The importance of economic literacy

In the world of globalization, international markets and world-wide competition it is important for students to be well informed about the underlying economic concepts. Knowledge about economics, termed 'economic literacy', has become as important as being literate in reading, writing and arithmetic. For each country and educational system the importance of economic literacy is tied to educating its youth to be capable of understanding, thinking and acting according to basic economic principles. Based on the Australian setting this book sheds light on the growing importance of economic literacy as reflected in the States' curricula and as measured in a recent survey conducted across Queensland.

Autorentext

The Authors: Dieter Kotte was born in Hamburg in 1956. Ph.D. from Hamburg University in International Comparative Education (1992). Associate Professor for Economics Education at the University of Technology, Dresden (1993-1995). Currently, International Consultant for Educational Measurement and Testing.
Petra Lietz is Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Business and Law at Central Queensland University, Australia, where she also lectures in Advanced Business Statistics. After her undergraduate studies at Hamburg University, she was awarded the degrees of Master of Education and PhD from the Flinders University of South Australia.

Inhalt

Contents: Review of economic literacy world-wide - Gender differences in Economics - Content analysis of Economics curricula - Levels of economic literacy - Economics as a school subject - Economic Literacy Survey - Queensland 1998 - The internet and data collection - Literacy benchmarking using Rasch scaling - Student's attitudes towards economics - Successful teaching strategies in Economics - School resources and Economic literacy - Policy recommendations - Hierarchical linear models - Path analysis.