The purposes of this study are to determine the understanding of economic concepts and attitudes toward economic education of selected elementary teachers, to determine which variables relate to the understanding of economic concepts and attitudes toward economic education, to determine the interaction of selected variables, and to determine if there is a positive correlation between the understanding of economic concepts and attitudes toward economic education. The analysis of data reveals the following: 1. Completion of a recent college level social studies methods course does not appear to have a significant relation to the teachers' understanding of economic concepts. The methods course does appear to have some positive significant relation to teachers' attitudes toward economic education, although not significant at the .05 level. 2. Completion of two or more college level courses in economics does not appear to have a significant relation to the teachers' understanding of economic concepts or their attitudes toward economic education. 3. Participation in a Developmental Economic Education Program (DEEP) workshop appears to have a significant relation to the teachers' understanding of economic concepts, but does not appear to have a significant relation to their attitudes toward economic education. 4. Teaching assignment (classroom organization) does not appear to have a significant relation to the teachers' understanding of economic concepts, but does appear to have a significant relation to their attitudes toward economic education with teachers in a self-contained classroom having a less favorable attitude toward economic education than do teachers in team-teaching or departmentalized classrooms. 5. The interaction of the variables grade level taught and adopted textbook series used appears to have a significant relation to the teachers' understanding of economic concepts and their attitudes toward economic education. Sixth grade teachers using textbooks with high-economic content score higher in cognition and fourth-grade teachers using textbooks with low-economic content have a less favorable attitude toward economic education. 6. There is a significant positive correlation between teachers' understanding of economic concepts and their attitudes toward economic education.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

No description available.

No description available.

The dire need for capacitating Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) educators in subject-specific knowledge occurred to me whilst conducting workshops for EMS educators within the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education. Educators often complained that they neglected EMS as a Learning Area as they lacked the requisite subject~specific knowledge. This, they claimed was exacerbated by the paucity of EMS educator and learner support materials. This prompted me to undertake a case study of the current capacity building strategies of heads of department, curriculum co-ordinators and level 1 educators in (EMS) Learning Area. The case study was restricted to a cluster of 5 pnmary schools in the Ethekwini Region of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Department of Education. Schools were chosen on the basis of convenience, cost, proximity to each other and previous professional involvement with the schools. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and observation at workshops. Findings suggest that there existed a lack of fundamental knowledge in the EMS learning area and further that current development strategies did not necessarily meet the needs of educators. Stemming from the research findings, the study recommends that continuous professional development of educators must be seen as an evolving set of activities that should respond to the specific contextual needs of educators at different stages in their lifelong development as professionals. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

There is no abstract available for this thesis. / Department of Home Economics