Abstract:
This project is a quasi-experimental study involving eight classrooms
in two senior elementary schools in St. Catharines, Ontario which
received a Project Business Program and were pre- and post-tested to
determine the growth of knowledge acquisition in the area of business
concepts. Four classrooms received a Project Business treatment while
four classrooms acted as a control. The Project Business Program is
sponsored by Junior Achievement of Canada; it occurred during a twelveweek
period, February to May 1981, and is run by business consultants
who, through Action, Dialogue and Career Exploration, teach children
about economics and business related topics. The consultants were
matched with teacher co-ordinators in whose classrooms they taught and
with whom they discussed field trips, students, lesson planning, etc.
The statistical analysis of pre- and post-test means revealed a
significant statistical growth in the area of knowledge acquisition on
the part of those students who received the Project Business Program.
This confirms that Project Business makes a difference.
A search of the literature appears to advocate economic programs
like Project Business, whfch are broadly based, relevant and processoriented.
This program recommends itself as a model for other areas of
co-operative curricular interactions and as a bridge to future trends
and as a result several fruitful areas of research are suggested.
