Economics education or economic education is a field within economics that focuses on two main themes: 1) the current state of, and efforts to improve, the economics curriculum, materials and pedagogical techniques used to teach economics at all educational levels; and 2) research into the effectiveness of alternative instructional techniques in economics, the level of economic literacy of various groups, and factors that influence the level of economic literacy. Economics education is distinct from economics of education, which focuses on the economics of the institution of education.