Turning news into civic engagement in the classroom
Course details
This course helps you turn these challenges into learning opportunities to develop your students’ media literacy and critical thinking skills. Together, we will explore how news is made and framed, how to recognise and address disinformation and bias, and how to turn the current events found in the media into opportunities for meaningful civic participation.
From the very first sections, you will apply what you learn through simple activities that build confidence and can be brought straight into your classroom. You will work with other educators in a supportive environment, sharing ideas, testing practical strategies and building confidence in your own context.
By the end, you will feel equipped to guide your students not only to understand the media they consume, but engage with it critically and act as informed, responsible citizens.
The course is offered by the European School Education Platform. Visit our website for more information.
Duration and workload
Start and end date: open-ended, you can take this course (or any section) at your own pace
Duration: self-paced
Workload: 8-10 hours
This course is based on a version that ran from Monday, 4 May to Wednesday 20 May 2026. The original course provided participants with opportunities to interact during a specific active timeframe of 2.5 weeks, exchange ideas and engage in a peer assessment. However, we recognise that not everyone was able to attend during the scheduled timeline.
To make the course accessible to a wider audience, we’ve developed this self-paced format. This version allows you to explore the content and complete the activities at your own pace, whenever it suits you best.
What the self-study format means:
- Flexible schedule: You decide when and how to engage with the course materials. There are no deadlines, live sessions, or required meeting times.
- Independent learning: While the original course included discussions and peer reviews taking place in certain days and weeks, this format empowers you to work independently, using the same materials and guidance provided during the initial version. Please note that discussions in the forums and contributions on Padlets will not be moderated, allowing for a fully self-directed learning experience.
- Self-assessment: To replicate some of the reflective benefits of peer feedback, you will be encouraged to evaluate your own work using the provided assessment criteria.
Course competences
The recipient of this certificate has demonstrated proficiency of the following competences according to the digital competence framework of the European Commission's SELFIE for TEACHERs tool:
- Assessment – Analysing evidence and providing feedback at B1 level
- Teaching and learning – Orchestrating and managing the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning at B2 level
- Teaching and learning – Guidance at B2 level
- Empowering learners – Actively engaging learners at B2 level
For more information about the competences and associated proficiency levels see the SELFIE for TEACHERs toolkit.
Target audience
This course is designed for teachers who are interested in media literacy, critical thinking, and civic education. Other educators, school leaders, and policymakers may also find it valuable.
Learning objectives
- Improve understanding and acquire new methods and instruments on how to recognise bias, disinformation, and misinformation, by using simple verification steps to check media content.
- Differentiate types of media and explain how news is produced and framed, how algorithms and AI influence what we see online and help students understand these influences.
- Facilitate informed classroom discussions on current events and create a classroom environment where students feel safe to think critically and discuss media topics with respect.
- Design learning activities that foster critical thinking and ethical digital citizenship.
- Develop and implement a classroom-based civic engagement project linked to current events by designing a structured civic action toolkit using AI as a thinking partner and peer feedback.
Offered by
This content is offered by the European Commission. The European Commission is the European Union's politically independent executive arm. It is alone responsible for drawing up proposals for new European legislation, and it implements the decisions of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
Schedule
- How this self-paced course works
- Module 1: Understanding the news
- Module 2: Making engagement possible
- Module 3: Time for action!
- Certificate of completion
