Can Economic Concepts Be Learned and Remembered: A Comparison of Elementary Students

Experience- and Concept-Label-Type Effects on First-Graders’ Learning, Retention of Economic Concepts

“…In order to avoid the retention problems associated with certain economic concepts (Laney, 1988), these teachers should use real-life experiences and invented concept labels as they plan and implement economics lessons. When initially introducing an economic concept, teachers might wisely give preference to activities that provide real-life experiences with an economic concept as opposed to activities that provide only vicarious experiences with the same concept.…”

“…concepts in the K-12 CUrrIculum. Although liltermediate-grade students appear to be able to retain economic information well, as evinced by Rader et al (1%7), my recent pilot study (Laney, 1988) suggested that the retention of economic concepts by students in the early primary grades may be problematic.…”

“…I developed the understanding-of-opportunity-cost measure that was administered at immediate and delayed posttests from ideas in Kourilsky (1983aKourilsky ( , 1983b and in my previous experiment (Laney, 1988). The item order of the 100item test was varied at the two test administrations.…”

“…In my study (Laney, 1988), first, third, and sixth graders were taught the same two lessons-one on scarcity (i.e., limited resources vs. virtually unlimited wants) and one on opportunity cost (i.e. , the next-or second-best use for a scarce resource or what one gives up when she or he makes a decision).…”

“…In discussing my findings, I suggested (Laney, 1988) that first graders' retention of these economic concepts and concept labels might be improved in two ways: (I) by using active, personal, real-life experiences that relate to the concepts being taught and (2) by using invented 232 words that are generated by the instructor and/or students after they examine the concepts named by these words. I cited Kourilsky (l983a, 1983b) and Parker and Perez (1987) as the bases for these suggestions.…”