Cultivating the liberally educated mind through a signature program

In this article, the authors describe the Miller Upton Programs launched by the Beloit College Department of Economics in 2008. The programs aim to advance student understanding of the nature and causes of wealth and well-being. After describing the programs’ core elements, the authors discuss ways in which they leverage economic discourse as a means to advance liberal learning. They argue that programs of this kind advance liberal learning by cultivating skills required to engage the great questions of human flourishing, by fostering development of students’ economic imagination and by enhancing students’ ability to engage in genuine intellectual discovery. Details on the history and resource commitments for various program aspects are provided, allowing readers to identify program elements appropriate for replication at their home institutions.     

Pod learning: Student groups create podcasts to achieve economics learning goals

In this article, the authors examine two ways that they use music (i.e., popular song lyrics) as an active learning technique in an undergraduate history of economic thought course. First, they use music to help students grasp the ideas of the great thinkers in economics and see their relevance today. Second, because they require students to read original texts and write thesis-driven essays, they use music to teach essential skills related to such assignments. While the article focuses on how they use music as a pedagogical device to teach the history of economic thought, the use of music to teach essential skills could be applied to any economics course in which students engage in higher-level reading and writing.     

大学草根创业教育的经济学分析

“什么知识最有价值？一致的答案是科学”，“为了那个叫作谋生的间接保全自己，有最大价值的知识是科学。” 在我国就业形势日趋严重的形势下，以斯宾塞的谋生最大价值的知识是科学的思想为指引，在大学教育中重点开设符合学生创业的课程，开展有科学性、针对性、实用性的创业教育。服务当地经济社会发展与贴近当地经济开展实用教育是草根创业教育的原生力，培养大学生的企业家精神是草根创业教育的创新力，促进经济发展是草根创业的经济力。由此可见，改变大学生就业观念，培养学生创业精神，掌握草根创业的科学知识和技能，鼓励大学生草根创业，摸索一条符合中国国情的大学生创业之路，不仅有利于大学毕业生自身的成长与发展，使我国宝贵的人力资源发挥自身的优势，创造宝贵的财富；又能促进地区经济的发展，提升区域生产力水平和经济的知识含量。     

Class Debates in Intermediate Microeconomics: Social Economics and Pluralist Perspectives

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of class debates in an intermediate-level microeconomics course to introduce early to mid-career undergraduate students to socially embedded and pluralist perspectives, political-economic processes, and policy analyses. Using data from three semesters of class debates in an intermediate microeconomics course, we argue that this activity is a beneficial way to stimulate student interest in social economics, especially in the ethical, political economy, and economic justice aspects of economics and policy. We carried out three allied activities: participation in the debate, a learning self-assessment survey, and a five-page memo providing a balanced analysis of the policy conundrums surrounding the issue under discussion. We discuss three aspects of these class debates relevant to social economists: student attention to processes of knowledge construction, cognizance of power in socioeconomic life, and engagement with economic justice and ethics.     

Creating infographics to enhance student engagement and communication in health economics

In this article, the authors discuss and describe the implementation of and lessons learned from a course project centered on the creation of an infographic in a health economics course and an introduction to health research course. Students were asked to create a simple infographic about a particular topic, after researching and gathering data on that topic. The instructors observed how students synthesized information and data to tell a visual story with their infographic. This article adds to the limited literature regarding infographics in undergraduate instruction. An infographic offers faculty an opportunity to apply active learning strategies to enhance student engagement, retention of information, and communication skills.     

Enhancing the teaching of introductory economics with a team-based,multi-section competition

The authors describe a unique approach to enhancing student learning at the introductory economics level that utilizes a multi-section, team-based competition. The competition is structured to supplement learning throughout the entire introductory course. Student teams are presented with current economic issues, trends, or events, and use economic tools and theories to comprehensively examine the topics. Students present their analyses in their own sections with one team from each section moving on to compete in an inter-section round. Students are judged on technicality, creativity, and applicability of economic concepts. The competition has the potential to advance students' creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical and analytical thinking skills, while enhancing their ability to apply foundational economic concepts to real-world settings.     

Promoting Active-Student Learning Using the World Wide Web in Economics Courses

During the past 10 years, teaching with computer technology, such as e-mail and the Web, has become customary throughout undergraduate economic education. The authors review the literature on the implications for student learning, present specific educational activities that use a number of different computer technologies, and discuss growing problems, such as "cyber-plagiarism," along with suggesting potential solutions. The future of using technology for teaching economics will be the continuation of recent trends: increased portability in the access to instruction and increased opportunities for interaction, including students' interaction with the material and with the instructor and other students.     

Think Globally,Teach Locally: Experiencing the Foreign Aid Debate Through Service Learning

Abstract

Novel curricular strategies are required if institutions want all students to actively experience the benefits of global knowledge and civic engagement, as financial and practical commitments frequently make study abroad inaccessible to many students. In this paper, we outline an innovative service-learning course, where local action coupled with an international target, offered a parallel and novel learning strategy that capitalized on the strengths of experiential education, while providing a practical and more inclusive student engagement opportunity available to a larger subset of students. We also describe our teaching strategy, which emphasizes the social context of the classroom: discovery, self-exploration, and shared learning. Together, service learning and a critical pedagogy can better help students relate to the otherwise abstract processes of foreign aid. In 2013 and 2014, approximately 30 undergraduate students participated in a student-led outreach project soliciting bicycle donations to support human development efforts in Uganda and Ghana. In addition to making reasonable progress toward learning outcomes during the two-year pilot, we found that the everyday challenges our students encountered in their service-learning project were microcosms for some of the large-scale, global challenges that foreign aid delivery faces.     

A Realistic International Economics

In this article, the authors describe the structure and assessment of a capstone course in economics. The outcomes are noteworthy for three reasons. First, among cited evidence to date, this is the only undergraduate economics program from a nonselective public university reporting similar achievements in undergraduate research paper publications. Second, the program reports learning outcomes of a relatively new instrument in standardized test (ETS MFT Economics) to measure attainment of proficiencies in economics. Finally, it introduces undergraduate research paper competition outcomes as a measure of student paper quality.     

基于CDIO工程教育理念的本科应用型人才培养模式探索与改革

从能力本位、＂做中学＂与＂一体化＂、工程教育环境与产学合作三个方面对CDIO工程教育理念内涵进行科学分析,凝炼出市场导向、全人教育、能力体现、学生主体、张扬个性、一体化、开放式的应用型本科人才培养模式改革的理念,提出改革的目标是主动适应新时期经济结构战略调整与产业结构升级对应用型人才的新要求,改革的路径是明确人才培养目标定位及其规格要求,一体化课程体系设计及项目设计,教育教学资源体系与教学平台体系的重构,课程改革方案编制,评价方法创新等。