Students' persistent preconceptions and learning economic principles

Economic views held by the general public tend to differ significantly from those of economic experts. Would these differences fade away if people were exposed to some economic instruction? In this article, the authors identify college students' preconceptions about economic issues at the beginning of the semester, verify their persistence throughout the semester, and test whether their beliefs are correlated to course performance. The authors conduct a survey at the beginning and end of the semester on a sample of first-year students taking an economic principles course. They find evidence of preconception persistence and reasoning inconsistencies, pointing to some cognitive biases as a plausible cause. Most students do not integrate the newly learned tools into their thinking process, even if they perform well in tests.     

高职教育中专业的职业性意蕴

职业性是高职教育专业最突出的市场性特征,同时,职业性也广泛见诸于普通高等教育专业类型。在职业性标准上的区分,凸显两种类型教育专业不同的内在逻辑。     

论任务型教学法在高职中外合作办学大学英语教学中的运用

高等职业技术学院中外合作办学的学生入学分数低、基础差、学习动力不足,学习英语的态度、方法等都存在一些问题.任务型教学法强调学习者通过使用目的语进行交互活动,进而掌握语言交流的实际能力.“任务型教学”的运用和实践将对外语教学模式的转变、学生语言运用能力的培养以及学习者“互动式”学习方式的形成起到积极而有益的促进作用.     

Ghanaian school-going adolescents’ self-perceived barriers of access to quality education: A qualitative study

Social equality has emerged as one of the important ideals of human society, especially for development. Moreover, education has featured prominently among the many key drivers of equality. However, in developing nations like Ghana, education represents one of the areas in which gross inequality has eroded the country’s potential for attaining equality and development. The aim of the current study was to explore adolescents’ self-perceived barriers regarding access to quality education in the Northern Region of Ghana and provide suggestions on the way forward. A sample of 18 school-going adolescents from six secondary schools within the Northern Region of Ghana was purposively selected to participate in face-to-face interviews. The barriers identified included limited resources, gender disparities and a multi-dimension nature of poverty. Implications for policy and research are discussed.     

Ethnic patterns of returns to education in Bulgaria

It is widely accepted that disparities in education contribute to the poor labour market outcomes experienced by ethnic minority groups and consequently to their poverty. In this article, I analyse differential educational benefits in Bulgaria and compare returns to education for the Roma minority with the majority population and the Turkish minority. I show that both ethnic minority groups have lower education levels and employment rates than the majority population and that they also have lower returns to education. This result could be related to minorities' lower education quality as well as to discrimination in the labour market. Integration policies should thus aim to improve employability and labour market competence of vulnerable groups starting from school.     

高校创业教育的运行体制探讨

创业教育的运行体制在高校的创业教育中起着至关重要的作用。为了更好地开展创业教育，很多高校对创业教育的运行体制做过不同的尝试，取得了很多有价值的经验。从剖析各高校开展创业教育所采用的运行体制入手，揭示当前高校创业教育运行体制中存在的突出问题，有针对性地提出高校有效开展创业教育所应采取的运行体制构建模式。     

Teaching teenagers in finance: Does it work?

Many initiatives worldwide aim at improving financial literacy through targeted education programs, yet there is little evidence regarding their effectiveness. We examine the impact of a short financial education program on teenagers in German high schools. Our findings reveal that the training program significantly increases teenagers’ interest in financial matters and their financial knowledge, especially their ability to properly assess the riskiness of assets. Behaviorally, we observe a decrease in the prevalence of self-reported impulse purchases, but at the same time find no evidence of a significant increase in savings.