Recognising and Building on Freshman Students' Prior Knowledge of Economics

The results of three surveys of freshman economics students (2008-2010) at the Waikato Management School, New Zealand, suggest that incoming students have significant levels of prior economics knowledge. Given this head start in knowledge, we have expanded our freshman lecture material with more advanced content than students would normally encounter in a microeconomics principles class. This paper examines the sources of incoming students’ prior economics knowledge and discusses some of the changes made to the learning material. The changes relate principally to the links we make between students’ basic, prior economics knowledge and the more advanced learning content that demonstrates how formal economics training can add considerable value in thinking more deeply about current affairs, business issues and daily life experiences.