The authors examine two factors that may affect student achievement in economics principles courses: working for pay and the primary source of funds (employer tuition reimbursement, loans, scholarships, financial aid, self-financing, parental transfers, other) used to pay for college for a sample of students in economics principles classes at a…

The second edition of the "Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics" was published by the Council for Economic Education in 2010. The authors examine the process for revising these precollege content standards and highlight several changes that appear in the new document. They also review the impact the standards have had on precollege…

After three years of treading water (2005, 2006, and 2007), in 2008 (academic year 2007-08), undergraduate degrees in economics awarded by U.S. colleges and universities resumed the strong upward trajectory they exhibited from 1997 through 2004, when they rose almost 60 percent over seven years. This trend has continued unabated since 2007, with…

The authors ask whether writing a report on a classroom experiment increases a student's performance in an end-of-course test. To answer this question, the authors analyzed data from a first-year undergraduate course based on classroom experiments and found that writing a report has a large positive benefit. They conclude, therefore, that it is…

When students fail an examination at the end of their first year, they are offered a resit examination, which they merely need to pass to progress into the second year. These resits anecdotally provide a dual purpose of testing that students have achieved the required level of attainment to progress, and incentivising additional effort. This paper…

The basis for this longitudinal study was to find the predictors of transferable skills acquisition and portability among university sophomore students. The method employed was the path analysis using as variables: (1) the theoretical framework of transferable skills representations (Evers and Rush in "Manag Learn" 27(4):275-300, 1996;…

The decline in the number of UK universities offering undergraduate degree programmes in subjects such as sciences, mathematics, modern languages and humanities has been well documented and is now of real concern. It appears that economics may be going through a decline in new (post-1992) UK universities with many economics programmes having been…

When e-learning is reshaping the educational landscape of the world, an essential condition for effective practices of digital age pedagogy is that there must be access to high quality, culturally relevant content in digital forms. So efforts should be taken to create e-content through teachers. In this study, the researcher used blended learning…

Many university lecturers are encouraged to implement innovative teaching tools and methodologies such as clickers in order to create an interactive learning environment and improve student learning, but its performance must be evaluated. The aim of this paper is to test empirically the impact of the use of clickers on students' learning…

In the fiercely competitive, global job market, solid preparation in core skills matters a lot. Will college graduates write with the clarity, grace, and accuracy that employers (and everyone else) expect? Will they have the basic mathematical and scientific skills--regardless of their majors--that equip them to navigate an increasingly…

The authors show how the causes of and the gains from current account imbalances can be integrated into undergraduate economics courses using the same pedagogical tools that are used to explain comparative advantage and the gains from trade. A nonzero current account provides a mechanism for intertemporal trade, and a country has a comparative…

In this study, the authors employed a quasi-experimental research design to examine the efficacy of a cooperative learning pedagogy (i.e., think-pair-share exercises) integrated into sections of microeconomic principles. Materials, exercises, and assessment instruments for all study sections are identical except for the nature of the…

The interplay among motivation, ability, attitudes, behaviors, homework, and learning is unclear from previous research. We analyze data collected from 687 students enrolled in seven economics courses. A model explaining homework and exam scores is estimated, and separate analyses of ability and motivation groups are conducted. We find that…

The study described in this report included 128 high school economics teachers from 106 schools in Arizona and California, half of whom were randomly assigned to the "Problem Based Economics Instruction" condition and half of whom were randomly assigned to the comparison condition. High levels of teacher attrition occurred after…

In the spring of 2001, Bates College Environmental Economics classes bought their first sulfur dioxide emissions allowance at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's annual auction, then conducted by the Chicago Board of Trade. In the spring of 2010, they bought their 22nd through 34th allowances. This article describes a three-part method for…