ECON 2022

ECON 2022ECON 2022 Economic Literacy – Assessing the status quo in grade 8

Welcome

Welcome to the project page of ECON 2022, where you will find general information about the study, its objectives and design.

Thank you for your interest in the project.

Your ECON 2022 team

About ECON 2022

Economic literacy is the prerequisite for achieving economic independence and helping to shape societies. The core of economic literacy is the individual’s ability to understand economic relationships on different levels, to assess them and to make informed decisions. Economic education is responsible for creating environments where effective learning can take place, so that students can acquire economic literacy. Therefore, the curriculum is of high importance, as it provides the basis for teaching and for creating learning materials. Through the ECON 2022 project, a base for further developing the curriculum and the instructional design of economic education will be established.

Four goals will be pursued:

  1. The subject related curricula of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia will be analysed.
  2. The results of the analysis will aid the modelling process of the domain of economic literacy Existing subject specific instructional design approaches will be considered, as well as the current scientific discussions on assessing competences.
  3. A test will be developed in alignment with the curriculum of North Rhine- Westphalia.
  4. The status quo on economic literacy of students in grade 8 will be assessed.

The ECON 2022 project thus generates empirical evidence on the current state of economic education in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This will serve to provide recommendations for further developing the curriculum of the subject of economics. At the same time, it will facilitate monitoring the acquisition process of economic literacy.

Approach and design of the study

The term literacy is based on a functional understanding of education that focusses on the continuous learning throughout people’s lives. The acquisition of relevant competences, consisting of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, should enable learners to be an active member of society and take responsibility in economic situations.

Measuring economic literacy, as well as the development of a valid test using authentic tasks require a thorough analysis of the economic domain. The levels of competence will be developed along three roles regarding expected economic activities: Consumers, employees and economic citizens. On that basis, the competence requirements are in accordance with the aim of the curriculum to successfully manage economic tasks in life.

The preparation of the test will identify the leading ideas and contents of the curriculum in North Rhine-Westphalia (cf. Entwurf Kernlehrplan Wirtschaft, 2020) and further provide a comparative analysis of the relevant curricula as well as including the current state of research in the field. In this part of the study, the aim is to develop a model that represents the domain adequately.

Based on the domain analysis, a representative survey will be conducted. The development of the test for the authentic assessment will consider that economic literacy requires linguistic-argumentative as well as mathematical-analytical competences to portray holistic economic competences that enable learners to act in complex economic situations.

Existing tests in the field such as the Test of Economic Knowledge/ Test of Economic Literacy (cf. Soper & Walstad, 1987; Walstad, Watts & Rebeck, 2007) its German adaptation (Wirtschaftskundlicher Bildungs-Test by Beck & Krumm, 1998), or the PISA Financial Literacy study by the OECD (cf. PISA 2012; PISA 2015; PISA 2018) will provide blueprints for the development of test items.

For gathering the data, a national survey will be conducted in addition to the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2022), which provides the time frame for ECON 2022. Regarding the content, the two tests will be independent. Socio-demographic data about the students or data about the characteristics of the schools will be collected and provided for ECON 2022 by the ICCS 2022 assessment. Therefore, the ECON 2022 survey can focus on economic contents. The sampling for the study is carried out jointly for ECON 2022 and ICCS 2022.

A computer-based assessment allows the development of innovative and interactive test items that reflect authentic economic real-life situations of students. This way, students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding economic participation can be detected. These are of increasing importance, considering the current national and international societal challenges.

The main survey will take place in the first half of 2022 after the successful testing of the pre-test around early 2021.  Students in grade 8 from 150 schools in North Rhine-Westphalia will be included in the main survey. A national report with the results of the survey is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2024; in addition, ECON 2022 will provide feedback for the participating schools.

