Student Responsibility Quotient and Performance in the Principles of Economics Course

Abstract

In this article, the author develops a concept referred to as student responsibility quotient (SRQ) as a variable in the learning production function for introductory economics. Data for the study were collected over a seven-year period (1998-2004) from 1600 college students who were enrolled in the Introductory Economics course at Dawson College in Montreal, Canada, and used to formulate an economics education production function in which the SRQ was an input. It was discovered that the SRQ contributed significantly to students' performance in the introductory economics course. Whether or not students worked during the term did not seem to exert any significant effect on their performance in economics.