Wall Street Journal On Econ Education

Physic Teacher

I watched the class for a popular physic teacher. Economist try to be physicist with the various laws (such as Law of Demand etc.) that sound similar to various Laws in physic. So I decided to see how she makes physic interesting and maybe I can steal some of her ideas. She uses a method called "Peer Instruction". She starts out with putting up her learning objective for the day. She starts what seems like a standard lecture except that after every learning objective she puts up a difficult multiple choice question on the screen. She has the class divided into four sections. Each section correspond to a choice on the screen. The students will have to decide on the correct answer and move to the corresponding section. The students are given 5-10 minutes to discuss , come up with the correct answer and move to the correct section of the room for the question.
This was very fun but I noticed a problem with this technique is that prepared students build a reputation and quickly get a following. Unprepared students just wait and follow the well prepared students.

Preachers and Teachers

Watching a T.V. show recommended by one of my good students. The student is a believer and a bit of a missionary. After every class I listen politely and try to listen her beliefs. I was bored and decided to check out her television viewing recommendation. This guy was boring but as the camera went to the audience one could see the fascination in the believers' eyes.
I began to wonder how much of what the crowd hears is retained?
I wondered how many of them had read the BOOK before coming to the sermon?
I believe that their fascination was with the topic and not with the preacher. Unless I missed something!
Finally I started to ask all these questions about my own classes!
How much of my lectures is retained by the students?
How many read before coming to class?
How much of that retention is due to me and how much due to their study skills?
How much of their fascination is with the myth of money and Economics? And how much of their fascination is created by me?

The Invisible Heart

Thinking about my last post I remembered the novel Invisible Heart by Russel Roberts with a teacher guide to teach Econ.

Thematic Approach

Talking to a humanity teacher I was envious of how much flexibility they have in what they cover. After feeling sorry for myself I started to think we can do the same in Econ. Lets call it the novelist's approach to setting up a class. Or to make it sound more formal "The Thematic Approach to Economics".
This is a simple idea and probably some education book has this:

1. Picking a main theme for the semester such as growth or in Micro Incentives vs. Costs.
2. Within this theme or framework chose the chapters to be taught

This is how economics textbook authors write! The idea are the same in most textbooks. How it is presented and what is stressed or is not stressed is where the differences among textbook and teachers come to the surface. (this last sentence is really long)

Team teaching with Fine Arts

Write a play (or find a play) that illustrates concepts from economics. This Play should not have any Economic lingo nor any graphs!

Have a drama class read or act out the play. Ask the actors or the class to analyze the characters and/or the play. This way we have a drama class where actors learn Economics through researching their characters.
The trick is finding or writing a play that illustrates various Economics concepts.

Federal Reserve blog on Econ Education

P. Chidambaram Interview

On September 21st Charlie Rose interviewed the finance minister of India, P Chidambaram. I realized to late that I should be recording this interview. Chidambaram explained GDP and GDP per capita. He explained to Charlie that India will become the 3rd or 4th largest economy in the world but it will not have the GDP per capita of U.S.
Also he talked about Purchasing power parity when Charlie brought up cost of living.
This interview followed the outline in Colander Macroeconomics textbook.

Sentimentalists

Back in the mid to late 1980s, when I was a college student, I was a big fan of any music with depressing lyrics. It should be no surprise I was depressed a lot! Sometime around 1989 I put all of my music with depressing lyrics in a box and never listened to them again.
Fast forward to today!(actually yesterday)
Yesterday I found the box in my parents garage and I remembered why I put all my depressing music in that box.
My economics professor praised my curiosity , intelligence and taste in music but he also pointed out that I should enjoy life and stop listening to depressing music.

What I have in common with Jay Gould

The Dark Genius of Wall Street by Edward J., Jr. Renehan is the biography of Jay Gould.
He (Gould) would let his staff use his library. They were to use the library at anytime, even when he was in there himself.
He would secretly watch and would offer to finance the college education of the staff who showed a proclivity for learning. The author said he found 12 documented cases.
This is what I do with blackboard and WebCT. I am monitoring their usage and give those that spend lots of time and check various document the benefit of the doubt when they are on the border between two grades.
Now I am not a robber Barron and I am not hated like Gould but I have something in common with this bearded guy.
I liked the way Renehan put it: "He ran a triage in that library". I like to think that I am running an electronic triage.

Rounding the Corners

John Berendt author of Midnight in the Garden of good and evil said that he used fiction to "round the corners" in a true story.
Is this a useful tool in Econ to grab attention?
Should we tell tall tales to get their attention?
Should we tell tall tales to illustrate a point?
Bad side: Might lose credibility.
Gain: more interest in the material.
If you do it with a wink will it be ok?

Super Hero of Econ?

On Friday September 16 there was an interesting interview on Science Fridayy They interviewed James Kakalios author of The Physics of Superheroes.
This made me ask: could something similar be done for Economics?
Could there be a class like classes taught by Prof. Kakalios for survey of Econ course?


I got the cartoon above from Cartoon site Perfect world

Ok I am Sold!

Tried out experiment in my micro class and did an excellent lecture in the other. The class with the experiment did better on the supply and demand exam.
I could not figure out why did better so I asked my class on Friday. They told me that they were motivated to read because of the exam. Few of them reported that they were confused when we did the experiment, and they made the connection as they read to the confusion in class.
So it appears that experiments alone are not enough. There is a need for some old fashion reading too.
I used Charles Holt design, so he gets a link on my tiny blog.

The Macroeconomics Textbook Manifesto

An interesting manifesto by Dr DeLong at U.C. Berkeley.

Getting Soft!

Yesterday for the first time since leaving L.A.U.S.D.(L.A. Unified School District), I had to ask a student to stop talking. I usually encourage talking that is related to the subject. However this student was making funny remarks every chance he got. I did not mind his first joke (Big Mistake! I should have cut him off there) was a bit annoyed at his second joke and gave him my dirty look! On his third time I gave him another dirty look which he did not notice or ignored.
I decided to be patient and pull him aside after class, so I would not have to embarrass him in front of his classmates.
On his fourth joke one of his classmates told him to grow up. At this point I asked him to please stop his commentaries.
He asked me: "Why don you say something earlier?"
I replied with "I assumed that we were all grown ups here."
One of his friends said "Burn..."
After class I tried to stop him so I could talk to him but he was the first one out the door. Other students came up and thanked the young lady who told him to grow up.
It made me realize that I am out of practice when it comes to discipline of problem students. I have to be more ready for such students and cut them off at their first digression.

Too Expensive to Cheat

In my online class, I assign due dates and keep reminding the students that my class is not a self-paced class!
One student has asked: "why do u have this rule?"
I replied with "to ensure you and your classmates success in learning. If you study over a period of time the material will stay with you longer than if you crammed it all in one night. Finally it helps me to have everyone on the same general page. "
There is one more reason, which I did not share with this student. The secret reason is to make it too expensive for anyone to cheat by paying someone to do their online homework. A student can afford to pay someone to take an online exam for them, but having to login and complete weekly quizzes is going to be very expensive. Also the weekly assignments and quizzes are useful in making cheaters stand out. If a students weekly assignments and quizzes are consistently horrible and their midterm is outstanding something is rotten in .... (wherever they be logging in from)

Figuring out my X-Periment!?

I gave my midterm yesterday. There were 30 multiple choice questions and one short answer question on the exam. The students were told if you do not know the answer you have two options:

1. write something and hope for the best
2. Write I don't know!

I offered the ones who admit not knowing the answer 1 point for honesty, and would give zero to those who try to B** S**! This was mainly done to save my eyes.

The results for both classes are different and confusing to me. The large lecture hall with 111 students had only 2 students admitted not knowing. There were 11 other students who tried to write something long (on a short answer question!) hoping for the best.

My smaller class with 47 students had 7.5 students admitting their lack of knowledge. There was one student in this class who wrote out bunch of stuff and at the end admitted that she did not know the answer.

In the small class 100 percent of the students confessed their lack of knowledge but in the large lecture they still tried to get away with B**S**

Do they feel that anonymous in those large lecture halls? The safety in number (herd) mentality?

Midterm exam

Midterm Exam I have one short answer question on the midterm.
I tell the students if they know the answer and can get it they will get 4 points. However if they do not know the answer they have two options:

1. Try to B**S** and get Zero
2. Write I don't know and get one point for honesty

I wonder what the results will be? And if I could I would like to have a punitive point for B#**S**. I have to check with the Dean first!

Last night on Charlie Rose one of the guest was CHRIS WHITTLE. He is the entrepreneur slash educator who started the Edison Schools. He was there to sell his new book "Crash Course: Imagining a Better Future For Public Education"
His main thesis was that we are using a 19th century model for education. He wants us to think of new ways of running schools. One example he gave was hiring half as many teachers and paying them twice as much as they are now. He argued having the school day divided into 6 periods is a waste. He envisions students studying a few hours a day with higher paid and more talented and more motivated teachers and the rest of the day the students would run the school.
How about higher education? How would higher education reform itself?

Excellent Program on PBS

I watched this on the local PBS station and found it very accurate. The program is called Declining by Degrees!

Are all Fixed Costs Sunk?

Drinking again with El Doctor, but this time closer to home. I had sent him my last(Sept 9th) post, and asked him what he be thinking.
He criticized my post for not including the idea of short-run long-run fallacy. He asked: What is a Short-run today? The network effects, technology and a global market for goods and labor puts us in the long run. We get our goods from China. We get services from India. So where is the fixed resources to cause diminishing returns?.

