Donald R. Wentworth

AN EVALUATION OF A SIMULATION GAME FOR TEACHING INTRODUCTORY ECONOMICS IN JUNIOR COLLEGES

This study attempted to measure the influence of a commercially available game, Marketplace, on student achievement in economic understanding and student attitudes toward the instructional process and selected economic concepts. The data were collected from a total of 149 students taking their first course in economics at two junior colleges. Students were randomly assigned to experimental and control classes with common instructors. Results from the use of both regression models and factor analysis indicated that the game had little, if any, comparative advantage over common lecture instructional techniques with reference to all of the criteria examined.

Public Choice Theory: A New Perspective for Social Education Research

c ocial education research has o d r a w n from a wide variety of perspectives, including history, cognitive development theory, political socialization, feminism, and global and multicultural approaches. Each perspective has cast new light on problems in social studies teaching and learning. Public choice theory, a perspective most closely associated with economics and political science, is conspicuous by its absence in social education research. Economic analysis is most often applied to the study of financial decisions in private markets. In recent years, however, economists have begun to investigate other aspects of life. Prejudice, marriage, family life, and altruism all have been the subjects of investigation by ground-breaking economists such as