IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/sajeco/v77y2009i1p179-189.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Investigation Into The Impact Of Tutorials On The Performance Of Economics Students

Author

Listed:
  • Pm Horn
  • Ai Jansen

Abstract

The deteriorating performance of first‐year economics students has become a concern at many South African universities. Addressing the issue requires an understanding of the factors influencing students' success. Studies analysing academic performance use the education production function approach. This approach identifies inputs that are crucial to learning and to achieving certain outputs. Factors that have been investigated in other studies include the impact of lecture attendance on performance, school‐leaving exam (matriculation) results, particularly performance in mathematics, and the gender and age of students. This study adds to existing local empirical research by analysing the impact of the tutorial programme as an input. The case study investigates the tutorial programme for first‐year economics students at Stellenbosch University using quantitative analysis. Results confirm what previous studies have found, namely that lecture attendance, gender, and matriculation results contribute positively to the performance of first‐year economics students. The main finding of the paper is that tutorial attendance also contributes positively to academic performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Pm Horn & Ai Jansen, 2009. "An Investigation Into The Impact Of Tutorials On The Performance Of Economics Students," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 77(1), pages 179-189, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:77:y:2009:i:1:p:179-189
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2009.01194.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2009.01194.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2009.01194.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gregory A. Krohn & Catherine M. O'Connor, 2005. "Student Effort and Performance over the Semester," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 3-28, January.
    2. Luca Stanca, 2006. "The Effects of Attendance on Academic Performance: Panel Data Evidence for Introductory Microeconomics," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 251-266, July.
    3. Ann Kirby & Brendan McElroy, 2003. "The Effect of Attendance on Grade for First Year Economics Students in University College Cork," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 311-326.
    4. Siegfried, John J & Fels, Rendigs, 1979. "Research on Teaching College Economics: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 923-969, September.
    5. Alex Van Der Merwe, 2006. "Identifying Some Constraints In First Year Economics Teaching And Learning At A Typical South African University Of Technology," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 74(1), pages 150-159, March.
    6. Cornéa van Walbeek, 2004. "Does Lecture Attendance Matter? Some Observations From A First‐Year Economics Course At The University Of Cape Town," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 72(4), pages 861-883, September.
    7. Tiffany Hutcheson & Harry Tse, 2006. "Tutorial Attendance and Grade Achievement," Working Paper Series 145, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.
    8. Kudayja Parker, 2006. "The Effect Of Student Characteristics On Achievement In Introductory Microeconomics In South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 74(1), pages 137-149, March.
    9. L Edwards, 2000. "An Econometric Evaluation of Academic Development Programmes in Economics," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 68(3), pages 204-215, September.
    10. David Romer, 1993. "Do Students Go to Class? Should They?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 167-174, Summer.
    11. Benjamin Greene, 1997. "Verbal Abilities, Gender, and the Introductory Economics Course: A New Look at an Old Assumption," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 13-30, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Volker Schöer & Debra Shepherd, 2013. "Compulsory tutorial programmes and performance in undergraduate microeconomics: A regression discontinuity design," Working Papers 27/2013, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Cobb, Steven L. & McPherson, Michael A. & Molina, David J. & Quintanilla, John & Rasmussen, Elizabeth & Rous, Jeffrey J., 2018. "Teaching economics to the masses: The effects of student help centers on academic outcomes," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 16-23.
    3. Astrid Schmulian & Stephen Coetzee, 2011. "Class absenteeism: reasons for non‐attendance and the effect on academic performance," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(2), pages 178-194, September.
    4. Stefan Buechele, 2020. "Evaluating the link between attendance and performance in higher education - the role of classroom engagement dimensions," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202010, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    5. Montagud Mascarell, M. Dolores & Gandía Cabedo, Juan L., 2014. "Entorno virtual de aprendizaje y resultados académicos: evidencia empírica para la enseñanza de la Contabilidad de Gestión," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 108-115.
    6. Siobhan Lucey & Maria Grydaki, 2023. "University attendance and academic performance: Encouraging student engagement," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 70(2), pages 180-199, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leonard C. Smith, 2009. "An Analysis Of The Impact Of Pedagogic Interventions In First‐Year Academic Development And Mainstream Courses In Microeconomics," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 77(1), pages 162-178, March.
    2. Arulampalam, Wiji & Naylor, Robin A. & Smith, Jeremy, 2012. "Am I missing something? The effects of absence from class on student performance," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 363-375.
    3. Stephen Graham Saunders, 2008. "Toward Bridging The Gap Between Theory And Empirical Reality," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(4), pages 738-748, December.
    4. Dey, Ishita, 2018. "Class attendance and academic performance: A subgroup analysis," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 29-40.
    5. Hadsell, Lester, 2020. "Not for want of trying: Effort and Success of women in principles of microeconomics," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    6. Hans Bonesrønning & Leiv Opstad, 2012. "How Much is Students' College Performance Affected by Quantity of Study?," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 11(2), pages 46-63.
    7. Göke, Michael, 2008. "Homo oeconomicus im Hörsaal: Die Rationalität studentischer Nebengespräche in Lehrveranstaltungen," Arbeitspapiere der FOM 9, FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management.
    8. Dobkin, Carlos & Gil, Ricard & Marion, Justin, 2010. "Skipping class in college and exam performance: Evidence from a regression discontinuity classroom experiment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 566-575, August.
    9. Justine Burns & Simon Halliday & Malcolm Keswell, 2012. "Gender and Risk Taking in the Classroom," SALDRU Working Papers 87, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    10. Tsui-Fang Lin & Jennjou Chen, 2006. "Cumulative class attendance and exam performance," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(14), pages 937-942.
    11. Ann L. Owen, 2011. "Student Characteristics, Behavior, and Performance in Economics Classes," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 32, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Sacha Kapoor & Matthijs Oosterveen & Dinand Webbink, 2021. "The price of forced attendance," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 209-227, March.
    13. Mike Murray, 2016. "Does Poor Quality Schooling and/or Teacher Quality Hurt Black South African Students Enrolling for a Degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(4), pages 1-11, April.
    14. Stewart, Chris, 2020. "An exploratory threshold regression model of the relationship between student performance and attendance," Economics Discussion Papers 2020-1, School of Economics, Kingston University London.
    15. Vincenzo Andrietti & Carlos Velasco, 2015. "Lecture Attendance, Study Time, and Academic Performance: A Panel Data Study," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 239-259, July.
    16. Franz Buscha & Anna Conte, 2014. "The Impact of Truancy on Educational Attainment during Compulsory Schooling: a Bivariate Ordered Probit Estimator with Mixed Effects," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 82(1), pages 103-127, January.
    17. Andrietti, Vincenzo & D´Addazio, Rosaria, 2008. "Class Attendance and Academic Performance among Spanish Economics Students," UC3M Working papers. Economics we096138, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    18. Siobhan Lucey & Maria Grydaki, 2023. "University attendance and academic performance: Encouraging student engagement," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 70(2), pages 180-199, May.
    19. Do Won Kwak & Carl Sherwood & Kam Ki Tang, 2019. "Class attendance and learning outcome," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 177-203, July.
    20. Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Bauer, Thomas K., 1998. "Learning Efficiency of Economics Students," IZA Discussion Papers 23, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:77:y:2009:i:1:p:179-189. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/essaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.