Digitized by Kansas State University Libraries

published_or_final_version / Curriculum Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Curriculum and Educational Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Opportunity cost is not only the first threshold Economics concept learnt by students, but also a common concept applied in decision making such as cost-benefit analysis. Most decision makings made by government or private firms involved in-depth cost-benefit analysis. However, researches in economic education revealed that the teaching and learning of opportunity cost might not be effective so that students, or even adults apply this concept wrongly in decision making. The objectives of this study are to investigate the effectiveness of the theory of variation when it is adopted in the teaching of the concept of opportunity cost and to evaluate the learning outcomes of students by investigating the change of the qualitatively different ways of seeing or experiencing the concept of opportunity cost. The object of learning was the capability of understanding the concept of opportunity cost. Critical aspects of the object of learning were identified from the pre-test and two patterns of variation were designed respectively in two different groups of secondary four students. The results of this study showed that the learning outcomes of both groups were improved by the rise in the levels of the conceptions on opportunity cost and full cost, and it was even more powerful in group 2. It concluded that appropriate pattern of variation could raise the effectiveness of learning. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The purpose of this research study was to establish the perceptions of economics teaching of two teachers of economics who were functioning in two contrasting contexts. The intention was to examine their practice and to ascertain the extent to which the relationship between their beliefs and their practice was constrained or facilitated by the context in which they taught. The study made use of interviews and classroom observations to address these issues. The research confirmed that there was a disjunction between the teachers' theories of economics teaching and their actual practice and that their practice was mediated by the context in which they functioned. Both teachers shared very similar epistemologies. They concurred on assessment techniques and teaching methodology in economics. They also agreed that the goal of economics teaching was to engender a love of the subject. However, the vastly different contexts in which they taught spawned unique coping strategies to deal with their peculiar teaching environments. The 'macro' c~nstraints which they faced emanated from external institutions that imposed overt and hidden rules and expectations upon them. Internal constraints were derived from the peculiar context of each school. The study revealed that the teacher operating in the more repressive context displayed a greater degree of dissonance between beliefs and practice as compared to the teacher in the more favourable context. The teacher in the favourable context was better able to implement her beliefs about economics teaching. However, she was faced with new challenges created by the information explosion as a result of the school's access to the Internet. Though the nature of the discipline urges a problem-solving approach to economics teaching and even though both teachers concurred with this view, the constraints of the context were compelling factors that hindered teachers' educational ideals. Of note , was the fact that the more repressive the context, the greater were the constraints facing the teacher, and the more complex were the strategies employed by the teacher in order to cope. The more complex the coping strategy, the greater was the disjunction between teachers' theories about economics teaching and their practice. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1945 A4

The problem of this study was to analyze the economic understanding and values of high school seniors in a large metropolitan school district. To attack the problem, three purposes were formulated. The first purpose was to determine if students enrolled in a one-semester, elective course in economics differed significantly in terms of economic understanding from students enrolled in a comparable non-economic social studies course. Another purpose was to determine if an already existing value orientation had some effect on a change in economic understanding. The final purpose was to see if a change in a particular value orientation was related to a change in economic understanding.