The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of process-oriented and product-oriented worked example strategies and the mediating effect of prior knowledge (high versus low) on problem solving and learner attitude in the domain of microeconomics. In addition, the effect of these variables on learning efficiency as well as the…

Academic dishonesty--cheating--includes plagiarizing, receiving credit for work not one's own, copying assignments, copying from another's exam, taking another's exam, not doing individual work on individual assignments, failing to contribute to team projects, and other forms of deception about work and performance. Cheating is rampant on college…

The author examines the determinants of success in introductory microeconomics, in the context of a Middle Eastern society but within an American educational setting. The data set is rich and covers over 3,500 students in one regional campus, allowing control for a wide range of student and class characteristics, one of which, nationality, is…

How do students enrolled in online courses perform relative to those who choose a more traditional classroom environment? What student characteristics help explain differences in student academic achievement in the two modes of instruction? What factors affect the students' choice of instruction mode? The authors address these questions in…

My dissertation research concentrates on the causes, motivations, and results of electricity restructuring, and research on the effectiveness of economic teaching and retention. The first chapter looks at motivations for electricity restructuring in the United States in terms of the Interest Group and Public Interest setting. The second chapter…

Love it or hate it, assessment has become the new reality on college and university campuses. Although measuring student achievement of course outcomes is not an easy task, assessment does not need to be a complex or painful experience. This paper describes the methods used to assess student achievement of the stated course outcomes in…

There have been few studies comparing student performance in online and face-to-face economics courses. Those studies that have been undertaken have concentrated on traditional students (18- to 22-year-olds). This paper examines student outcomes in an undergraduate course in microeconomics taught to non-traditional students (average age is 33…

Interest in using classroom experiments to teach economics is increasing whereas empirical evidence on how experiments affect learning is limited and mixed. The author used a pretest-posttest control-group design to test whether classroom experiments and grade incentives that reward performance in experiments affect learning of introductory…

The author examines the effects of different introductory microeconomics textbooks on student performance in subsequent economics courses (specifically, Intermediate Microeconomics I and Money and Banking). In some cases, the effects are significant and sizeable. There is also evidence of other variables affecting student performance in later…

Outlines a model for teaching economics that incorporates introductory economics concepts into an interdisciplinary class that includes three disciplines focused on a central theme. Covers the principles of microeconomics and the fundamentals of environmental economics. Links these topics to those covered in the ecology and philosophy sections of…

Presents a simple technique for teaching the Cournot model to first-year microeconomic students. Involves demonstrating, without the use of derivatives, that out of all rectangles with a common perimeter, the square has the greatest area. (RLH)

Describes interest in the behavior of random processes with positive feedback. Explains that simulation of the law of large numbers with increasing amounts of feedback makes instruction of random processes with positive feedback possible for undergraduate students. (RLH)

Examines how much time is spent in economics and management sciences programs; how much time is allocated among different courses within programs; what common thematic denominators exist; and whether and in what way content in microeconomics and macroeconomics courses differs. (RLH)

Provides results of a longitudinal study tracking research behavior of a multi-college undergraduate course in microeconomics from 1996 to 2001. Student term paper bibliographies grew between 1996 and 2000 but included fewer scholarly resources. In 2001, students tended to cite scholarly sources when the professor provided clear and enforceable…

Describes a Web site that is for an undergraduate principles of microeconomics course and a main component of "The Inverted Classroom" in which lectures take place outside of class. Explains that the Web site is divided into four sections: (1) the classroom; (2) the desk; (3) the coffee shop; and (4) the library. (CMK)