method of Coordination and in order to develop knowledge‐based policies in education and training, it is necessary to assess if educational systems are providing students with adequate tools, including the capacity to be creative. But can creativity be measured? This article presents an overview of the creativity field with special focus on measurement issues. In the last 50 years, the field of creativity has grown. It has become embedded in urban planning, management, economics and psychology amongst other fields. Such a variety of approaches has contributed to the enrichment of the phenomenon of creativity, but also to its vagueness. The article concludes with some implications of creativity measurement for human capital development.

Data from a survey in Stockholm are used to look at differences between how students' self-concepts and self-efficacy relate to actual reading skills, differences between how boys and girls estimate their reading, and differences between how older and younger students estimate their reading.A quarter of the students made correct self-assessments of their reading. A majority overestimated their skills. The ability to self-assess reading skills among boys and girls seems to depend on how they are asked. There was only a small difference in favor of older students when students in Grades 3 and 8 were compared.