Economics 178

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• Economics 178
• The first year experience
• Improving the performance of first-year Economics
  students by means of an innovative summer school
  programme An evaluation
• PM Horn AI Jansen

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Our First-Year Class
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Outline of Presentation

• Introduction
• Why a summer school?
• Background
• First-year course
• The Summer School programme
• Lectures tutorials
• Disciplinary procedures
• Assessment
• Qualitative Analysis
• Interviews
• Lessons Learnt

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Introduction

• Why the need for a summer school programme?
• Concern about pass rates at Department, Faculty
  University Level
• Flow through of students to senior Economics
  courses restrained
• Repeating course has financial implications

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Background First-Year Course Economics 178

• Currently a year course, non-elective for all
  BCom students in Economic Management Sciences
  (EMS) faculty
• Elective for students from other faculties
• One of the largest enrolments in EMS Faculty
• Enrolment still increasing from 1668 students
  (2002) to 2024 students (in 2007) 21

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Success Rates
Year 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Total enrolment 1668 1712 1747 1719 1922
Fledgling students as of total enrolment 74 74 78 74 75
Repeaters as of total enrolment 26 26 22 26 25
Failures as of total enrolment 36 36 37 40 35
Fledgling students failures as of total fledgling students 33 34 36 36 34
Repeater failures as of total repeaters 44 41 45 54 39
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Economics 178 Enrolment statistics
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Success Rates

• Average pass rate of 65 for Economics 178
• Low (compared to Faculty (74) University
  averages (81))

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Possible Remedy to improve Success Rates?

• EMS Faculty initiated and implemented Summer
  school programme in January 2007
• Results 89 pass rate
• Statistics for the 2007 enrolment
• 80.3 fledging first year enrolment
• 19.66 repeaters
• Decrease of 6 in the repeat rate enrolment

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Summer schoolRequirements for entry

• Students had to have qualified for the final
  exams
• Students had to have written the final exam and
  failed this exam
• If students failed the first exam but qualified
  for a re-evaluation, they had to have made use of
  the second opportunity and again failed, to
  qualify for the summer school

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Summer schoolLectures

• Seventeen 3-hour sessions comprising all content
  covered during year course
• All lectures compulsory Van Walbeek (2004)
  found that lecture attendance improved
  performance.
• Students not allowed to commence late with the
  programme
• 3 Lecturers (from Economics Department) teaching
  different themes

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Summer school - Tutorials

• Tutors all Honours or Masters students
• All experienced tutors (received extensive
  training with the assistance of the university's
  Centre for Teaching and Learning)
• Tutorials compulsory
• Group sizes were approximately 30 students
• Tutorial homework consisted of exercises covering
  the chapters completed
• Purpose of exercises
• ensure that students revise the chapters covered
• test their understanding of the literature
• ensure that they participate actively during
  programme
• Marburger (2005)supports cooperative active
  learning where problems had a direct practical
  connection to work

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Summer schoolAssessment

• Two tests and an examination (weights similar to
  those in year course)
• Type of questions and format of tests and the
  examination identical to those year course
• Assessments set by the first-year lecturers and
  internally moderated
• Students had to obtain entrance to the
  examination - predicate (course mark) of at least
  40
• Students not allowed to submit any leave of
  absences for either tests or examinations
• All registered students wrote both tests and the
  examination

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Summer schoolDisciplinary procedures

• Students informed from the start that a)
  attendance of lectures and tutorials monitored,
  and b) if they did not attend lectures
  tutorials, registration of course cancelled
• Card-swiping machine used
• If missed one lecture, students called in to
  provide reason (only allowed to miss once, if
  valid reason provided e.g. medical certificate)
• Rower (1993) mandatory attendance could lead to
  a possible improved performance. Stanca (2006)
  motivated students will attend all lectures
  exogenous motivation by mandatory attendance.

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Summer School Results
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Interviews
Qualitative Analysis

• From the 178 students on the summer school, 10
  students agreed to a 40 minute personal
  interview.
• Nine students arrived for the interviews, which
  was conducted by the authors.
• Of the nine students, one student had failed the
  summer school.
• Of the remaining eight students, three students
  continued with second-year economics.

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Qualitative Analysis

• The interview focused on the following aspects
• motivation for attending the summer school
• how students experienced the management of the
  programme (discipline compulsory attendance,
  etc.)
• teaching techniques applied (different lecturers
  teaching different themes length of lecture
  sessions)
• active learning techniques (homework exercises
  tutorial sessions and group work techniques
  applied)
• impact of summer school experiences on second
  year of study
• attitude towards Economics as a discipline

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Interviews Some Results
Primary reason for participation do not want to repeat Economics 178 extend studies with one more year. Strict discipline and compulsory attendance expected given type of programme they enrolled for.
Many comfortable with teaching style used. Some comments on some sections being taught too fast or lack of clarity on some important concepts. Resounding success of the tutorial sessions. Techniques used one of the primary factors contributing to their success in the summer school.
Most students indicated that they actively participated during tutorial sessions. They asked questions and answered when the tutor asked them questions (different to what they did during the normal tutorial sessions). Very few students did more self-study other than just completing their tasks. Most students spent, on average, about two hours per day on this activity.
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Interviews Some Results
Students indicated the importance of becoming actively involved in their learning process. They became more aware of what they did not apply correctly during the academic year, such as reading before lectures, doing tutorial exercises, reading and practicing the examples on a daily basis.
Most students indicated that these learning techniques worked effectively during the summer school, but that it was more difficult to apply during the year (due to time constraints, other subjects, friends around, etc.). Factors identified that contributed to failing the summer school include less attention paid in class, very little participation in tutorial sessions and little interaction with other students during study sessions.
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Some Lessons Learnt

• Tutorials allowed students to engage with peers
  in small, interactive groups increased
  opportunity to learn
• Attending only one course during this period
• Enthusiasm and encouragement of lecturers and
  tutors contributed to success achieved
• Experienced staff important

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Concluding Remarks

• It is apparent that strict discipline, mandatory
  attendance of lectures and tutorials, attending
  only one module at a time, motivated students,
  and repetition of work still relatively fresh in
  the minds of students, contributed to the success
  of this summer school.
• Questions?