The purpose of this study was to determine the effect on student learning from the sequence in which microeconomics and macroeconomics courses are taken.
The sample for this study consisted of all students enrolled in 23 sections of Economics 1100 (Principles of Microeconomics) and 10 sections of Economics 1110 (Principles of Macroeconomics) during the fall semester, 1987, at the University of North Texas. The sample also consisted of all students enrolled in 14 sections of Economics 1100 and 12 sections of Economics 1110 during the spring semester, 1988, at the University of North Texas.
The instruments chosen for use in measuring cognitive gains were two versions, each with 14 items, selected from the Joint council on Economic Educations's Revised Test of Understanding College Economics. Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression on five models. Each model used a different dependent variable to measure cognitive gain. The dependent variables were additive grade points, additive absolute improvement posttest scores, gap-closing posttest scores, microeconomic gap-closing scores and macroeconomic gap-closing posttest scores.
The general hypothesis that students who complete microeconomics instruction followed by macroeconomics instruction have significantly higher cognitive gains than students who complete macroeconomics instruction followed by microeconomics instruction was not verified by the main effects. While the main effect of sequence was not significant, the interaction of sequence with previous high school economics was significant in the models using dependent variables of additive absolute improvement posttest score, gap-closing posttest score and microeconomic gap-closing posttest score. In addition, the interaction of sequence with previous college economics was significant on the dependent variable gap-closing posttest score.
These findings seem to indicate that students who complete a sequence of macroeconomics followed by microeconomics with no previous exposure to economics have higher cognitive gains. In addition, students who complete a sequence of microeconomics followed by macroeconomics and had a previous college economics course have higher cognitive gain than students who complete the opposite sequence.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc330741 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Trask, Jill A. (Jill Ann) |
| Contributors | Smith, Howard Wellington, Witter, William D., Thomas, L. Fred (Lawrence Fred), Luker, William A. |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | vi, 76 leaves, Text |
| Coverage | United States - Texas - Denton County - Denton |
| Rights | Public, Trask, Jill A. (Jill Ann), Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. |
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