0000000000594278
AUTHOR
Carla Kühling-thees
The Impact of Entry Preconditions on Student Dropout and Subject Change in Business and Economics
The proportion of students dropping out of higher education economics is remarkably high at approximately 25 % and has been constant for years. The results on the entry preconditions of dropping out and changing subjects in Bachelor’s degree programs in business and economics presented in this paper are based on a representative longitudinal study in Germany. In two survey waves, the cognitive entry preconditions and characteristics of business and economics students related to their study and learning processes were tested. Dropouts have lower levels of previous knowledge than students changing subjects and students who continue to study business and economics. The students’ characteristic…
Influences on the Development of Economic Knowledge over the First Academic Year
Despite significant research, it remains unclear whether the goal of developing domain-specific knowledge in higher education is actually being achieved. This is also true for the internationally most popular study domain of business and economics. In Germany, a test for measuring economic knowledge was validated, enabling the analysis of change in knowledge over the course of studies. Business and economics students from across Germany were surveyed over the course of one study year: 7,111 beginning students in the winter term of 2016/2017, and 1,705 third semester students in the winter term of 2017/2018. Investigating the longitudinal matched sample of 734 students who took part at both …
Validating a Test for Measuring Knowledge and Understanding of Economics Among University Students
Abstract. University students' knowledge and understanding of economics have mostly been investigated cross-sectionally; however, longitudinal analyses are needed to determine which factors influence knowledge development and to draw valid conclusions based on test results. In the WiWiKom II project, a quasi-experimental longitudinal study was conducted assessing bachelor students of business and economics over the course of their studies in Germany (N = 39 universities). In this project, running from 2016 – 2019, the test-takers complete the WiWiKom II-test of economic knowledge (adapted TUCE4G and TEL4G items) and a general cognitive ability test (BEFKI 11) at four measurement points, ea…
Validity and fairness of a new entry diagnostics test in higher education economics
Abstract Research has been focusing increasingly on measuring students’ prior economic knowledge in higher education. However, in German-speaking countries, valid instruments are rare. A diagnostic study investigated the validity and fairness of an internationally established economic knowledge test (adapted German version of TUCE IV and TEL IV) with a representative sample of 7664 students from 46 universities across Germany. Previous findings with the dataset ( Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al., 2019a ) suggest that native language significantly predicts missing answers in the knowledge test. Similar effects can be found for gender. After coding missing answers as incorrect, students with a …