The Principles of Economics Course: A Historical Perspective

The author's research provides an amusing and thoughtful account of what has happened to the teaching of the beginning course in economics over the past century and should cause the profession to reflect upon what is known for sure about the relative effectiveness of various methods of presenting the subject to students. As one example, what is the role of close personal contact between teacher and student (as indicated by class size) in providing a favorable environment for learning the art and/or the science of economics?     

A Survey of Economic Understanding in U.S. High Schools

The recent widespread adoption of online competitions in economic education provides a unique opportunity to make frequent assessments of economic literacy in U.S. classrooms. In this survey, student responses to test items from the Test of Economic Literacy (TEL) are used to create economic concept and content area achievement benchmarks. These benchmarks provide an interim renorming of the TEL and allow the authors to gauge the status of economic understanding among high school students. The data also allow the authors to compare learning outcomes between regular and advanced economics classes. Finally, the authors find that students in advanced economics classes significantly outperform students in regular classes.     

The Relative Effectiveness of Three Methods of Teaching Principles of Economics

Research on the impact of learning style preferences is very rare in economic education. This article reports the results of a project in which the student's preferred learning style and the instructor's teaching style were included as variables in a regression model. Those favoring independent styles achieved significantly more than students favoring dependent styles. Changes in student attitudes towards economics were also taken into account. The researchers assert that the addition of these variables also “greatly increases the power of the model to explain variation in student achievement and attitudes concerning economics.”     

The Case of the Missing Organizations: Co-operatives and the Textbooks

The author discusses the following seven issues affecting assessment of undergraduates in universities: decisionmaking and the selection of tests, the use of written and oral assignments to measure learning, the characteristics of grades and portfolios for evaluating students, opportunities for self-assessment and feedback to instructors, retention of learning and the testing for higher-ordered thinking, the psychology of students in the economics classroom, and the development of new tests as public goods. The author suggests ways that economics faculty can add new dimensions to their assessment practices, improve their understanding of assessment choices, use assessment to enhance the quality of student thinking, and conduct research studies on assessment questions.     

A Preliminary Report on the Efficiency of Introductory Economics Courses

This article is the first report of a project in which the efficiency of the introductory economics course at Queen's University in Canada is being examined. Finding that the TUCE “relies too heavily on a knowledge of U.S. institutions,” Crowley and Wilton assembled a set of questions from several sources (including TUCE items adapted to the Canadian situation). Taking into account the student's initial understanding of economics, sex, major field, student year, the instructor's ability to arouse and maintain interest, and the amount of time spent on the course, the authors employ a regression model with student score on the posttest as the dependent variable. Their findings, although preliminary, add to the growing body of research on the introductory course and suggest some interesting possibilities. Among these possibilities is the fact that some “natural” learning may occur among students not exposed to a formal economics course.     

Online Discussion and Learning Outcomes

This paper describes how we used Facebook as a discussion tool in the instruction of a principles level economics course and reports empirical estimates of the affect of that use on learning outcomes. Social media as a tool for promoting classroom discussion has advantages and disadvantages. For example, its omnipresence and flat learning curve can promote academic discourse. However social media can promote nonacademic “chatting”, and its omnipresence means the user needs more than a passing knowledge of the privacy settings to have control of their “digital identity”. For a Principles of Microeconomics taught in 2011 we collected data, with permission from our institution’s Institutional Review Board, on student use of Facebook, academic and demographic characteristics, learning style preferences and learning outcomes. Our research hypothesis is that an empirical analysis will find a positive correlation between student in-class use of Facebook and learning outcomes. Among our findings are that students should receive more coaching on the use of privacy settings, and qualified evidence that there is a positive net effect on learning outcomes of using Facebook as a discussion tool.     

‘Economics with Training Wheels’: Using Blogs in Teaching and Assessing Introductory Economics

Blogs provide a dynamic interactive medium for online discussion, consistent with communal constructivist pedagogy. The author of this article describes and evaluates a blog assignment used in the teaching and assessment of a small (40–60 students) introductory economics course. Using qualitative and quantitative data collected across four semesters, students’ participation in the blog assignment is found to be associated with student ability, gender, and student perceptions of the blog. Importantly, students with past economics experience do not appear to crowd out novice economics students. Student performance is positively associated with the quality of their blog participation after controlling for student ability, suggesting that a focus on quality of student engagement could further improve learning outcomes. Students generally report overall positive experiences with the blog assignment.     

A Model of Economics Learning in the High Schools

The effectiveness of the Developmental Economic Education Project (DEEP) of the Joint Council of Economic Education (JCEE) and the International Paper Company Foundation (IPCF) awards program for teaching economics is evaluated in this article. The effects these programs have on achievement in economics (ACH), attitudes towards economics as a subject (ATE), and economic attitude sophistication (EAS) are observed. The authors' study shows that DEEP schools had a positive effect on students in these three areas. The results of the IPCF program are less encouraging with students actually showing less economic understanding as a consequence of being taught by an award winning teacher.     

Using a Geographic Information System to Teach Economics

An honors program fits the current passion for active, in-depth learning and “capstone experiences.” Principles that guide a successful undergraduate economics honors program include simplicity, accessibility, skill development, risk minimization, and incentives to combat procrastination. The model program specifies three of the usual six electives and requires a senior thesis that makes an original contribution to economics understanding. It can be started as late as the middle of the junior year, providing accessibility and limiting student risk. A required econometrics course and a policy seminar prepare students to write a thesis. A series of short-term deadlines helps combat procrastination. Although an honors program is not for everyone, its emphasis on quality rather than quantity can add a valuable dimension to most economics degree programs.     

