The following is my reply to a questionair for a position. It is not my usuall first draft posting. The question was:
5. Describe how you would use real life experiences in order to help students learn the abstract concepts in economics.
I agree that using real life experiences is a valuable learning tool, and I have developed methodology to help the students make these connections between real life experiences and abstract concepts.
One of the most effective methods of teaching economics is the use of classroom exercises that insert students directly into the economic environments being studied. For example, in Microeconomics using playing cards I divide the class into two groups. Students with red suits are buyers and students with black suits are sellers. I ask them to trade and I make a prediction as to the price. After a few rounds of trading they end up at the predicted price. They want to know how I was able to predict the price and they quickly discover the concepts of supply, demand and equilibrium. I like to think that I am providing my microeconomic students with a lab component where they can experiment with the concept being studied. Wherever I do not have an experiment I ask them to discuss and connect concepts to “reality”, before I give them any examples.
In Macroeconomic the experimental component is more difficult to produce and I mostly rely on developing the students’ observational skill. I assign students to find news articles, or a story that illustrates the given concept being studied. The process of searching for the news story makes them think, and I hope looking at the world as an economist will becomes a habit for them.
How did I do? We will find out soon enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment