WILL THE INTRODUCTION OF BASIC ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES CREATE INTRINSIC INTEREST IN SOCIAL STUDIES AND OVERALL SCHOOL ENTHUSIASM? JOEL SCOTT CBSE 7202T.NET 10/24/13

Table of Contents  Necessity of Research…..Slide 3  Research Design……………………………..Slide 4  Threats to Internal Validity……………..Slide 5  Threats to External Validity…………….Slide 5  Proposed Data……………………………….Slide 6  Pre-Test/ Post-Test Survey Questions…………………..Slide 7  Student Surveys…………………………..….Slide 8  Proposed Data Analysis and Correlation……………………….Slide 8-10  References………………………………..…….Slide 11

Reasoning Behind Research Many students are not taught the basics of economics until the undergraduate level or high school at the very earliest, if ever at all. African American and Latin children severely lag behind their white counterparts in income, educational, and generational wealth. Low income youth are more likely to come from families that do not have the necessary tools, institutions, and other ancillaries that would increase financial capability. By introducing a more culturally relevant aspect of social studies, intrinsic interest and attitudes will improve as will enthusiasm about attending and learning at school. Critical analysis might also start to take root. The average age at which people felt the government should require children to start learning about financial literacy was about 11.9 Presidents Advisory Council on Financial Capability (2/19/13) ◦First major recommendation is to focus on youth: ◦Integrate important aspects of finance into teaching of math and ELA Common Core State Standards for K-12 education.

Research Design  Research Design: Pre-Experimental Design  One Group: One designated treatment group  No Control Group  Random assignment is not used. Individuals are all African American students in the 5 th grade.  One Group Pretest-Posttest Design:  Single group (O) is pretested, given treatment (X) and post tested after treatment (O).  Symbolic Design: OXO  Designs consists of 20 students.  Research will be conducted for 4 weeks.

Internal & External Validity Threats INTERNAL History – Students might have preconceived notions about money, history, and how the world functions. They may have already made judgments about money and its function. Differential Selection of Subjects – Students are picked at random with varying degrees of intelligence. Economics, social studies, and finance might prove to be difficult for some to grasp. Selection-Maturation Interaction – Some of the students may have not matured enough to understand the real world complexity of the content. EXTERNAL Pre Test Treatment – Students might answer the pre test questions according to what they believe the experimenter’s expectations are. Specificity of Variables – If the variables, independent and dependent, are not specific and detailed there can be a threat to the interpretation and analysis of results. Experimenter Effects – As the experimenter and firm believer that economics should be instituted into K-6 curriculum I have to be aware of my own personal bias. I’m also a fan of culturally relevant content, another bias.

Proposed Data  Pretest and Posttest: Students will be given a pretest to determine their attitudes about social studies, its relevancy to their everyday lives, and school. After the treatment is administered the students will receive the same questions to determine any changes in attitudes.  Student Survey: Students who have undergone the treatment will be given a short survey to gauge understanding and attitudes towards social studies, money, and school after treatment is complete.

Pre & Post Treatment Question Examples: Likert scale used 1- STRONG DISAGREE, 2-DISAGREE, 3-AGREE, 4-STRONGLY AGREE  Social studies interests me.  Social studies relates to the world around me.  Social studies helps me better learn about the world.  I enjoy studying history and social studies on my own.  Social studies will make me a more successful adult.  I enjoy coming to school to learn.

Student attitudes towards social studies improved after the treatment. With a strong positive direction and correlation coefficient of.637(rxy) it is evident the treatment did affect attitudes towards studying social studies. Pre XPost Y rxy Proposed Data Analysis and Correlation Pretest Mean – 2.05 Posttest Mean – 2.10.rxy =.637

After undergoing the treatment which consisted of real world relevant explanations of economics and money students believed that social studies will aid in their success in the future. With a very strong positive direction and correlation coefficient of.777(rxy) their change in attitude is clear. Pre XPost Y rxy Proposed Data Analysis and Correlation Pretest Mean – 2.15 Posttest Mean – 3.00.rxy =.777

With a very weak positive direction and correlation coefficient of.179 (rxy) we can assume that the treatment did not affect student attitudes towards coming to school and learning. Pre XPost Y rxy Proposed Data Analysis and Correlation Pretest Mean – 2.75 Posttest Mean – 2.75.rxy =.179

References  O’Connor-Petruso, S. (2012). Descriptive Statistics Threats to Validity [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from