Learning to Argue with Intermediate Macro Theory: A Semester-Long Team Writing Project

The authors describe their experience with integrating a semester-long economic analysis project into an intermediate macroeconomic theory course. Students work in teams of “economic advisors” to write a series of nested reports that analyze the current state of the economy, and propose and evaluate policies for a decision-maker. The project simulates real-world policy consulting with an emphasis on applying economic theory and models. The authors describe the project setup and how to tailor its theme to current events, explain methods for keeping it manageable in larger classes, discuss student learning outcomes, and document course evaluation results. Besides improving the learning experience, this project prepares economics students to contribute their own views to policy debates and buttress them with tight macroeconomic reasoning.     

Social Preferences in the Lab: A Comparison of Students and a Representative Population

We report from a lab experiment conducted with a sample of participants that is nationally representative for the adult population in Norway and two student samples (economics students and non‐economics students). The participants make choices both in a dictator game (a non‐strategic environment) and in a generalized trust game (a strategic environment). We find that the representative sample differs fundamentally from the student samples, both in the relative importance assigned to different moral motives (efficiency, equity, and reciprocity) and in the level of selfish behavior. It is also interesting to note that the gender effects observed in the student samples do not correspond to the gender effects observed in representative sample. Finally, whereas economics students behave less pro‐socially than non‐economics students, the two student groups are similar in the relative importance they assign to different moral motives.     

Freshman-Sophomore Learning Differentials: A Comment

Several principles of writing in different contexts are explained. Although the effect of writing on learning economics is yet to be established, students appreciate writing assignments because they see professional value in them.     

Behavioral Objectives and Student Learning Contracts in the Teaching of Economics

The authors present a series of writing assignments that teaches students how to evaluate and critique the written economic work of others. The foundation text is McCloskey's (2000) Economical Writing. The students' dialogues with McCloskey, with each other, and with the authors of the pieces they evaluate sharpen their understanding of, and ability to use, language as an instrument of economic thought. Interviews with former students identify specific benefits from the student perspective of this approach. The authors show how the assignment series can be modified in several ways and how the general approach, as well as the foundation text, can be used in different economics courses.     

论可持续学习观对大学生发展的指引

阐明可持续学习观的定义,论述可持续学习观对大学生发展的指引作用,并以优秀大学生党员作为突破点,分析了优秀大学生党员的可持续学习观对自身发展的促进作用,强调优秀大学生党员的先锋模范作用,以点带面,以期改善大学生群体的学习观念和学习行为,进而从高校教育功能的角度,为高校如何培养大学生可持续学习观提出意见和建议。     

Integrating Applied Field Work into the Undergraduate Economics Curriculum

This article documents the development and implementation of an undergraduate research methods course incorporating field work. Conducted in collaboration between the UW-Eau Claire Department of Economics and local elected officials and county staff in Buffalo County, Wisconsin undergraduate students were assigned the task of developing and presenting initiating a county-wide economic redevelopment strategy during the Spring term 2018. Course specific learning goals included: Hard skills development (software usage, data acquisition and analysis, benchmarking, and survey design) and soft skills development (presentation of sensitive economic information to lay audiences and teamwork). Initial results suggest that field-based coursework improves student learning, student interest in economics, improve local economic performance, and may help to bridge the “Town versus Gown” divide.     

Programmed Learning-Policy Analysis: An Experiment in Teaching Principles of Economics

Darnton reports on an experiment using programmed instruction in macroeconomics. He also explains how assignments to write “position papers” on economic policies are used. An analysis of the experiment deals with the time devoted to the course by students and instructor, student understanding of economics and student attitude toward this approach. The TUCE was used as the testing instrument, and Darnton asserts that the experimental group did better than the control group on complex application questions. The experimental approach proved to be popular with the students, and the author claims that it provided for a more efficient use of faculty resources.     

Enhancing the Macroeconomics Course: An Experiential Learning Approach

Although the history of the development of reliable testing instruments for economics goes back only a few years, the Test of Economic Understanding (TEU, 1963) and the Test of Understanding of College Economics (TUCE, 1967-1968) have already resulted in valuable measurements of student learning. Villard's critical appraisal of these tests, and of research based upon their use, summarizes where we now stand in the evaluation of teaching effectiveness.     

A Note on Attitude as a Factor in Learning Economics

Although one might naturally assume that students interested in economics will learn more in an introductory course than those not interested in the subject, this assumption had to be tested. Using a specially designed “Questionnaire on Student Attitude Toward Economics” on a pretest and posttest basis, and accounting for previous course work, the student's verbal and quantitative skills, and student program requirements, Karstensson and Vedder employed linear multiple regression analysis and found a positive relationship between precourse attitude and course grade. Changes in student attitude which occurred during the course were also analyzed.     

Farmer Brown v. Rancher Wyatt: Teaching the Coase Theorem

The Coase Theorem is a fundamental tenet of environmental economics and is taught to thousands of principles of microeconomics students each year. Its counterintuitive conclusion, that a Pareto optimal solution can result between private parties regardless of the initial allocation of property rights over a scarce resource, is difficult for students to understand. By using a mock trial that centers on a property dispute, students can be taught how the Coase Theorem works in practice with minimal preparation. The strong assumptions on which the Coase Theorem relies also can be included to show why the theorem may not hold. By using a unique, active learning technique, students will be more engaged and may have a better understanding of a difficult but seminal theory of economics.     

How Should the Graduate Economics Core be Changed?

The authors present suggestions by graduate students from a range of economics departments for improving the first-year core sequence in economics. The students identified a number of elements that should be added to the core: more training in building microeconomic models, a discussion of the methodological foundations of model-building, more emphasis on institutions to motivate and contextualize macroeconomic models, and greater focus on econometric practice rather than theory. The authors hope that these suggestions will encourage departments to take a fresh look at the content of the first-year core.