The Effects of Economics Instruction in Early Adolescence

Abstract

The effect of instruction in economics on ninth-grade students' attitudes toward topics in economics was examined through a quasi-experiment. An original measure of attitudes toward economic issues was used to measure the pre- and posttest views of two groups of students: 803 students undergoing economics instruction, and 654 students, drawn from the same schools, not undergoing economics instruction. While there were no statistically significant pretreatment differences between the groups, as measured on the eight attitude scales, analysis of covariance at the posttest showed modest but statistically significant differences between the groups on five scales. The results support the hypothesis that instruction affects attitudes and lend qualified support to the hypothesis that the effects of instruction are in the same direction as developmental changes in attitudes.