This paper examines the impact of supplementary web-based materials on students' academic performance in a first-year economics unit at university. In particular, the paper considers the impact of students' usage of the unit's webpage, voluntary on-line discussion board, voluntary on-line quizzes and voluntary on-line homework questions on their…

The use of online lecture recordings as a supplement to physical lectures is an increasingly popular tool at many universities. This paper combines survey data with student record data for students in a "Microeconomics Principles" class to examine the relative effects of lecture attendance and online lecture recordings. The main finding…

This paper addresses the importance of teaching mathematics in business and finance schools of tertiary institutions of Australia. The paper explores the nature of thinking and reasoning required for advancement financial or economic studies involves the use of higher order thinking and creativity skills (HOTS) for teaching in mathematics classes.…

This paper reports a research project that was conducted in 2009 and 2010 to support new teachers in the areas of Design and Technology and Home Economics. As a result of a retraining program, teachers in these areas were posted to remote schools, and the concern was that the combined difficulties of a new teaching area and a remote location would…

This paper explores different approaches for developing skills in economics in schools. It considers the different preferred learning styles of students through the VARK method and applies a contextual learning approach to engage students and develop skills. The key skills that are considered are literacy, numeracy, information and communication…

Plagiarism continues to be a concern within academic institutions. The current study utilised a randomised control trial of 137 new entry tertiary students to assess the efficacy of a scalable short training session on paraphrasing, patch writing and plagiarism. The results indicate that the training significantly enhanced students' overall…

Before 1980, strong demand existed in Australia for the economics degree. Since then, competition from programs in business and management has increased. Student preferences have shifted from university and secondary economics. Economics enrollments have declined in both sectors. The authors analyze these trends and assess economic education…

Software may be used in university teaching both to enhance student learning of discipline-content knowledge and skills, and to equip students with capabilities that will be useful in their future careers. Although research has indicated that software may be used as an effective way of engaging students and enhancing learning in certain scenarios,…

The study investigates (1) the effectiveness of using eLearning-embedded stories and pictures in order to improve learning outcomes for students and (2) how universities can adopt innovative approaches to the creation of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) resources and embed them in educational technology for teaching domain-specific content, such as…

The authors report on the design and implementation of a pilot program to extend the principles of intensive writing outlined by W. Lee Hansen (1998), Murray S. Simpson and Shireen E. Carroll (1999) and David Carless (2006) to large macroeconomics classes. The key aspect of this program was its collaborative nature, with staff from two specialist…

In this article, the authors explain the purpose and context for the 2009 International Symposium on Economic Education that was the source for articles on four nations with relatively developed systems for economic education: Australia, England, Japan, and Korea. The authors highlight several key comparisons from the four articles that appear in…

Teaching standards are regularly described as a mechanism for improving the status of the teaching profession and as a means to develop high-quality teachers. Less attention has been paid to the difficulties of fostering professional learning when externally produced standards are imposed on teachers. This paper outlines how lesson study can…

Purpose: A picture is worth a thousand words. Multimedia teaching materials have been widely adopted by teachers in Physics, Biotechnology, Psychology, Religion, Analytical Science, and Economics nowadays. To assist with engaging students in their economic study, increase learning efficiency and understanding, solve misconception problems,…

The author analyzes the inflation-targeting model that underlies recent textbook expositions of the aggregate demand-aggregate supply approach used in introductory courses in macroeconomics. He shows how numerical simulations of a model with inflation inertia can be used as a tool to help students understand adjustments in response to demand and…

There have been many national and international reports expressing concern about the problems of teaching economics subjects in universities and colleges. This paper puts forward one approach to deal with the issue through the use of a computer based learning program designed to cater for the differences in backgrounds and learning styles of…