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STUDY OF PALM BEACH JUNIOR COLLEGE AND BROWARD COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARD CERTAIN BUSINESS CONCEPTS ESSENTIAL TO A FREE ENTERPRISE ECONOMY

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Date Issued:
1974
Summary:
The purposes of this research were to: 1. Measure community college students' attitudes toward fifteen business concepts: international trade, supply and demand, government regulation, marketing, consumerism, credit, labor unions, management, capital, corporations, profits, social responsibility, stock markets, technology, and business ethics. 2. Identify implications from these attitudes which pertain to curriculum planning for the community college. The hypotheses tested were that there is no significant difference in the mean ratings, as measured by a semantic differential, toward the fifteen business concepts between: 1. Students who have had business courses and those who have had none. 2. Business and nonbusiness majors. 3. Male and Female students. 4. Students 21 and under and those over 21. 5. Students with business work experience and those with nonbusiness work experience. 6. Associate Arts degree business majors and Associate Science business majors. The fifteen concepts to be evaluated were selected after an extensive study of periodicals for the two-year period ending September 30, 1973. A semantic differential instrument was constructed as prescribed by Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum in The Measurement of Meaning. The six pairs of bipolar adjectives used were unfair-fair, bad-good, dirty-clean, unpleasant-pleasant, awful-nice, and dishonest-honest. The survey was administered to a random sample of 386 students enrolled in freshman communications classes at Broward Community College and Palm Beach Junior College during the fall term of 1973. A two-way analysis of variance was computed for each classification variable. Overall group means were positive for all concepts by all classification variables except the undecided college major group. Students with the most business courses and students majoring in business had the most positive attitudes. Significant F ratios resulted in the rejection of the null hypothesis for classification variables 1 and 2 and acceptance of the null hypothesis for the other variables. Although the null hypothesis was accepted for classification variables 3 and 4, there were significant interactions between groups and concepts for these groups. Government regulation, labor unions, corporations, and business ethics received negative ratings from almost all groups. Conclusions. Students who had completed business courses had more positive attitudes toward the fifteen concepts than those who had not taken any business courses. Students majoring in business had attitudes more positive than nonbusiness majors. Males and females were differentiative toward supply and demand, consumerism, labor unions, capital, corporations, profits, stock markets, technology, and business ethics. Age influenced attitudes toward international trade, supply and demand, government regulation, credit, labor unions, management, social responsibility, and business ethics. Type of employment and type of business degree sought did not influence attitudes significantly. Recommendations. A general education course based on economic principles as applied to the individual's role as a citizen, consumer, employee, and entrepreneur should be designed for nonbusiness majors. The general goal of this course should be to develop understanding of how the free enterprise system functions and the relationship of economic principles to problems confronting the American people, both individually and collectively. A consumer education course for all secondary school students should include a study of the free enterprise system and be taught by an instructor who has completed at least six semester hours in economics. The attitudes of secondary school students toward business concepts should be measured at two-year intervals for a period of ten years to see if the career education program influences attitudes in a positive direction.
Title: A STUDY OF PALM BEACH JUNIOR COLLEGE AND BROWARD COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARD CERTAIN BUSINESS CONCEPTS ESSENTIAL TO A FREE ENTERPRISE ECONOMY.
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Name(s): WILLIAMS, MILDRED H.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Laird, Dorothy S., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1974
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 249 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: The purposes of this research were to: 1. Measure community college students' attitudes toward fifteen business concepts: international trade, supply and demand, government regulation, marketing, consumerism, credit, labor unions, management, capital, corporations, profits, social responsibility, stock markets, technology, and business ethics. 2. Identify implications from these attitudes which pertain to curriculum planning for the community college. The hypotheses tested were that there is no significant difference in the mean ratings, as measured by a semantic differential, toward the fifteen business concepts between: 1. Students who have had business courses and those who have had none. 2. Business and nonbusiness majors. 3. Male and Female students. 4. Students 21 and under and those over 21. 5. Students with business work experience and those with nonbusiness work experience. 6. Associate Arts degree business majors and Associate Science business majors. The fifteen concepts to be evaluated were selected after an extensive study of periodicals for the two-year period ending September 30, 1973. A semantic differential instrument was constructed as prescribed by Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum in The Measurement of Meaning. The six pairs of bipolar adjectives used were unfair-fair, bad-good, dirty-clean, unpleasant-pleasant, awful-nice, and dishonest-honest. The survey was administered to a random sample of 386 students enrolled in freshman communications classes at Broward Community College and Palm Beach Junior College during the fall term of 1973. A two-way analysis of variance was computed for each classification variable. Overall group means were positive for all concepts by all classification variables except the undecided college major group. Students with the most business courses and students majoring in business had the most positive attitudes. Significant F ratios resulted in the rejection of the null hypothesis for classification variables 1 and 2 and acceptance of the null hypothesis for the other variables. Although the null hypothesis was accepted for classification variables 3 and 4, there were significant interactions between groups and concepts for these groups. Government regulation, labor unions, corporations, and business ethics received negative ratings from almost all groups. Conclusions. Students who had completed business courses had more positive attitudes toward the fifteen concepts than those who had not taken any business courses. Students majoring in business had attitudes more positive than nonbusiness majors. Males and females were differentiative toward supply and demand, consumerism, labor unions, capital, corporations, profits, stock markets, technology, and business ethics. Age influenced attitudes toward international trade, supply and demand, government regulation, credit, labor unions, management, social responsibility, and business ethics. Type of employment and type of business degree sought did not influence attitudes significantly. Recommendations. A general education course based on economic principles as applied to the individual's role as a citizen, consumer, employee, and entrepreneur should be designed for nonbusiness majors. The general goal of this course should be to develop understanding of how the free enterprise system functions and the relationship of economic principles to problems confronting the American people, both individually and collectively. A consumer education course for all secondary school students should include a study of the free enterprise system and be taught by an instructor who has completed at least six semester hours in economics. The attitudes of secondary school students toward business concepts should be measured at two-year intervals for a period of ten years to see if the career education program influences attitudes in a positive direction.
Identifier: 11640 (digitool), FADT11640 (IID), fau:8577 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Thesis (Educat.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1974.
College of Education
Subject(s): Business education
Economics--Study and teaching
College students--Florida--Attitudes
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/11640
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.