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Copyright of Canadian Journal of Pain is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article reports the results of a study of Canadian students at the University of Western Ontario, which focuses on the importance of economics courses for high school students in Canada. The main findings are that, adjusting for other factors, students who had taken previous economics courses did not begin their principles course with significantly more knowledge, nor did they learn significantly more during the semester. Poorly trained teachers, insufficient time spent on complex and confusing issues, and insufficient grounding in related subjects may result in little learning, or even worse, greater confusion among students who take high school economics courses than among similar students who do not. Women did slightly but not significantly worse than men, and students with no calculus did virtually as well as students with that background. Results are not consistent with the hypothesis that high school economics courses simply concentrate on consumer economics, bookkeeping, or current events.

Until the 1960s Canadian school geography suffered from inadequate textbooks and a lack of trained teachers. After that date the growth of university geography departments, the establishment of geography teachers' associations, and the publication of many good textbooks and other teaching materials ensured geography an important role in the high schools of most provinces. New geography curricula built on established strengths in regional geography rather than reflecting developments in spatial theory. A comparison of the high school geography programs of Ontario and Quebec illustrates two different but equally valid approaches toward curriculum planning. In Ontario, the Ministry of Education establishes broad guidelines within which teachers are expected to develop distinctive courses. The Quebec Ministry of Education is more prescriptive and defines programs in terms of detailed objectives. In both places, as in several other Canadian provinces, geography's strength derives from the commitment of geography specialist working as teachers and as Ministry program planners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]