Economics--Study and teaching

This thesis was prepared as a study of the desirability and the feasibility
of successfully teaching specific economic concepts and understandings,
through the use of Distributive Education, to students in
Florida vocational-technical schools. Five areas of economic understanding
were measured by a questionnaire containing fifty questions. This
instrument was administered to the experimental group of fifty-two
students from the Lake County Area Vocational Technical Center in
Eustis, Florida, and two control groups; forty-eight students of the
North Technical Education Center in Riviera Beach, Florida, and fifty
students in Distributive Education programs in four high schools in
Palm Beach County, Florida. The results of the test revealed the
following: (a) economic concepts and understandings can be taught
through this method, (b) students in this type proqram scored significantly
higher than students that had not been exposed to a program
of Distributive Education , and (c) the Lake County students scored as
well on the whole as the high school Distributive Education students.

The desire to render college curricula and college teaching more
effective has resulted in ever increasing debates about content
and method of instruction of the Economic Principles Course. The
purpose of this thesis is to examine the behavioral approach to
the subject matter of a one quarter macro-principles course. In
addition to the question of method the problematical aspects of
content and purpose are also examined. The question of what to
teach and to whom to teach it has not been resolved and an attempt
is made in this thesis to provide a rationale for the development
of a substantive content which would provide the student with means
to make relatable interpretive use of the knowledge gained.

The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of developing the marketing competencies of students by infusing the basic concepts of economics and marketing into the introductory marketing course. The curricular resources for the infusion were the 24 Economic/Marketing (E/M) Learning Activity Packages (LAPs), developed by Interstate Distributive Education Curriculum Consortium (IDECC). The study was designed to compare the mean-gain scores of (a) students taught in basic marketing classes by a lecture/textbook method with (b) students who received the infusion of IDECC's E/M LAPs through lecture and transparencies; self-study introductory printed material; and lecture and transparencies with topics sequenced according to the recommendations of IDECC. The nonequivalent control-group design was used because the 77 students in the study represented the four sections of the marketing course, and were thus not selected randomly but were the result of normal registration. The groups were administered a pre-test and a post-test using questions from IDECC's Random Access Test Bank. Post hoc survey was completed on the last day of class to determine the attitudes of students regarding their learning experiences. Major findings and conclusions were that: (1) There was no significant difference in the four groups' mean-gain scores at the .05 level of significance; (2) There was no statistical evidence to indicate a significant difference in learning achievement when students were categorized by degree program and number of econmic and management courses completed; (3) Prior marketing experience, in the concept-infused group which had topics sequenced according to the recommendations of IDECC, made a significant difference in mean-gain scores at the .05 level of significance; (4) Fifty-nine percent of the students who learned economic/marketing concepts through the infusion process positively changed their attitudes toward selecting a career in marketing. This compares to 38 percent in the group taught traditionally; (5) Proper sequencing of economic/marketing concepts within marketing curricula can enhance the learning of researched-based marketing competencies; and (6) The IDECC E/M LAPs instructional delivery system, which has been used predominately in secondary and junior college environments, can become an integral part of marketing curricula in higher education to provide tighter competency fits between the expectations of employers and prospective employees.

The purposes of this research were to:
1. Measure community college students' attitudes toward
fifteen business concepts: international trade, supply and demand,
government regulation, marketing, consumerism, credit, labor unions,
management, capital, corporations, profits, social responsibility,
stock markets, technology, and business ethics.
2. Identify implications from these attitudes which pertain
to curriculum planning for the community college.
The hypotheses tested were that there is no significant difference
in the mean ratings, as measured by a semantic differential,
toward the fifteen business concepts between:
1. Students who have had business courses and those who
have had none.
2. Business and nonbusiness majors. 3. Male and Female students.
4. Students 21 and under and those over 21.
5. Students with business work experience and those with
nonbusiness work experience.
6. Associate Arts degree business majors and Associate
Science business majors.
The fifteen concepts to be evaluated were selected after an
extensive study of periodicals for the two-year period ending
September 30, 1973. A semantic differential instrument was constructed
as prescribed by Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum in The Measurement of
Meaning. The six pairs of bipolar adjectives used were unfair-fair, bad-good, dirty-clean, unpleasant-pleasant, awful-nice, and dishonest-honest.
The survey was administered to a random sample of 386 students
enrolled in freshman communications classes at Broward Community
College and Palm Beach Junior College during the fall term of 1973.
A two-way analysis of variance was computed for each classification
variable.
Overall group means were positive for all concepts by all
classification variables except the undecided college major group.
Students with the most business courses and students majoring in
business had the most positive attitudes. Significant F ratios
resulted in the rejection of the null hypothesis for classification
variables 1 and 2 and acceptance of the null hypothesis for the other
variables. Although the null hypothesis was accepted for classification
variables 3 and 4, there were significant interactions between
groups and concepts for these groups. Government regulation, labor
unions, corporations, and business ethics received negative ratings from almost all groups.
Conclusions. Students who had completed business courses had
more positive attitudes toward the fifteen concepts than those who had
not taken any business courses. Students majoring in business had
attitudes more positive than nonbusiness majors. Males and females
were differentiative toward supply and demand, consumerism, labor unions,
capital, corporations, profits, stock markets, technology, and business
ethics. Age influenced attitudes toward international trade, supply and
demand, government regulation, credit, labor unions, management, social
responsibility, and business ethics. Type of employment and type of
business degree sought did not influence attitudes significantly.
Recommendations. A general education course based on economic
principles as applied to the individual's role as a citizen, consumer,
employee, and entrepreneur should be designed for nonbusiness majors.
The general goal of this course should be to develop understanding of
how the free enterprise system functions and the relationship of
economic principles to problems confronting the American people, both
individually and collectively.
A consumer education course for all secondary school students
should include a study of the free enterprise system and be taught by
an instructor who has completed at least six semester hours in economics.
The attitudes of secondary school students toward business
concepts should be measured at two-year intervals for a period of ten
years to see if the career education program influences attitudes in
a positive direction.