Edwards, Lawrence,Smith, Leonard
This paper analyses the impact of the University of Cape Town's first-year microeconomics academic development course on performance in examinations. The paper makes two advances to existing empirical literature in this area. Firstly, we compare performance with a control group drawn from the mainstream economic course. Secondly, we evaluate performance in subsequent courses in first-year macroeconomics and second-year microeconomics. The results suggest that the academic development course has a major impact on students' performance in the structured/essay questions, relative to the control group, in first- and second-year microeconomics, and for the multiple-choice questions in first-year macroeconomics.
Matriculation results, mathematics, English first language, physical science and gender are also important determinants of performance.
"ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT","economic education","SOUTH AFRICA","student performance",ACHIEVEMENT,"COLLEGE PRINCIPLES",DETERMINANTS,EDUCATION,GENDER,"HIGH-SCHOOL ECONOMICS",IMPACT,"MALE-FEMALE DIFFERENCES","STUDENT PERFORMANCE"