John C. Soper

On Measuring Economic Attitudes.

The authors examine two affective-domain instruments: one designed to measure the attitudes of students toward economics, and the other, their relative economic attitude sophistication. The development of these measurement tools was commissioned by the Joint Council on Economic Education in 1979. The result is the nationally normed and externally validated, 28-item, two-part Survey on Economic Attitudes reproduced in the appendix of this article. For the first time, the profession has available, for research purposes, an acceptable instrument for measuring changes in student attitudes and opinions as one of the outputs of the instructional process.

What Is High School Economics? Factors Contributing to Student Achievement and Attitudes

This third part of a series published in the JEE evaluating high school economic education examines the relationship between learning gains and attitude changes.

Programmed Instruction in Large-Lecture Courses

Interest in programmed instruction in economics continues to be strong. John Soper of Northern Illinois University reports on an evaluation of a program in which lectures were integrated with programmed instruction assignments and a series of quizzes. The quizzes were designed to stimulate student use of the programmed text, an approach which proved to be popular. A hybrid version of the TUCE was used for pre- and post-testing, and both the absolute improvement model and the gap-closing model were employed in analyzing the results. Soper concludes that programmed instruction can be an effective means of teaching large classes.

What Is High School Economics? Posttest Knowledge, Attitudes, and Course Content.

Using the posttest norming data results of the 1985 revision of the Test of Economic Literacy (TEL), the authors report on (1) the effectiveness of teaching and learning economics, defined as major concepts and concept clusters; and (2) student attitudes toward economics and economic issues.

The Test of Economic Literacy and an Evaluation of the DEEP System

For many years the Test of Economic Understanding (Science Research Associates) was used to measure economic literacy at the high school level. The new Test of Economic Literacy provides a badly needed replacement for the old TEU. Soper and Brenneke give important technical information about the TEL, which was designed to accompany the Joint Councils Master Curriculum Guide Framework for teaching economics at the precollege levd. In addition, the authors discuss the Developmental Economic Education Program (DEEP) and show how “DEEP school enrollment and its interaction with an economics course at the high school level is the single most important determinant of performance on the TEL.”

Second Generation Research in Economic Education: Problems of Specification and Interdependence

bility that the i-th independent variable, or set of independent variables, has a different effect on the post-TUCE in the two groups. If such is the case, Sopers multiple regression estimates reflect erroneous aggregation between groups demonstrating different post-TUCE eftects. The customary way to check for such aggregation or distribution coefficient biases is to use an Arnold Zellner unrelated regression testing procedure [9] or a Gregory Chow type coefficient stability testing procedure [2]. Although I have additional comments concerning the lack of error term specifications and analysis, I believe the comments above are sufficient to indicate major statistical weaknesses in Sopers contention that his quantitative evidence suggests that PI material can be used effectively in large-enrollment principles courses when used in combination with a set of optional, objective quizzes.

What Is High School Economics? TEL Revision and Pretest Findings

The Test of Economic Literacy (TEL), revised in 1985, is a nationally normed instrument for measuring economic understanding of senior high school students. Walstad and Soper trace its development, validation, and norming and present the findings from the pretest analysis.

A Research and Evaluation Agenda for DEEP and Precollege Economic Education.

In 1983, the Joint Council on Economic Education (JCEE) initiated a major expansion and enhancement of its Developmental Economic Education Program (DEEP). The objective of the expansion effort is to enroll school districts covering 70 percent of the nations elementary and secondary students by 1990. In 1985, the JCEE also empaneled a committee to review the research and evaluation reports on DEEP, to make recommendations concerning what future studies would be most valuable, and to consider what kinds of research tools and programs might be required to promote DEEP. In this paper, we present the major conclusions of the committee, which broadened its agenda at the first meeting to encompass the more general topic of precollege economic education. The plain fact is that no

A Note on Economic Content and Test Validity.

This note offers some practical, easily used tips on how teachers can determine whether tests under consideration for classroom use are “valid,” that is, whether they measure what they are supposed to measure.

Economic Attitudes of High School Students: New Norms for the "Survey on Economic Attitudes.".

Abstract This paper reopens the question of the reliability and validity of an affective domain instrument, the Survey on Economic Attitudes, by providing new norms and a full discussion of the properties of the national high school sample used. The study also presents current information about the economic attitudes of American high school students, and raises some important questions about the affective orientation of social education.