A Study of the Relationship between Economic Literacy and Economic Participation: College of Business Students in Northern Taiwan

Author: Yung-Ching Tseng(Department of Civic Education and Leadership, National Taiwan Normal University)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 50, No. 1
Date：April 2005
Pages：123-138
DOI：10.3966/2073753X2005045001006

Abstract：

The purpose of a College of Business is to enable students with analytic and practical skills to play an important role in their nation’s economy. Economics is the foundation of the curriculum in every Commercial subject, yet little research has been conducted on the relationship between “economic literacy”（students’ basic understanding of economics, of the whole economic system）and the participation of students in Commercial courses. In fact such economic literary depends on students active “economic participation”（participation in their country’s economy）, itself an important part of citizenship. Thus training Commercial students to actively（even aggressively） participate in and （therefore） be vitally concerned about current business and economic affairs in their society should also be an important goal of economic education. Setting out to explore how such a teaching method for Business or Commercial courses might be further developed and improved, this study examined the relationship between Commercial students’ family backgrounds, gender and degree of economic participation on the one hand and their “economic literacy” on the other. A survey was used to collect data, which were then analyzed via a multivariate method. The findings were as follows: there is a significant correlation between economic literacy score and both gender（males scoring higher） and learning interest, but no significant correlation between this score and parental social status and education level; furthermore, no canonical correlation between this score and the degree of their economic participation.

Keywords：economic literacy, economic participation, College of Business

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