I
UNIVERSITY
OF
ECONOMICS INSTITUTE
OF
SOCIAL STUDIES
HO
CHI
MINH
CITY
- VIETNAM
THE
HAGUE -
THE
NETHERLANDS
THE
VIETNAM-
NETHERLANDS
PROGRAMME
FOR
M.A IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
DETERMINANTS
OF
STUDENT'S LEARNING:
CASE
STUDY IN MACROECONOMICS
AT THE UNIVERSITY
OF
ECONOMICS-
HO
CHI

-THE
NETHERLANDS
THE
VIETNAM-
NETHERLANDS
PROGRAMME
FOR
M.A IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of
the requirements for the degree
of
MASTER
OF
ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
DETERMINANTS
OF
STUDENT'S LEARNING:
CASE
STUDY IN MACROECONOMICS
AT
THE
UNIVERSITY
OF
ECONOMICS-
HO
CHI
MINH CITY
By Le Thanh Nhan
Academic Supervisors:

I
am
most grateful to my supervisors, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Trong Hoai and
Mr.
Chau Van Thanh, who have instructed, encouraged and given me comments
for
my
thesis, as well
as
forgiven
my
mistakes while I was carrying out this
research.
I would like to thank to all lectures and staff
of
the Vietnam - Netherlands
Programme at the
University
of
Economics, Ho Chi Minh City .
. I also want to say thank you to my colleagues and friends at the Office
of
Undergraduate Training and Students Service Office at the University
of
Economics, Ho Chi Minh City for their assistance in the process
of
my thesis
completion.
Finally, I especially thank to my partner friend, who
hel_2ed

of
studying macroeconomics were proposed. They are students'
aptitude, efforts, attitude toward economics along with their personal
characteristics.
A survey designed from Survey Economic Attitude from the National Committee
on Economic Attitude Measurement has been used with Exploratory Factor
Analysis to measure
if
the theoretical constructs in this research were satisfactory
in terms
of
reliability and validity. The relationships and hypotheses then have
been tested by using a Two Stage Least Square method.
The main findings are the significant impacts
of
aptitude and efforts on
studying_
__

···
macroeconomics but the attitude toward
it.
111
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS
CERTIFICATION
i
AC:KN"OWLEDGEMENT ii
ABSTRACT iii

3 Empirical studies
13
2.4 Chapter remarks:
18
IV
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
19
3.1 Independent variables
and
its measurement
19
3.2 Descriptive analysis 22
3.3 Empirical research model 22
3.
4 Sampling process 23
3.5 Research context 24
3.6 Chapter remarks: 28
Chapter 4: Research findings 29
4.1 Sample description 29
4.2 Gender 29
4.3 Location 30
4.4 Attitude
and
efforts toward macroeconomics 32
4.
5 Reliability analysis 34
4.6 Factor analysis
35
American College Testing
Attitude Toward Economics
Grade Point Average
Ministry
of
Education and Training
National University Entrance Examination
Ordinary Least Squares
Scholastic Aptitude Test
Survey Economic Attitude
Two-Stage Least Squares
Test
of
Understanding
of
College Economics
University
of
Economics, Ho Chi Minh City
Undergraduate Training and Student Services
World Trade
Organization
vi
LIST
OFT
ABLES
Table 4.1: Gender and Average ofMacroeconomics score
Table 4.2: Testing the Mean Difference between two groups
of
gender

influence from attitude through intention to
performance as a feedback influence on attitude
Figure 2.2: Conceptual framework
vii
Chapter
1:
Introduction
1.1
Problem statement
The economic development
in
Vietnam was very impressive during the I990
decade. The growth
of
the economy comes along with many factors, directly and ·
indirectly. One
of
them is
from
education, in my opinion. Although there have
been some controversies about the progression
as
well
as
the fall while some
renovations were deployed during last more than I
0 years, nowadays, many
(domestic and oversea) professors pay attention to a vast and complete educational
renovation again, especially when Vietnam has accessed to
WTO since 2006.

Therefore, quality assurance
of
learning and teaching principles
of
economics
is
so
quite important.
In the
field
of
economics and business administration, it
is
much concerned about
economics education at the undergraduate level. In my opinion, principles
of
economics are basic courses for any student, not only in universities
of
economics
and business administration but also some other universities
of
social science. At
the University
of
Economics,
Ho
Chi
Minh City (UEH), although they are
compulsory subjects, only a small ratio
of

a recent contest "Commentary essays for Vietnamese economy in 2008"
organized by Student and Youth Union at UEH, only a little number
of
students
could apply economics knowledge into their papers (UEH Youth
Union 2008).
So
in
this research, a wonder about which factors affected the outcome
of
a student
studying principles
of
economics at the UEH
has
been raised. Then
we
could find
out
how to improve their performance
as
well
as
students classification for a better
outcome.
What
determinants that influence student learning economics? Many economic
education studies have attempted to answer this question. A number
of
studies

In
recently, Romer (1993) tested the effect
of
attendance on student performance. His fmding is the attendance did contribute
significantly to the academic performance
of
students in a large intermediate
macro-course. The same to the research result ofDevadoss and Foltz (1996). King
2
(1999) and Schmidt (1983) found that the time spending for studying economics
outside the classroom is also important related to student achievement. In the other
hand, Park and Merr (1990) proved that effort and intelligence determine the
academic performance in money and banking courses while demographic variables
did not contribute.
Briefly it
is
said that, researches about economic education have been started since
1960s in the
US
with factor determination, from simple socio-characteristics
(gender, race, parents' education, income, hours
of
work

) or time-distribution to
more complicated factors (attitude, efforts, learning and teaching styles

) and then
the difference
of

in
the form
of
guessing"
(Kreig and Uyar, p.230, 2001). Yates (1978, cited in Becker 1983a) argued that
many educational objectives can not be only measured by multiple-choice tests.
So, in order to have a better assessment, macroeconomics would be the reasonable
decision for this research to find out the answers related to the wonder above at the
UEH.
1.2 Research Objectives
The main objectives are:
- To fmd out which determinants that influence students' performance in
studying macroeconomics.
3
To determine the relationship between determinants and UEH student's
performance in studying macroeconomics.
- To suggest policy recommendations for lecturers, students and educational
managers at UEH.
1.
3 Research questions
Finding out determinants and theirs relationships to outcome
of
studying
macroeconomics in order to answer the following questions
Question
1:
Does aptitude
of
an UEH student have an effect on the
performance

5 Delimitation
This research based on information from students at UEH after they study
microeconomics and before macroeconomics.
Some information are archived at
4
the office
of
undergraduate training, others are self-evaluations
from
a paper
of
questionnaire.
1.
6 Thesis structure:
This thesis has 5 chapters, starting with
an
introduction about Problem statement,
Research objectives, Research questions, Research methodology, and its
delimitation. The second chapter presents the literature review on theory and
conceptual framework, empirical studies that serve
as
the background for
hypothesis development. The third chapter
is
about the methodology consisting
of
research design, concept measurement and data collection. The chapter 4 reports
the result
of
data analysis before the chapter 5 which summarizes all about the

of
economics.
It
provides students basic concepts and
analytical methods about performance, structure, and behavior
of
the economy
of
a
nation, a region or the global economy. Along with microeconomics,
macroeconomics is one the most important and compulsive subjects at any
university which
is
major in economics and business administration education.
Performance
of
studying macroeconomics
Performance
of
studying macroeconomics shows us how students learn and
acquire the knowledge from studying it, how they understand and identify
as
well
as
analyze macroeconomics problems.
It
is
usually measured by an examination
score, in combination with some extra testing activities.
2.2 Theoretical backgrounds

production function where
the output
is
the performance
of
learning, which
is
measured by achievement or
course grades.
According to summary
of
Bowles ( 1970), an educational production functions
used to seek the affected educational output by altering school inputs in the
common form as followed:
A;=
fo
+
fiXn
+
JiX2;
+

+
/:Xz;
+
u;
[2.1]
Where
A;:
the achievement score (or other output measure for the

as
Ait
=
g[F;(tJ'
S;(tJ,
P;(tJ'
l;(t)]
[2.2]
7
Among that, F stands for family background characteristics, S for school inputs, P
for peer group characteristics and I for initial endowments (or innate abilities).
Another research example
is
from Ziegert (2000) using a model to estimate the
effect
of
personality temperament on learning in economics like this:
Output =/(Student abilities, student demographic, personal temperament)
[2.
3 J
Gender, age, race, and family background have also been used in learning studies
(Manahan 1983, Navarro and Shoemaker
2000, Bonello, Swartz and Davisson
1984, Anderson, Benjamin and Fuss 1994, Betts and Morell 1999). But
"measures
of
student maturity, such as age, year
in
school, and number
of

(if
student interest
is
an output, does it not
feed
back into cognitive understanding?), functional form
(are
there interactions among the independent variable) and the statistical
techniques
employed". Becker (1983b) also affirmed with this comment.
Becker (1983b) proposed a framework to build general equilibrium model in
which it shows demand
of
student when studying economics. According to
Becker's model, students have to allocate their time and resources between
economics and other subjects in the same semester as well
as
opportunity for a
8
part-time
job
or recreation to maximize their utility. Anyway, Becker thought that
it
is
not easy to formalize a model
of
full educational process because
of
the
market imperfections that arise once a student has decided to attend a given

.
··
However, Bowles (f970) discussed that
theieast
squares-technique yields unbiased
estimates
of
the regression coefficients only
if
the independent variables are
exogenous. When some school inputs can perhaps be regarded as exogenous to the
system, there are still some endogenous inputs, for example, student attitudes.
Bowles (p.18, 1970) argued that
"student attitudes toward
self
and toward
learning are a consequence
of
past and present achievement
(as
well
as
other
influences) and are important determinants
of
achievement". The production
function above could be rewritten as
A=
f(X;,


It
means grade expectation and
attitude toward economics may be changed
2.2.1 Student learning
Studying and examination are two
of
important issues
of
education. To study
is
to
acquire the knowledge, information about a typical subject then to apply into daily
activities. Examination
is
a way
of
checking how much information a student has
effected to collect and comprehend. In economic education researches, some
typical measurements to measure student learning are Test
of
Economics
Understanding
(TEU), Test
of
Economics Comprehensions (TEC) or the most
widely used instrument
is
Test
of
Understanding in College Economics (TUCE). ,

used
if
the structure
of
the tests are
as
different
as
chalk and cheese
between classes, lecturers with various teaching styles In order to have unbiased
evaluation about economics performance, all observations must have similar
characteristics, studying in almost the same class size or have the same
homogenous class organization, studying with a common teaching style which has
been totally agreed among lecturers or approved by scientific and training council
and they have to answer the same questions at the final examination. Course grade
is
not only a final score
of
examination but the score
of
progression student
achieved during studying principles
of
economics by doing mid-term test,
assignments or homework.
Final examination usually consists
of
constructed response or multiple-choice
questions. Each type
of

of
undergraduates (Morell, 1999). Prince, Kipps,
Wilhem and Wetzel (1981) found that pre-score
of
TUCE
is
an appropriate
measure
of
economic knowledge or
as
a proxy for student aptitude. Siegfried and
Fels (1979) reviewed in some studies and find that mathematics scores could be an
instrument to present aptitude and
to
seems to be positive and significantly
11
associated with economics test performance. A hypothesis could be withdrawn for
the study, as
H
1
:
Aptitude has a positive impact on performance
of
studying macroeconomics
2.2.3 Efforts
The utilization rate or effort is time spent on studying in a course.
It can be
measured by the percentage
of

of
economics, students usually face 2 possible options:
either collect as much information as they can to master the nature
of
economics
(via lectures and readings) or just only enough to comprehend the subject (via
passing examination scores). Then attitudes and grade expectations are likely to be
modified (Hodgin 1984).
Of
course any student always wants to achieve the best
score as they can, but the different attitude toward the subject would change the
way they study.
Walstad and Soper (1981) had reviewed some previous researches and found that
former methods
of
economic attitude measurement were poorly developed and
12
report limited information on instrument reliability or validity, or too complex to
measure. Based on instrument previously developed by Hodgin and Manahan
(1979, cited in Walstad and Soper 1981), the National Committee on Economic
Attitude Measurement conducted a new attitude measure named Survey on
Economics Attitude (SEA). SEA, which has been considered by provide a
measurement tool about Attitude Toward Economics (ATE) with good validity,
reliability and known characteristics. A more positive ATE maybe an intended
outcome for a course in economics. Base on that, there is a suggestion about the
following hypothesis for the study:
H
3
:
Attitude toward economics has an impact on performance

gain
in
achievement in economics.
2.3 Empirical studies
To
estimate the production function, many researches have used an
OLS
model.
Moreover, qualitative response analysis in place
of
quantitative analysis
has
been
13
suggested (Becker 1983c
).
Spector and Mazzeo (1980) used a probit model in
analyzing the probability
of
getting a grade in intermediate macroeconomics.
Leppel (1984) used a Tobit model in comparing the academic performance
of
returning and continuing students. Park and Kerr (1990) used multinomial logit
analysis to identify those variables that determine a student's grade in
undergraduate money and banking course while Hodgin (1984), Manahan (1983),
used simultaneous models with two-stage least square
(TSLS) method.
Some economic education researches were developed based on theory
of
school

learning outcomes, including level and type
of
achievement, rate
of
learning, and affective outcomes"
Manahan (1983) based on Bloom's theory
of
learning with the modification and
contributions
of
Allison (1977) and Hanushek (1979) to suggest another type
of
production function, in which outcome
of
the studying process
is
described by 2
aspects: achievement and attitude toward course.
Achievement= /(ability, attitude, effort, quality
of
instructor)
[2.
7]
And
Attitude = g(achievement, ability, effort, socio, quality
of
instructor) [2.8]
Bloom in his book Human Characteristics and School Learning (Manahan 1983)
argued that under favorable learning conditions, student has the knowledge that is
prerequisite and positive affect toward the learning task and when the instruction is

course, two things are simultaneously and interactively occurring: attitudes are
being modified due to information concerning economics and relative
performance, and vice-versus, performance is altered by attitude toward
economics. Specifically, let ATE be the attitude toward economics, a function
of
the expected utility from the course would
be
ATE=
/(Performance, Prior Attitude, Age, Sex) [2.9]
Then
Performance= /(Attitude, Ability, Prior Knowledge, Effort) [2.10]
Student's attitude towards the course
is
another factor which needs to be concerned
as
an important measurement. With the high attitude toward its subjects, students
will tend to spend more time on reading, discussion
as
well
as
finding extra
15
materials prepare for class. It could be considered
as
another factor instead
of
utilization previously.
Performance on
Economics
& Examinations

And once new information
is
received, student will make a prediction about
chance
of
success or failure in the course.
It
means grade expectation and attitude
toward economics may be changed.
Hodgin collected the data from
500
students which had been studying
at
the
Illinois
State University in 1978, which was then reduced to
190
due to lack
of
information from a number
of
given students. In the attitude expression, the
performance coefficient was found to be significant, but the attitude coefficient in
the performance expression was not while remaining exogenous variables were
significant at the
0.05 level or higher (except age, at 0.10) although they are
selected to reflect only those argumentatively necessary to keep the model
specification simple and efficient. These results support that informational signal
about performance in economics affect attitude (Hodgin, 1984).
16