Management and implementation of the study

The research project ECON 2022 is a cooperation project in the fields of vocational education & training and educational research & schooling at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) and is carried out in coordination with ICCS 2022. The two PIs of ECON 2022 are:

  • Prof. Dr. Esther Winther (Managing Director of the Institute for Vocational and Continuing Education, University of Duisburg-Essen) esther.winther@uni-due.de
  • Prof. Dr. Hermann Josef Abs (Head of the national ICCS study center, University of Duisburg-Essen) 
    h.j.abs@uni-due.de

They coordinate a project team at the University of Duisburg-Essen working on domain and curriculum analyses, test development design and test analysis

All field operations are implemented by the IEA-Hamburg.

Funding

The project is funded by the Ministry of School and Education of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MSB NRW).

Milestones​​ECON Timeline Eng Dünner

 

Publications

Published/accepted articles

Fortunati, F. & Winther, E. (accepted with revisions, 2023): Intensionen und Intentionen von Curricula: Domänenmodelle als Kohärenzanker instruktionaler Aktivität am Beispiel der ökonomischen Bildung [Intentions of Curricula: Domain Models as Anchors for Coherence of Instructional Activity Using the Example of Economic Education]. In: Unterrichtswissenschaft.

Fortunati, F. & Winther, E. (accepted with revisions, 2023): Curriculare Analysen als Baustein der Assessmentkonstruktion [Curricular Analyses as a Building Block of Assessment Construction]. Universität Duisburg-Essen.

Henicz, F. & Winther, E. (in press, 2023). Nachhaltigkeit als Unterrichtsinhalt: Wie ein Grundkonzept der Ökonomie in den Curricula der ökonomischen Allgemeinbildung verankert ist [Sustainability as an Instructional Content: How a Basic Concept of Economics is Anchored in General Economic Education Curricula]. In Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB) (Hrsg.), Zum Konzept der Nachhaltigkeit in Arbeit, Beruf und Bildung - Stand in Forschung und Praxis.

Fortunati, F. & Winther, E. (2021): Ein Curriculum genügt nicht. Wie aus neuen Inhalten gute Instruktionsprozesse werden (können) [A Curriculum is not Enough. How New Content Can Become Good Instructional Processes.]. In: Berufsbildung 188, S. 31–35.

Conference contributions

Fortunati, F. & Winther, E. (2023): Instruktionssensitivität als Indiz für heterogene Kompetenzentwicklung in der ökonomischen Bildung: Schulformbezogene DIF-Analysen am Beispiel der Jahrgangsstufe 8 in Nordrhein-Westfalen [Instructional Sensitivity as an Indication of Heterogeneous Competence Development in Economic Education: School Type-Related DIF Analyses Using the Example of Year 8 in North Rhine-Westphalia], 10. Tagung der Gesellschaft für empirische Bildungsforschung (GEBF), 01.03.2023, Essen.

Welsandt, N. & Abs, H.J. (2023): Potentiale von Log-Daten in authentischen computerbasierten Assessments [Potentials of Log Data in Authentic Computer-Based Assessments] (Beitrag im Symposium): Macht authentisches Assessment einen Test schwerer? Am Beispiel von ECON 2022. 10. Tagung der Gesellschaft für Empirische Bildungsforschung, 01.03.2023, Essen.

Fortunati, F. (2023): Instruktionssensitivität als Indiz für heterogene Kompetenzentwicklung in der ökonomischen Bildung: Schulformbezogene DIF-Analysen am Beispiel der Jahrgangsstufe 8 in Nordrhein-Westfalen [Instructional Sensitivity as an Indication of Heterogeneous Competence Development in Economic Education: School Type-Related DIF Analyses Using the Example of Year 8 in North Rhine-Westphalia] (Einzelbeitrag). Jahrestagung Deutsche Gesellschaft für ökonomische Bildung, 14.02.2023, Tübingen.

Fortunati, F. & Winther, E. (2022): Itemspezifische Betrachtung wirtschaftlicher Kompetenzen von Schülerinnen und Schülern der Sekundarstufe I in Nordrhein-Westfalen [Item-Specific Consideration of Economic Competencies of Students in Lower Secondary Schools in North Rhine-Westphalia] (Einzelbeitrag). Sektionstagung der Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik, 27.09.2022, Freiburg.

