AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF PEDAGOGIC INTERVENTIONS IN FIRST-YEAR ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT AND MAINSTREAM COURSES IN MICROECONOMICS

This paper analyses the impact of pedagogic interventions in first-year academic development and mainstream courses in microeconomics on students' performance in the final examination. The data for six cohorts, covering the years 1999 and 2001-2005, are pooled, and the Heckman two-part procedure is used to account for those students who started the course but did not write the final examination. The results suggest that the pedagogic interventions have a positive impact on the performance of academic development students relative to the mainstream cohort and on the performance of mainstream students. Copyright (c) 2009 The Author. Journal compilation (c) 2009 Economic Society of South Africa.

[1]  J. Weissman,et al.  Using Research to Evaluate Developmental Education Programs and Policies , 1997 .

[2]  Daniel R. Marburger,et al.  Does Mandatory Attendance Improve Student Performance? , 2006 .

[3]  R. Tay.  Students' Performance in Economics: Does the Norm Hold Across Cultural and Institutional Settings? , 1994 .

[4]  Jeff Anstine,et al.  A Small Sample Study of Traditional and Online Courses with Sample Selection Adjustment , 2005 .

[5]  Kudayja Parker.  CORRECTING FOR SAMPLING BIAS IN EDUCATION PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS , 2007 .

[6]  Kang H. Park,et al.  Determinants of Academic Performance: A Multinomial Logit Approach , 1990 .

[7]  J. Heckman.  Sample selection bias as a specification error , 1979 .

[8]  Luca Stanca,et al.  The Effects of Attendance on Academic Performance: Panel Data Evidence for Introductory Microeconomics , 2004 .

[9]  Michael A. McPherson.  Determinants of How Students Evaluate Teachers , 2006 .

[10]  L. C. Smith,et al.  A multivariate evaluation of mainstream and academic development courses in first-year microeconomics at the University of Cape Town : a comparative study , 2007 .

[11]  Clifford Nowell,et al.  I Thought I Got an A! Overconfidence Across the Economics Curriculum , 2007 .

[12]  Pamela M. Schmitt,et al.  The Performance of Economics Graduates over the Entire Curriculum: The Determinants of Success , 2006 .

[13]  R. Beck,et al.  A History of Inequality in South Africa 1652-2002 , 2012 .

[14]  Douglas Walker,et al.  Additional Evidence on the Relationship between Class Size and Student Performance , 2004 .

[15]  G. M. Ramirez.  Supplemental Instruction: The Long-Term Impact. , 1997 .

[16]  William D. Bosshardt.  Student Drops and Failure in Principles Courses , 2004 .

[17]  S. Douglas,et al.  Estimating Educational Production Functions with Correction for Drops , 1995 .

[18]  Eric Bettinger,et al.  Addressing the Needs of Under-Prepared Students in Higher Education: Does College Remediation Work? NBER Working Paper No. 11325. , 2005 .

[19]  Luca Stanca.  The Effects of Attendance on Academic Performance: Panel Data Evidence for Introductory Microeconomics , 2004 .

[20]  John F. Chizmar.  A Discrete-Time Hazard Analysis of the Role of Gender in Persistence in the Economics Major , 2000 .

[21]  Catherine O'Connor,et al.  Student Effort and Performance over the Semester , 2005 .

[22]  Daniel R. Marburger,et al.  Absenteeism and Undergraduate Exam Performance , 2001 .

[23]  Cornéa van Walbeek,et al.  DOES LECTURE ATTENDANCE MATTER? SOME OBSERVATIONS FROM A FIRST-YEAR ECONOMICS COURSE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN , 2005 .

[24]  Ross B. MacDonald,et al.  A Critical Review of Research in Developmental Education: Part II. , 1995 .

[25]  J. deVilliers,et al.  The academic effectiveness of a bridging year for commerce undergraduates , 1992 .

[26]  J. Villiers,et al.  The Effect of a Bridging Year on the Graduation Success of Educationally Disadvantaged Commerce Students. , 1998 .

[27]  Thomas Brothen,et al.  Transforming Instruction with Technology for Developmental Students. , 1998 .

[28]  Ellen Sewell,et al.  Grade Dropping: An Empirical Analysis , 2004 .

[29]  J. Ashworth,et al.  Modeling Student Subject Choice at Secondary and Tertiary Level: A Cross-Section Study , 2001 .

[30]  L. Esposito,et al.  Introductory Class Size and Student Performance in Intermediate Theory Courses. , 1990 .

[31]  Alex van der Merwe,et al.  Identifying Some Constraints In First Year Economics Teaching And Learning At A Typical South African University Of Technology , 2006 .

[32]  Kudayja Parker,et al.  The Effect Of Student Characteristics On Achievement In Introductory Microeconomics In South Africa , 2006 .

[33]  L. Edwards,et al.  An Econometric Evaluation of Academic Development Programmes in Economics , 2000 .

[34]  C. Mcconnell.  Economics 101: Where Do We Stand?. , 1980 .

[35]  C. Watts,et al.  HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Interventions in Sub‐Saharan Africa: An Econometric Analysis of the Costs of Scaling‐Up , 2000 .

[36]  Andrea L. Ziegert,et al.  The Role of Personality Temperament and Student Learning in Principles of Economics: Further Evidence , 2000 .

[37]  Wayne A. Grove,et al.  Choosing a Proxy for Academic Aptitude , 2006 .

[38]  Bridget Terry Long,et al.  Addressing the Needs of Underprepared Students in Higher Education , 2005, The Journal of Human Resources.