Class length and student performance: An extended study

Many accounting educators believe that the student learning of accounting is better facilitated over a longer period of time, rather than a shorter period of time. This study examined the results of student performance in two introductory accounting courses, comparing student performance results of four-week summer classes with the results of traditional 16-week courses. In this research, the same professor taught the spring and summer ACC 201 courses, and two other professors taught both the spring and summer ACC 211 courses. Also held constant were the lecture material, course assignment, and test content. The results of the study indicate that in general, students taking introductory accounting over four weeks fare about as well as students who take introductory accounting over a traditional 16-week period. These results have potential importance beyond accounting education and provide support to universities offering more block courses to better serve individual student needs.     

Professional Developments and Opportunities

Surveys in 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010 investigated teaching and assessment methods in different undergraduate courses. In this article, the authors offer basic results from the 2010 survey. “Chalk and talk” remains the dominant teaching style, but there were drops in mean (although not median) values for those pedagogies and some growth in the use of other methods, including class discussion and computer-generated displays. More instructors provided students with problem sets and class notes, and computer lab assignments were increasingly common in econometrics and statistics courses. Experiments are occasionally used in introductory courses but almost never used in other courses. Calculus is not viewed as important by a majority of instructors in any courses but is considered more important in intermediate theory and statistics and econometrics courses.     

The Effect of Macro/Micro Course Sequencing on Learning and Attitudes in Principles of Economics

Most of us naturally assume that the more courses a student takes the more he or she will learn. Little has been done, however, to determine just how much additional knowledge or understanding is acquired from economics courses above the introductory level. David Hartman, Director of Undergraduate Economics at Harvard, has taken an important step in attempting to measure the impact of the higher level courses. This atticle reports the results of a study of the effects of intermediate micro and macro courses, field courses, a “graduate-type highly theoretical course,” and a policy-oriented micro course. The report should be of great interest, and will probably engender additional research in other colleges.     

东北农业大学农林经济管理专业人才培养调查与分析

本研究采用问卷调查分析方法对东北农业大学农林经济管理专业的本科人才培养情况进行了调查分析,结果表明在人才培养过程中存在着课程设置陈旧、实践课程比例过低、专业培养不能满足实际需要等问题,因此应重点从创新本科生人才培养体系来解决这些问题。     

我国城市创业成本指数的构建及其实证研究

创业成本是影响创新创业活动开展的重要因素,但关于城市创业成本的量化研究却很少。本文从显性成本和隐性成本两个方面将创业成本划分为生活成本、环境成本、融资成本、运营成本、研发成本和失败成本六类,在此基础上建立了城市创业成本指数,选取了我国创业活动较为活跃的10个城市进行了2012-2016年创业成本指数的实证研究。研究结果表明：在10个样本城市中,深圳的创业成本一直居于较高水平,北京、上海近五年创业成本总体呈上升趋势,长沙、成都的创业成本呈下降趋势,重庆的创业成本一直保持在较低的水平。经济发展水平越高的城市,其创业成本中的显性成本相对较高,但隐性成本则相对较低。     

Default options and training participation

This article analyzes whether defaults affect the choice for courses followed at work. In addition, we analyze whether the size of the default effect varies with employees’ personality and skill-deficiencies. We perform an experiment in which workers are hypothetically offered three courses which they can accept or exchange for other courses. Randomizing the default package of courses, we identify the default effect. Default courses are chosen approximately three times more often than other courses. They are chosen more often if people have skill-deficiencies in these courses, suggesting that people consider the default to be an advice. Women choose default courses more often than men. Women with less self-confidence and men with lower cognitive skills choose the default courses more often.     

流动性补偿、信息不对称与市场预期:央票发行对央票交易成本的影响分析

基于对经济正常波动时期与金融危机时期央票发行对央票交易成本的影响分析,结论表明央票交易成本中流动性成本显著高于信息不对称成本。在经济正常波动时期,央票发行顺应市场预期,央票发行并未引起流动性成本和信息不对称成本的显著变化;在金融危机时期,央票发行出乎市场预期,央票发行引起信息不对称成本显著增加,指令流自相关系数显著降低。而央票市场的信息不对称成本,主要来源于机构投资者对公开信息的解读不同。     

Undergraduate Coursework in Economics: A Survey Perspective

Survey results from a large sample of economics departments describe offerings for principles courses, coursework requirements for economics majors, and program augmentations such as capstone courses, senior seminars, and honors programs. Findings are reported for all institutions, and institutions are subdivided into six different categories based on public or private control and the highest economics degree offered. The coursework required for the economics major typically consists of ten courses, five in a required core and five electives. The most conspicuous curriculum change over the past 30 years is the rise of econometrics as a required course, now mandatory at about half of major programs. The authors estimate that about 40 percent of students who matriculate as first-year undergraduates take at least one economics course before they leave.     

Economics Courses Offered and Required in Two-year Colleges

Reporting the results of a nation-wide survey of economics in junior colleges, Dawson lists the courses given and indicates which students are required to take economics. Not surprisingly, Principles of Economics is most common, and business students are the ones most likely to be required to take it. The average number of courses offered is three, although some schools offer as many as 10. A breakdown by type of college (public, independent, church-related) is presented, and suggestions for improvement are offered.     

