Research in Economic Education: Are Our Horizons Too Narrow?

Debates over research techniques are not new to this journal, as indicated by the arguments put forth by William Becker, John Soper, Robert Highsmith, Craig Swan, and others in previous issues. In this article Judith Yates broadens the issue and presents us with still another challenge. Finding limitations “in both scope and experimental design,” Yates fears that we may be ignoring the outputs that are not easily measurable. Course grade or achievement as a measure of student performance is a narrow criterion, she insists, and it is time for us to consider the use of multiple criteria. We ought not to be deterred by the “inherent difficulties” in measuring the broader criteria, she concludes, for too much weight is currently being placed on single outcomes.