According to the generative theory of learning, people understand new concepts by idiosyncratically relating them to prior experiences and prior stored information. In the case of economics, students’ prior experiences can interfere with their correct understanding of the material. Although...

The effect of absenteeism on students’ exam performance during an introductory microeconomics course was examined. The focus was on the impact of absenteeism in the prior exam period on current exam performance. Results showed a negative and significant correlation – one additional class...

This paper analyzes to what degree 25 undergraduate microeconomics textbooks incorporate contributions from behavioral economics and experimental economics. We find that ten of the 25 textbooks examined make no reference at all to behavioral economics; six dedicate less than 1% of total pages to...

Educators continuously seek new ways to engage students in the classroom. Clickers are one tool available to instructors who want to move beyond the traditional “chalk and talk” teaching method. While there has been extensive research in the sciences studying the effectiveness of using...

The present study brings together two research streams in the extant literature that examine separately the effectiveness of using experiments in the principles classroom and the relationship between different personality types and student achievement. Using a sample of 255 principles of...

The purpose of this study is to examine a controversial debate whether students who spend more time on completing the assignments perform better. More specifically, the study investigates the relationship between the time spent (as a measure of students' efforts) on an assignment and students'...

Flipping the principles of microeconomics classroom significantly improves student learning outcomes; however, it remains unclear as to if the effect differs depending upon the duration and frequency of class meeting times. This paper investigates if the quantitative effects of flipping on...

This paper presents an in-class experiment used as a teaching tool in an introductory microeconomics class at the undergraduate college level. It is directed at a critical but challenging concept for principles students — constrained utility maximization and a methodology to intuit...

Classes in microeconomics typically use cubic cost functions because they can exhibit marginal costs that fall as output increases to some efficient level, and then rise thereafter. Cubic cost functions embody economies of scale, making it easy to illustrate that concept with quadratic average...