How to Improve Economic Understanding? Testing Classroom Experiments in High Schools

Gerald Eisenkopf and Pascal Sulser

No 2013-04, Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz from Department of Economics, University of Konstanz

Abstract: We present results from a field experiment at Swiss high schools in which we compare the effectiveness of a classroom experiment against conventional economics teaching. We randomly assigned classes into different teaching environments or a control group. Our results suggest that both teaching methods improve economic understanding considerably in contrast to classes without prior training. We do not observe a significant overall effect of the classroom experiment, but more able students benefit from the experiment while others lose out. Furthermore there is no robust impact of economic training on social preferences, measured as both individual behavior in incentivized decisions or political opinions.

Keywords: Education of Economics; Classroom Experiments; Field Experiments; Indoctrination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A21 C93 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 83 pages
Date: 2013-02-15
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-edu, nep-exp and nep-ure
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Related works:
Working Paper: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Teaching Methods: Do Classroom Experiments Improve Economic Education in High Schools? (2013)
Working Paper: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Teaching Methods: Do Classroom Experiments improve Economic Education in High Schools? (2013)
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