Advanced Placement economics leaves thousands of high school students with a misleading impression of modern economics. The courses fail to cover key sources of growth and prosperity, including private ownership, dynamic competition, and entrepreneurship. The tools of public choice economics are totally ignored. Government is modeled as a…

Some beginning students of statistics and econometrics have difficulty with traditional algebraic approaches to explaining regression and related techniques. For these students, a simple and intuitive diagrammatic introduction as advocated by Kennedy (2008) may prove a useful framework to support further study. The author presents a series of…

Provides a conceptual framework for teaching price theory and the substitution effects of price changes. Uses the example of student choice of course load to illustrate the usual substitution effect of a price change between goods, and is extended to substitution among differentiated products within a heterogeneous good. (LS)

Examined whether the economic concepts identified in "A Framework for Teaching Economics: Basic Concepts" were incorporated in the study guides of schools participating in the Developmental Economic Education Program. The economic concepts in the guides were found to be primarily definitional in nature and fairly similar across grades.…

Presents microcomputer programs and programing techniques and demonstrates how these programs can be used by teachers to explain economics concepts and to help students make judgments. Each microcomputer application is supplemented by traditional graphic and mathematical analysis. Discusses applications dealing with supply, demand, elasticity,…

This article offers a radical criticism of the Joint Council's publication: "A Framework for Teaching the Basic Concepts." It specifies a five-point alternative view of economics which takes, among other things, greater account of history and ideology. (JDH)

Offers a critique of Heilbroner's paper (see SO516704). Concludes that because the alternative view of economics offered by Heilbroner subjugates analytical concepts to an ideological and historical vision, it is not as teachable. (JDH)

This article offers another critique of Robert Heilbroner's (see SO516704) proposal for change in the teaching of economics. Among the criticisms rendered is the point that Heilbroner's statistical, ideological, and historical perspective would not be intellectually feasible for the vast majority of students in elementary and secondary schools.…

Student learning of macroeconomic principles by computer assisted instruction is compared to student performance by conventional methods. (KM)

College student's retention of economic concepts is studied. Two years were spent evaluating the improvement of cognitive skills as a function of time, during and after a one-semester introductory macroeconomics course. Each year the students were taught with either traditional or self-instructional materials. (Author/RM)

The author gives specific illustrations of how the four basic lessons" of economics described by Rothenberg (EJ 938 586) can be incorporated in high school courses in American History, World History, Problems of Democracy, and Business. (IM)

Presents the results of a study that measured the efficacy of an international economics simulation among undergraduates. The simulation consisted of a macroeconomics game where students develop economic policies for four hypothetical countries. A multiple choice test and posttest questionnaire suggests that classroom games are more effective than…

Identifies four microeconomic concepts students should learn before entering the study of intermediate macroeconomics. Included are relative prices, general versus partial equilibrium, constrained optimization, and the nature of production concepts. Recommends making intermediate microeconomics a prerequisite for intermediate macroeconomics. (MJP)

Presents the results of a study suggesting that economic knowledge, whether measured by a general score or knowledge of a particular issue, is the most consistent and influential factor affecting public opinion. Surveyed a broad range of participants concerning five complex issues of economic policy. Includes questions, tables, and statistics.…

Presents the results of a class experiment that documented the significance of use of the Internet on learning and retention of economic concepts. The results offer evidence of the positive effects of Internet use on both academic performance and students' attitudes toward economics. (MJP)