政治知識為構成政治文化的內涵之一，而「公民教育」的目的，為提升受教者的政治知識程度。然而，所謂的「公民教育效果有限論」是學界的主流論述，一直到了1990 年代後，才逐漸有公民教育能增進學生政治知識的實證研究，但國內這方面的研究仍舊缺乏。本文針對中部一所高中，以相同題目進行一年共兩波的定群追蹤調查，並採取固定與隨機效果混合併用法，有兩項發現：第一、公民教育能增進高中生部分的政治知識項目；第二、父親低學歷組與父親高學歷組的知識差距，在某些情況下被公民教育彌合是有可能的。這些發現均有民主意義，將在文中逐一討論。

One of the goals of civic education is to enhance political knowledge. Practically, however, the question remains as to whether or not civic education enhances political knowledge. The research questions are two-fold. First, does civic education cause political knowledge? Second, does civic education have the function of diminishing the knowledge gap between the students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds? A panel analysis was conducted on data from interviews of students in Taichung in 2012 and 2013. The major finding is that, in some cases, the students who did not have equally good socioeconomic backgrounds were able to catch up with their more advantaged counterparts in terms of political knowledge by taking a course on civic education. The democratic implications of these findings are discussed.