BackgroundWhen beginning higher education studies in business and economics students bring with them diverse knowledge and experience in the field, which could affect their success in the program. Differences in prior economic education pose challenges to the teachers in higher education as they have to decide which knowledge of economics the students have. This is important for preparing the lessons in higher education. In this paper, we investigate how prior economic education influences beginning university students’ knowledge of economics.MethodsWe administered items from the German adaptations of the test of economic literacy and the test of understanding college economics, both developed by the national council on economic education, to assess the general knowledge of economics and specific knowledge of micro- and macroeconomics of 511 beginning students at two universities in Germany.ResultsParticipants who had completed vocational training or a course in economics as a major subject at secondary school (“Leistungskurs Wirtschaft”) performed significantly better on items relating to general economics and macroeconomics; however, there was no significant difference in performance on items relating to microeconomics between the comparison groups. Attendance of an upper secondary school specializing in economics (“Wirtschaftsgymnasium”) has no significant effect when controlling for these two learning opportunities and other personal characteristics. In addition, we performed regression-analytic modelling to examine the correlation between economic knowledge and personal factors such as gender, grade on university entrance examination, and migration background and found effects depended on the economic content area assessed.ConclusionsThe study demonstrates that there is a heterogeneity in students’ knowledge of economics when beginning higher education studies in business and economics. The results of this research highlight the importance of designing target-oriented teaching methods that take into consideration the study-relevant (prior) knowledge of beginning students.

中文翻译：

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先前的经济教育如何影响初学者对经济学的了解

背景技术在开始进行商科和经济学的高等教育研究时，学生会带来该领域的各种知识和经验，这可能会影响他们在该计划中的成功。先前的经济教育中的差异给高等教育的教师带来了挑战，因为他们必须决定学生所拥有的经济学知识。这对于准备高等教育课程很重要。在本文中，我们研究了先前的经济教育如何影响初学者对经济的认识。方法我们管理的项目来自于德国改编的经济素养测试和对大学经济学的理解测试，都是由国家经济教育委员会开发的，评估德国两所大学的511名初学者的经济学一般知识和微观与宏观经济学的具体知识。结果参加了中学课程的专业培训或经济学课程的学员（“ Leistungskurs Wirtschaft”）在与一般经济学和宏观经济学有关的项目上明显更好；但是，在比较组之间，与微观经济学相关的项目在绩效上没有显着差异。控制这两个学习机会和其他个人特征时，就读经济学专业的高中（“ Wirtschaftsgymnasium”）不会产生重大影响。此外，我们进行了回归分析模型，以检验经济知识与个人因素之间的相关性，例如性别，高考成绩和移民背景，并发现其影响取决于所评估的经济内容领域。结论该研究表明，学生存在异质性在开始商科和经济学的高等教育学习时的经济学知识。这项研究的结果突出了设计面向目标的教学方法的重要性，该方法应考虑初学者与学习相关的（先验）知识。结论该研究表明，在开始商业和经济学的高等教育研究时，学生的经济学知识存在异质性。这项研究的结果突出了设计面向目标的教学方法的重要性，该方法应考虑初学者与学习相关的（先验）知识。结论该研究表明，在开始商业和经济学的高等教育研究时，学生的经济学知识存在异质性。这项研究的结果突出了设计面向目标的教学方法的重要性，该方法应考虑初学者与学习相关的（先验）知识。