Abstract
Although literature on economic classroom experiments is growing fast we have found a total of only three studies that measure the effectiveness of the method in a control group design where undergraduates have been taught by experiments through the semester. We have therefore conducted a similar study with two “microeconomics II” courses of the years 2007 and 2008 (N = 161) at the University of Siegen in Germany. Students were divided in two groups. The “experiments” group was taught by playing games. The control group was taught traditionally by lectures. Applying a series of three tests we can show an advantage of the experimental method in the procedural domain and in the tests that have taken place at an earlier time during the semester. In the declarative domain and at a later stage in the semester the “lectures” group outperforms the experimental group. As a consequence we recommend a blended learning environment.
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Notes
- 1.
Since we plan to use the test questions again for a similar study, we have not added the test questionnaires.
- 2.
There was a big incentive for students to bid for a chocolate bar for it was lunchtime and they were allowed to eat the bar during the test session.
- 3.
This implies that each class has got a different demand curve.
- 4.
We would have liked to use the students’ cumulative grade point averages (GPA) or the scores on the American College Test (ACT) but there simply is nothing comparable in Germany to which we could have linked our students’ performance.
- 5.
- 6.
The EAP/PV-estimators were linearly transformed to a distribution that—in order to ensure comparability—has the same mean as the average of the means of the other models.
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Ebbers, I., Macha, K., Schlösser, HJ., Schuhen, M. (2012). On the Effectiveness of Economic Experiments as a Method of Teaching Undergraduates. In: Van den Bossche, P., Gijselaers, W., Milter, R. (eds) Learning at the Crossroads of Theory and Practice. Advances in Business Education and Training, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2846-2_9
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