论高校大学英语选修课的发展模式

随着教学条件和社会环境的变化,大学英语教学要实现《课程要求》所规定的多层次要求,开设选修课是一种理想的选择。通过促进学习动机,选修课可以帮助学生在学习其它知识时构建语言知识,并实现个性化的自主学习。选修课程的内容包括语言技能类、语言文化类和专业英语类课程。在开设大学英语选修课时,知情判断、目标定位和课程评估要特别引起关注。     

Teaching Methods in U.S. Undergraduate Economics Courses

In 1995 and 2000, the authors surveyed academic economists in the United States to establish how economics is taught in four types of undergraduate courses. The authors report overall findings from the 2000 survey and compare these results with the aggregate findings for respondents from all types of colleges and universities in the 1995 survey. The basic finding is that, despite some indications of increased emphasis and interest in teaching over this period, the teaching methods in these courses have changed very little over the past five years and are still dominated by “chalk and talk” classroom presentations.     

How Departments of Economics Evaluate Teaching

Based on results from a 1999 national survey, William Becker and Michael Watts found that student evaluations of teaching were by far the most widely used, and often the only method used by economics departments, to evaluate teaching in undergraduate economics courses. To investigate whether departments of economics have moved beyond the use of student evaluations of teaching, in 2011 the current authors conducted a national survey of departments based largely on questions used in the 1999 survey. The surveys included items on how courses and teaching are evaluated, and on how that information is used in departmental promotion and salary decisions.     

基于项目的深度创业实践课程:机制与效果

分析了高等学校创业课程的设置状况和特点,指出现有创业实践课程存在学生难以深入创业企业核心的问题,进而研究了清华大学开设的基于项目的系列深度创业实践课程,分析了该课程的机制设计、存在问题和改进以及实施效果。     

Trends in Undergraduate Economics Degrees: An Update

The author examines the effects of different introductory microeconomics textbooks on student performance in subsequent economics courses (specifically, Intermediate Microeconomics I and Money and Banking). In some cases, the effects are significant and sizeable. There is also evidence of other variables affecting student performance in later courses, such as taking first-year microeconomics by distance, math background, effects of having taken other economics courses, and the time between introductory economics and later courses.     

基于BARY曲线的基本电价测算模型研究

本文针对目前两部制电价中基本电费按容量计费导致基本电价水平偏低、不能合理配置电力资源的问题,以长期边际成本理论为基础,结合描述电力系统负荷特性同时率与负荷率关系的BARY经验曲线,构建了容量成本在基本电费和电度电费中的分摊模型,并用某市电力局提供的有关数据,依据该模型测算了按电压等级和负荷特性划分的分类用户的基本电价。结果表明,该模型是确定基本电价的一种可行工具。     

Fixed and Sunk Costs Revisited

The authors attempt to clarify the concepts of, and the link between, fixed costs and sunk costs. They argue that the root for possible confusion between fixed costs and sunk costs is the inconsistency in defining the term fixed costs. They define fixed costs uniformly as the costs that are independent of the level of output and suggest that instructors refer to the part of fixed costs that are irrevocably committed as sunk costs. Under these definitions, the statement “there are no long-run fixed costs” is incorrect. Instructors should teach students that in the long run there are no sunk costs, although there may easily be fixed costs.     

浅析传统成本法与作业成本法的区别与联系

由于企业的竞争日趋激烈,一种能够有效控制成本的作业成本法应运而生.在西方国家,作业成本法得到了良好的实施并取得了一定的成效.本文分析了作业成本法与传统成本法的区别和联系,作业成本法从根本上解决了传统成本法的缺陷.以作业为基础的成本计算是成本会计科学发展的大趋势,在我国研究与推广作业成本法有着重大的理论与现实意义.     

DOES TEACHER QUALITY AFFECT STUDENT PERFORMANCE? EVIDENCE FROM AN ITALIAN UNIVERSITY

In this paper, we analyse whether the characteristics of university teaching staff matter with regard to students' performance and interest in the discipline. We use data on about 1000 students enrolled on the first-level degree course in business and economics at a medium-sized Italian university. Thanks to the random assignment of students to different teaching classes during their first year, we are able to analyse the effect that teachers with different characteristics, in terms of experience and research productivity, produce both on students' performance, measured in terms of the grades obtained at subsequent examinations, and on courses chosen. Our results suggest that teacher quality has statistically significant effects on students' grades in subsequent courses. These effects are also robust after controlling for unobserved individual characteristics. On the other hand, we find less clear evidence when relating teacher quality to student involvement with a subject. It emerges that research productivity does not produce a statistically significant effect on the probability of a student undertaking additional courses in a subject, while more experienced teachers have a negative impact. However, also this effect does not become statistically significant when we run separate regressions for different disciplines.     

基于职业能力培养的文科高职实训课程建设——以《社会工作法律实务》课程为例

现代社会的发展对高职课程建设提出了新的要求。与理工科一样,文科高职实训课程的建设也应该关注学生就业岗位所要求的职业能力,应该以职业能力为目标设计课程,开发课程。《社会工作法律实务》课程的设计和开发,证明了这种思路的正确性和可行性。