Values and Citizen: Civics Education for Active Learning is a civics education book written by a team of experts at The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. The book is based on a curriculum that the Institute ran for several years in hundreds of schools from all sectors, throughout the country. The book encourages active learning that is based not only on written information but mainly on dozens of varied activities that provide pupils with ethical and experiential learning, thus encouraging meaningful research and learning.

The book’s aim is to improve pupils’ civic skills and political literacy. It deals extensively with fostering social responsibility, involvement, and active civic participation. It provides education toward life in a democratic society and it encourages the growth of pupils as human beings and as self-motivated beings, as active members of their community, and as citizens who care, initiate, and are involved in society and the state. The book was published in Hebrew with the support of the Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation, received approval by the Ministry of Education, and is used today in hundreds of junior high schools in Israel. The book and the teacher’s guide are sold by Reches Educational Projects Ltd.

The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute is working on adapting the book for pupils in the Arabic education system, with an emphasis on fostering ethical, challenging, and meaningful education and encouraging critical thinking.