So El Doctor argues for the long-run flat to a downward sloping supply curve! He pointed to the telecom industry as soon as they laid down their lines the price for their lines fell. As they increased quantity supplied (in the long-run) the price were going down. For those who have forgotten this supply curve, it is usually taught in the chapter on perfect competition under the long-run senario.
My contribution to this discussion of ours was the following jingo: all fixed costs sink fast.

Diminishing Marginal Productivity

While drinking down at the cowboy bar in San Juan, I confessed my doubts about some of the materials in Microeconomics! My confessor, El Doctor,absolved me of my sin by pointing out that some of my doubts have a basis in fact.

The idea he attacked most eloquently was the idea of Diminishing Marginal Productivity. He argued that some ideas in principal courses are obselete.
Is Diminishing Marginal Productivity an old obselete idea?
I was a little intoxicated but his argument in a nutshell was Microeconomics as taught in Principal courses is just mental gymnastics, but he also argued that there is a value in having students practicing a bit of logic.
Some of the ideas that we agreed were accurately portrayed in Micro were:

• Cost Benefit analysis
• Incentives
• Game Theory

Discussion Board

The guy who got me excited about Econ is using an online discussion board to generate in class discussion. Using Blackboard course management system he has students post to the discussion board, and later in class he uses their posts to generate in class discussion.
I like this idea very much! The semester has already started so it is too late to change my syllabus, and I hate extra credit.
Taking the Doctor's idea, I made a forum for the students on blackboard called:
"I did not get what ...... you be talking about?"
I am hoping that students will ask online what they are embarrassed to ask in front of their classmates. However most students will not do this till it becomes mandatory or becomes extra credit.

Rock and Roll to Motivate

I was at the library looking through the education section for some books on teaching. I had no idea what I was looking for and was letting the moment guide me.
I picked up a book from 1983 and it was about how music in the background can affect the mood of the students.
There was some stuff on Alpha Beta and Delta waves created with different type of music.
Now as a dismal scientist I am not into New Age stuff but what about using rock and roll.
Here is one that is not fully cooked:

• Marginal Cost vs Marginal Benefit of selling and moving could be taught with the Clash in the background singing "should I stay or should I go?"

If you can think of any other songs let me know. I will add some as I come up with them.

Working family

Irvine California Dog park. I am watching my dog chase some other dog and my ears are scanning the conversations taking place around me. One of these conversation caught my attention today.
There are these women who baby sit busy peoples' dogs. They work on an hourly basis for some dog sitting company. These women were talkin about getting a 10 cent/ hour raise and how she was making $9/hour. This also caught the ear of an engineer who makes 85k a year and drives the latest BMW with a "W" (Bush election sticker) on the back.
He was astounded that these ladies were only making $9/hour. He could not figure out how someone can live on $300 (after taxes) a week. He admitted that he spends that much in one night eating out.
This did not go down well with the dog sitters. To ease his conscious he offers free advice to the ladies.
"Be more entrepreneurial! You should do this as business not hourly work!"
I wonder if he is on the right track? Or is he full of it?
It is very easy to give advice, when your stomach is full and you are comfortable.

Economist and Scarcity

This post relates to my recent post on Opportunity Costs. I thought of another simple concepts that big name economist forget. The concept of scarcity is one that Presidents Council of Economic Advisors seem to have forgotten. War in Iraq and tax cuts? Guns and Butter?! Wait but isn't that Opportunity Cost again! So again I am not surprised by economist not knowing our own rhetoric.

Iowa Electronic Markets

http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem/classroom/

Using the site for Econ class

Opportunity Cost

Here is an interesting result. A shameful result according to Marginal Revolution?
But is it surprising? When I was in graduate school my girl friend and classmate got upset at our micro teacher because I got a higher score on the midterm exam then her. As an undergrad she was a math major and she was helping me with the math. I confess I am at best average when it comes to math. She was mad because my math on the exam was all wrong and yet I scored a higher grade then her. She wanted to know why?
Dr. S. (the teacher I try to copy when I teach micro) told her "Mike screwed up in the mechanics of the math but his economic reasoning is sound." He continued after thinking for a moment "Your math is flawless and the proof you provided is wonderful but how does it work in Economics."
She could not answer him.
In case you are wondering the question was about cost. She had calculated all the explicit costs accurately but had overlooked what she angrily called "B**L S*** Cost" !
I do not find this surprising at all. If you want the finance version of this read Financial Rounds.

Springsteen Seminar

This is a seminar but I would love to design a fun class like this! Maybe a class on economics of changing your name "P Diddy"! Oh! he dropped the "P" he is just "diddy" now! Don't believe me? Here is CNN Don't believe CNN here is MSNBC