A determination of perceived minimum economic understandings needed by community/junior college graduates in mid-management

Need for the Study. A review of literature revealed the importance of and the need for economic education in mid-management programs in community/junior colleges in Texas. The review of related literature also indicated that no agreement existed as to the minimum economic understandings needed by graduates of mid-management programs in community/ junior colleges. Therefore, this investigation was conducted to determine necessary economic concepts needed by these graduates, as perceived by mid-management advisory committee members, mid-management coordinators/instructors, and economics instructors. Methodology. The subjects in this study consisted of individuals involved in two-year mid-management programs in 51 community/junior colleges in Texas. These individuals were 150 mid-management advisory committee members (as business persons) and 120 mid-management coordinators/ instructors and 48 economics instructors (as educators). A researcher-developed questionnaire, soliciting data concerning demographic information and economic concepts, was mailed to these individuals. Subjects rated the economic concepts on a scale of 5 to 1 (with 5 being the highest: Extremely important, very important, moderately important, slightly important, and not important). Data concerning demographic information were analyzed using frequency distribution. Frequency analysis was also employed to determine the median values of the responses to economic concepts. A factor analysis was conducted to determine the interrelationship of the items of the questionnaire (economic concepts). The results of the factor analysis were also used as an input for further statistical analyses. The main purpose of these statistical analyses, multivariate analysis of variance, discriminant analysis, and multiple regression approach to discriminant analysis, was to test the hypothesis of this study. The hypothesis tested in this study was: There is a significant difference between and among midmanagement advisory committee members, mid-management coordinators/instructors, and economics instructors in their perceptions of the minimum economic understandings needed by community/junior college graduates in midmanagement. The hypothesis was tested at the .05 and .01 level of confidence. [...]