Welsandt, N. & Abs, H.J. (2022): Measuring Economic Literacy: A Systematic Review of Measurement Tools over the past 30 Years (Einzelbeitrag). Junior Researchers of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, 21.07.2022, Porto.

Fortunati, F., Ma, B., Paeßens, J. & Winther E. (2022): Beruflichen Kompetenzerwerb fördern: Die Bedeutung von ökonomischer Literalität [Fostering Vocational Competence Development: The Importance of Economic Literacy]. (Beitrag im Symposium): Beruflich kompetent! – Entwicklung und Förderung beruflicher Kompetenzen. Kongress der Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaften, 15.03.2022, Bremen.

Fortunati, F. & Winther, E. (2022): Dimensionalität wirtschaftlicher Kompetenz - Untersuchung in der Jahrgangsstufe 8 in Nordrhein-Westfalen [Dimensionality of Economic Competence -  An Investigation in Year 8 in North Rhine-Westphalia] (Einzelbeitrag). 9. Tagung der Gesellschaft für Empirische Bildungsforschung, 11.03.2022, Bamberg.

Welsandt, N. & Abs, H.J. (2021): Authentic Assessments - Die Herausforderungen von Authentic Assessments konventionell und digital erfassen [Capturing the Challenges of Authentic Assessments Conventionally and Digitally] (Einzelbeitrag)? DigiGEBF next generation, 11.11.2021.

Fortunati, F. & Winther, E. (2021): Curriculare Entwicklung: Anstoß für gelingende Instruktionsprozesse [Curricular Development: Impetus for Successful Instructional Processes] (Einzelbeitrag). Sektionstagung der Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik, 16.09.2021, Bamberg.

Paessens, J., Henicz, F. & Winther, E. (2021): Kollaboratives Problemlösen in der wirtschaftlichen Grundbildung fördern [Promoting Collaborative Problem Solving in Basic Economic Education] (Beitrag im Symposium): Aus der Praxis für die Hochschulbildung – Was taugen Trend-Formate aus der Praxis in hochschuldidaktischer Hinsicht? DigiGEBF Thementagung, 17.06.2021.

Henicz, F. (2021): Nachhaltigkeit und Wirtschaft: Eine Bestandsaufnahme zur Verortung von Nachhaltigkeitskompetenzen in der ökonomischen Allgemeinbildung [Sustainability and the Economy - An Inventory: Locating Sustainability Competencies in General Economic Education]. BNE-Summerschool der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft, 04.05.2021, Hannover.

Henicz, F. & Winther, E. (2021): Lerninhalt Nachhaltigkeit: Wie ein Grundkonzept der Ökonomie in den Curricula der ökonomischen Allgemeinbildung verankert ist [Sustainability as Instructional Content: How a Basic Concept of Economics is Anchored in General Economic Education Curricula] (Einzelbeitrag). Arbeitsgemeinschaft Berufsbildungsforschungsnetz Forum, 27.04.2021, Nürnberg.

Literature of the project

Beck, K., Krumm, V. (1998) Wirtschaftskundlicher Bildungstest (WBT) [German adoption of the Test of Economic Literacy from Soper and Walstad, 1987]. Hogrefe, Göttingen.

Ministerium für Schule und Bildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (2020). Kernlehrplan für die Sekundarstufe I Realschule in Nordrhein-Westfalen -Wirtschaft -Entwurf Verbändebeteiligung, 25.02.2020

OECD (2014), PISA 2012 Results: Students and Money: Financial Literacy Skills for the 21st Century (Volume VI), PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264208094-en

OECD (2017), PISA 2015 Results: Students’ Financial Literacy (Volume IV), PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264270282-en 

OECD (2020), PISA 2018 Results: Are Students Smart about Money? (Volume IV), PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/48ebd1ba-en.

Soper, J. Ch.&Walstad,W. B.(1987).Test of economic literacy, 2nd edn. Joint Council on Economics Education, New York.

Walstad, W. B., Watts, M.,& Rebeck, K. (2007). Test of understanding in college economics: Examiner'smanual(4thedn.). NewYork, NY: NationalCouncilonEconomic Education.