Teaching Economic Concepts with an Economic Development Theme in Middle Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of teaching basic economic concepts to middle grade social studies students, using a videotape with an economic development theme and accompanying instructional activities. First, teachers and administrators participated in staff development about how to implement the curriculum. Then. 478 middle school students completed pretests and posttests, with the intervention of the video tape and instructional activities. Using a correlated t-test, the posttest mean was significantly higher than the pretest mean. The results provide evidence that middle school students can increase their understanding of economics and economic development, and support the inclusion of economics in the middle grade social studies curriculum. Beyond evaluating the efficacy of teaching economics to middle school students, the procedures serve as a model for implementation of a new social studies curriculum, a model that is transferable to other curricula.

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