Who's Afraid of Their Economics Classes? Why are Students Apprehensive about Introductory Economics Courses? An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

This paper investigates why students are apprehensive about their principles of economics classes. Using data collected on 399 students from a large, midwestem public university in the 1998 academic year, the authors examine whether there are demographic differences in levels of apprehension and what are the reported reasons for apprehension. The study includes a descriptive analysis and a probit analysis and concludes that: (1) course reputation is the main reason reported by students as the reason for being apprehensive; (2) females tend to be more apprehensive than males; and (3) increased math ability reduces apprehension levels for males and females. The authors suggest that preparatory sessions for those students weak in mathematics and alternative teaching methodologies may reduce the level of apprehension in the introductory courses.

Are Environmental Professors Unbalanced? Evidence From the Field

“…to measure student attitudes as a result of exposure to economics instruction" (Soper & Walstad, 1983, p. 5). As with STEM education, the emphasis has been on measuring attitudes toward the study of economics (e.g, see, Benedict & Hoag, 2002).…”

Economic Education Retrospective

“…Benedict and Hoag (2002) examined the effect of student-level characteristics, questionnaire data, and enrollment in introductory microeconomics or macroeconomics on students’ course-related apprehension. The authors found students’ mathematical proficiency as measured by ACT Math score had a negative and significant effect on the probability of student apprehension.…”

The Distributional Efficacy of Collaborative Learning on Student Outcomes

“…They find that the greatest gain is achieved by those in the lower part of the student performance distribution. Further connections as to why math skills are important have been link to the reduction of anxiety that interferes with the learning process in introductory economic courses, see Benedict & Hoag (2002). 6.…”