Project Purpose (Vision of the Project)
This project provides the following important development areas for advancing economic education for both Educators amd Learners :
• Promotion of economic literacy;
• Teacher education and preparation;
• Provision of economic instruction and materials; and
• Assessment in terms of economic understanding.
Who is the Target Community
• Teachers and learners doing Economics and EMS, Business Studies and Accounting are our target Community. Our purpose is to better prepare them to teach Commerce Education and share with them instructional materials in economics.
What is the scale of the project? (How many people does it benefit / Or how many communities does it involve / any other measure of scale)
We train at least 75 teachers across the KZN province every year.
The life span of the project: When did it start? Does it have an end date in view?
Started 2007, still going, we are a constituted organ working together with the KZNDoE, DUT and other structures Internationally and in 9 Provinces in South Africa.
Evaluated impact or influence, or predicted potential impact
To promote economic literacy and help students develop economic ways of thinking and solving problems that they can use in their lives as consumers, savers, investors, members of workforce, responsible citizens, and effective participants in global economy.
What cooperation is there with other organisations in this outreach?
• The United States of America’s Department of Education which provides funding for reform in economic and civic education through Cooperative Education Exchange Program (CEEP), and
• Council on Economic Education makes funds available for us international partners and provides us with a chance to promote economic literacy in our own country in this respect (South Africa).
How is the research potential of the outreach being exploited?
Research has one of the strong niche area in this project. Papers based on work in this project have been given at local and international conferences, and articles to be submittedon SAPSE accredited journals, and through our international networks a journal on Economics Education has recently been launched and in South Africa for the first time we are going to have National Conference for Economics and Financial Education in and around August 2009.
How many Students are involved in the Project
0
Spinoffs?
This is an excellent project which supports the initiatives of teachers to improve economic education in their primary and secondary schools:
• Professional development for teachers;
• Distribution of educational materials to teachers and classrooms;
• Encouraging or fostering active learning; and
• Promoting the best practices of assessing economic education.
Any other info you would like to include