Purpose: There is evidence that students who attend Technical and Further Education (TAFE) prior to entering higher education underperform in their first year of study. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of self-efficacy in understanding the performance of students who completed TAFE in the previous year in a first year subject of…

In an effort to better understand the impact of timing limits, the authors compare the learning outcomes of students who completed timed quizzes with students who took untimed quizzes in economics principles courses. Students were assigned two online quizzes--one timed and one untimed--and re-tested on the material the following class day. Our…

Data from nine introductory microeconomics classes was used to test the effect of student learning style on academic performance. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory was used to assess individual student learning styles. The results indicate that student learning style has no significant effect on performance, undermining the claims of those who…

The author uses data from two Principles of Microeconomics courses to examine differences in characteristics and performance of online versus face-to-face students. The analysis indicates that even in a traditional institution, the two delivery modes may be serving students with distinctly different backgrounds and characteristics. In terms of…

Museum exhibits can be a tool in experiential learning. While instructors have documented various methods of experiential learning, they have not sufficiently explored such learning from museum exhibits. Museum researchers, however, have long found a satisfying cognitive component to museum visits. This paper narrates the author's design to…

The article deals with revealing the essence and structure of Masters' of Public Administration professional training in the USA. It has been concluded that Public Administration studies the realization of government policies and trains future public administrators for professional activity; is guided by political science and administrative law;…

Teaching microeconomics to MBA students offers a unique set of challenges and opportunities to instructors. That is, the process of teaching business students may differ considerably, but in predictable ways, when compared to the classroom experience commonly found in liberal arts programs. While it is certain that all students are consumers, most…

In this paper, we describe first steps toward focusing on quantitative reasoning in an intermediate microeconomic theory course. We find student attitudes toward quantitative aspects of economics improve over the duration of the course (as we would hope). Perhaps more importantly, student attitude toward quantitative reasoning improves, in…

A total of 389 business students in undergraduate introductory microeconomics classes in spring 2007, 2009, and 2011, and fall 2012 participated in an exam performance progress study. Empirical evidence suggested that missing classes decelerates and hampers high-performing students' exam performance progress. Nevertheless, the evidence does…

This study looks at the performance of students in an online and face-to-face section of economic principles with the same instructor. After controlling for the bias of students selecting the online section and observable characteristics, we did not find any statistical difference in the exam performance of students across delivery modes of the…

Using a combination of survey and student record data from a first year university economics principles class, we look at the characteristics of students who are attending face-to-face lectures, versus those students who choose to view these same lectures via online lecture recordings. The survey includes the Biggs (2001) Revised Study Process…

In most introductory textbooks on principles of economics, discussion of the theory or practice of entrepreneurship is almost entirely absent. This omission is striking, given the important role in economic growth that economists assign to the entrepreneur. While there are plausible explanations for this omission, new research suggests the…

A major challenge that chemical engineering graduates face at the modern workplace is the management and operation of plants under conditions of uncertainty. Developments in the fields of industrial organization and microeconomics offer tools to address this challenge with rather well developed concepts, such as decision theory and financial risk…

The authors present suggestions by graduate students from a range of economics departments for improving the first-year core sequence in economics. The students identified a number of elements that should be added to the core: more training in building microeconomic models, a discussion of the methodological foundations of model-building, more…

The authors describe the theoretical preparation provided to students in advance of a limited-duration experiential learning experience in Washington DC in a Master's level course for students in Business or Public Administration. The students consider theoretical perspectives from economics, political science, and public administration with…