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.     

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。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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。     

A Student Learning Inventory for Economics Based on the Students' Experience of Learning: A Preliminary Study

The authors present the initial development of a student learning inventory (SLI) that is specific to economics. This approach, which is based on the student experience of learning (SEL) literature, emphasizes aspects of prior knowledge in the learning history of entering first-year students. Preliminary insights from a first SLI suggest that on entry to university, students show considerable variation in their perceptions of what economics is and what economists do. From the SEL perspective, such variation affects student learning. It is argued that continued development of an economic-specific SLI may result in a better understanding of students' learning engagement with economics and ultimately assist instructors in better understanding student learning difficulties and increase student success in first-year economics.     

Pretesting students to improve teaching and learning

The focus of this paper is on developing ways to evaluate teaching performance on a regular basis as a means of improving teaching effectiveness and increasing student learning in the classroom. In particular, this paper shows how an instructor-developed pretest, when given at the start of an introductory economics course as part of a pre- and post-test strategy, can be used as a diagnostic and developmental tool for instructors to assess and improve teaching effectiveness. Evidence of students' deficiencies in basic economic and math or graphing skills has led to making changes in content and delivery to increase students' chances of success in the economics course. In addition, pre- and post-test results can be used to determine which economic concepts are being taught effectively and which areas need improvement.     

Doing Economics: Enhancing Skills through a Process-Oriented Senior Research Course

The author describes a senior-level course designed to promote student skills in "acting like economists." Although most departments offer senior-level courses, this one is unique in that it was developed on the basis of learning as opposed to content objectives, assignments are designed to reinforce and further develop research skills through a project of the student's choosing, and it more closely models what it means to "act like an economist" (W. L. Hansen 2006). The author discusses the development of this course and its unique features, the research process followed by students and the outcomes generated, and some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with this form of senior research course.     

应用型本科院校“管理信息系统”教学改革研究

以应用型本科院校铜陵学院为例,文章从课程体系、教学改革、实验教学、教材建设等几个方面总结、分析计算机系对"管理信息系统"所进行的课程教学改革,结果发现,无论在培养学生分析解决问题的能力方面,还是在增强学生实际应用及操作能力方面,课程教学改革都取得了较好的效果。     

Urban Development Revisited: The Role of Neighborhood Needs and Local Participation in Urban Revitalization

Traditional models of economic development such as economic base and urban revitalization models have been found wanting. Both models rely on expert-based assessments of local development needs. More recent approaches call for a stronger focus on local development needs and resident skills as the basis for designing development strategies. One such neighborhood-based approach to development is presented in this paper. Its initial step was a survey of 444 households representing 1398 residents conducted in the Hamilton Hill and Vale neighborhoods of Schenectady, New York a 'downsized' community of about 65,000 residents in the Capital District of New York State. Survey results show a strong need for recreation, childcare, a grocery store, care for the elderly and home repairs. Residents' self-assessed job skills and interests appear to be well suited to meet these needs. Yet despite these promising results, barriers to neighborhood-based development persist. These barriers reiterate the long history of isolation prevalent in US inner city neighborhoods. Two issues are particularly characteristic of the barriers that continue to keep urban neighborhoods isolated from their larger context. They are: (1) a lack of effective communication between local residents and decision makers; and (2) a lack of valuation systems that properly assess the value of social and environmental context and their contributions to local development.     

R&D, Learning, and Phases of Economic Growth

The role of learning and R&D in economic development is addressed in an endogenous growth model. When human capital is below a threshold level, the model predicts that skills are accumulated as the only growth-generating activity, whereas both innovation activities and learning drive growth above this level. Hence, an endogenous regime shift is triggered when the level of human capital reaches the threshold level because it becomes profitable to innovate.     

Scholastic Effort: An Empirical Test of Student Choice Models

A measure of student effort based on time and the efficiency of its use was found to be significant in several learning models. The report discusses variations of a generalized learning model, different definitions of student input, and the use of pre-TUCE scores as a variable. The authors ask whether the pre-TUCE is more appropriate as a measure of economic knowledge or as a proxy for student aptitude. The findings and methodology should be of considerable interest to others doing research on student effort.     

Impact of the economic downturn on nursing schools

The challenges posed by the economic downturn on baccalaureate nursing schools in the southeast as it relates to their perceptions of changes in the number of applicants, acceptance rates, employer recruitment efforts, and student clinical and job placement were explored. Responses from deans and program directors indicated nursing schools are experiencing negative effects of the economic downturn in the form of graduates having difficulty finding employment, decreased recruitment efforts from prospective employers, difficulty locating clinical placements for students, and no change in faculty applicants despite an increase in undergraduate student applicants as well as graduate student applicants. These multiple factors combined could signal the death knell for programs that are ill-prepared to deal with such a crisis. Programs need to be aggressive in their efforts to draw health care recruiters as well as qualified faculty applicants to their campuses. Nursing schools must be able to clearly show why their graduates are superior to other programs' graduates when competing for both highly qualified faculty applicants and prospective student employers.     

应用型本科院校金融学专业建设研究——以铜陵学院为例

地方应用型高校的培养目标是技术性、应用型人才,传统培养机制是基于研究型教学的,并不符合应用型教育需求。文章以金融学专业为例重新定位了应用型本科高校培养机制,从培养目标、培养模式、课程设置、教学方法等四个方面展开分析,探讨适合地方经济发展需求的真正的应用型金融人才培养机制。     

Writing in the discipline and reproducible methods: A process-oriented approach to teaching empirical undergraduate economics research

The authors of this article describe an empirical research project as a component of an upper-level undergraduate economics writing-in-the-discipline course, thus aiming to reduce the high fixed costs associated with designing an empirical research project assignment and encourage more undergraduate economics research. This project is central to the course structure and has a dual-purpose: to teach students economics writing conventions and reproducible empirical research methods. The authors present a sequenced project design and replication documentation protocol and posit that this promotes student learning and leads to improvements in organization and coherence throughout the entire research and writing process. As an essential element of the course, students learn to do econometrics through effective writing, data management, and empirical analysis.