Do Classroom Experiments Increase Student Motivation?

24 Pages Posted: 12 Sep 2011

See all articles by Hans J.F.M. Gremmen

Hans J.F.M. Gremmen

Tilburg University - Department of Economics

Gijs van den Brekel

Tilburg University - Department of Economics

Date Written: August 23, 2011

Abstract

This article studies the impact that the use of classroom experiments in an economics course may have on student motivation for this subject. In general, two expressions for motivation are effort and persistence, and choice of tasks. We take a sample of pre-university students in the Netherlands to determine if the introduction of experiments in their economics course made the students increase their effort and persistence for this subject and/or raised the likelihood that they would choose to study economic topics in the future. In total, we use five measures for these two expressions of motivation. The experiments appear to support both expressions of motivation in the sense that we find a positive and significant treatment effect for four out of these five measures.

Keywords: Economic education, classroom experiments, student motivation

JEL Classification: A21, A22

Suggested Citation

Gremmen, Hans J.F.M. and van den Brekel, Gijs, Do Classroom Experiments Increase Student Motivation? (August 23, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1925777 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1925777

Hans J.F.M. Gremmen (Contact Author)

Tilburg University - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 90153
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands
+31 13 466-2384 (Phone)
+31 13 466-3280 (Fax)

Gijs Van den Brekel

Tilburg University - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 90153
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands
+31 13 466-2384 (Phone)
+31 13 466-3280 (Fax)

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