A mathematical analysis of the learning production process and a model for determining what matters in education

This paper describes in both economic and mathematical terms the learning production process at the individual level and derives from that profile a model to determine which factors affect that process. The model is successfully tested using data from two widely divergent learning situations, ranging from lecture-oriented college level principles of economics courses to the use of programmed instruction to learn matrix arithmetic at the eighth grade level. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd