In contrast to the democratic climate that was found to influence student civic knowledge and interpretation skill, student engagement was found to have a significant effect on student concepts of democracy, but not on student civic knowledge and interpretation skill. This result was unexpected because the review of literature has indicated that student engagement could help students to develop their knowledge (e.g. Fredricks et al., 2002, 2004). Similar to this, democratic climate has been strongly suggested to have an effect on student concepts of democracy (e.g. Torney-Purta, 2001). This issue might be associated with the nature of student classroom engagement in North Sulawesi where engagement was shaped not to be compatible with the development of student civic knowledge. The engaging condition of classrooms created by classroom members, teachers and students, could not help students to practice cognitive engagement that was more likely to be associated with knowledge development (Anderson, 2000). In addition, democratic climate developed in Civic Education classrooms has been more likely to be designed in a way that has not support the development of student concepts of democracy.