EFFECT OF VITAMINS C AND E INTAKE ON BLOOD ... - EuroJournals

European Journal of Social Sciences - Volume 2, Number 1 (2006)
society. He maintains that citizens should understand and use economic notions with a view to act
appropriately whether they are producers, consumers, investors or voters in government elections.
Furthermore, a general progress in the ability of citizens to respond to these roles will have major
advantages not only for the citizens but also for the state. Conversely, he supports the idea that the
personal and social costs resulting from a weak reciprocation to these roles is so high and damaging,
that it cannot be ignored.
Miller (1991), who is among the most zealous representatives of this point of view, considers
economic education to be an integral part of the political education of citizens. Sumansky (1986:61)
does not adopt this view; he believes that the argument that economic education contributes to political
education is maintained simply because it is alluring, since, as he claims, the notion that economic
knowledge translates into better citizen behaviour remains inexplicable.
Beyond the three goals identified above, McConnell (1930:36) expresses an additional point of
view with regard to the cognitive benefit that can result from the teaching of economics, supporting
that "…one can plausibly argue that a highly significant outcome of the principles course is enhanced
students ability to grasp and manipulate abstractions. Piaget’s theory of human intellectual
development distinguishes between the lower "concrete level" of mental achievement, which involves
specific facts on experiences and that of the higher "formal level" of achievement, which entails
analytical reasoning about hypotheses, the mental manipulation of abstractions and the understanding
of contrary-to-fact situations. The distinction made is particularly relevant for the principles course,
because the most baffling concepts of economics tend to be those that are the most abstract. Instructors
often respond to student’s complaints about the abstractness of economics by pointing out that
economics is formalized common sense. But this is only partly true. The concept of comparative
advantage and the multiple-lending capacity of the banking system are contrary to common sense and
intuitively incorrect in the minds of students”.
What are the basic concepts?
An obvious observation that should be made is that, with the passing of time, the course on the
principles of economic theory covers more subjects in terms of content and has become more complex
at the analytical level. There are a greater number of topics covered and the concepts and definitions
are more difficult. The unprecedented, post-war explosion of economic knowledge added plenty of
new concepts, theories and empirical analyses that ask to be included in the introductory courses.
McConnel (1990) describes a disagreement that has been taking place for many years in the
field of economic education with regard to the number of economic concepts that should be taught in
an introductory course. Either few concepts will have to be taught in-depth (short list) or a greater
number of concepts will have to be taught with less time dedicated to each (long list). There has been
continuous criticism that the course “Principles of Economics” is very ambitious (with regard to the
subject-matter), it covers a lot of topics and is encyclopaedic. The advocates of the “short list” believe
that the “long list” condemns the course to failure. They support that the material covered in the “long
list” is too big in volume for students. The result of students’ superficial exposure to a wide range of
concepts, definitions, theories, problems and established ideas, is that they complete the course without
a substantive understanding of economic logic. Thus the students will be unprepared to analyze
economical problems that they will face as citizens or in their career five or ten years following their
graduation.
The opposing opinion claims that the “short list” does not guarantee students’ increased
understanding. “Another potential problem of the short list is that it consists of those concepts that
pertain only to the course and nothing further. If one of the aims of the course is to develop and
maintain an interest for the subject, one can wonder whether an uninterrupted diet based on economic
theory can promote the objective. Perhaps it is rash for students to be led from a desert land of
economic theory, to the oasis of subjects and applications of the real world and to forbid them to have a
drink” (McConnel, 1990:32).
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