Personality Matters

Reading Borg and Shapiro in the Journal of Economic Education 1996 winter issue, makes an interesting point. They investigated how student’s personality affects student’s achievement in a macroeconomics class. I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator back in the 1980s and I was an INTP. The study claims that ENTP and ESTP and ENFP did worst than the most common student type of ISTJ. Extroverts did worst than Introverts. SJ students performed better than NT and NF students. Also they found that the closer the match between the temperament of the student and the instructor the better the final grade of the student. I plan to contact some of my old Prof and see if they know their Meyers-Briggs type.

Do they come hating or leave hating you?

It is conventional wisdom that students attitude toward a course or an instructor determines how much students learns in the class. I was surprised to find out that someone actually tested this hypothesis out. Using a single equation model (Karstensson and Vedder, 1974, A note on attitude as a factor on in learning economics. Journal of economics education, (pp109-111)) this hypothesis works. However when a simultaneous relationship is estimated with a two-stage least squares the results shows something different. It shows that relationship between attitude and learning in economics classes goes in one direction but the direction is the opposite of the conventional wisdom. Students who learn more in an economics class tend to like economics more and are likely to take more economics afterwards (Walstad 1987 applying two stage least squares. In W.E. Becker and W.B. walstad, Econometric modeling in economic education research (pp111-134). Kluwer-Nijhoff)
The above reminds me of three things: 1) I love economics. It proves the conventional wisdom wrong using econometrics. 2) I have forgotten all of my econometrics. 3) All joking aside these studies made me think back and remember students saying “that class is a waste of time”. If they see your class as a waste of time they will hate you and whatever you teach.

How students grade instructors

I have been looking at ratemyprofessor.com and I have been thinking of how students evaluate instructors. There seems to be three points on the students’ minds. These three points (in my opinion) are 1) Clarity 2) Difficulty and 3) Fairness.
Students look at Clarity in a different way than instructors. Instructor view being clear as having a lesson plan and an organized lecture, Although students place a value on clarity during the lecture they place a higher value on a clear rules. Basically they want to know what it takes to get a high grade in the class.

I believe that the difficulty rating by the students will highly correlate with the clarity score. They will consider a class difficult if the grading scheme or the syllabus is not clear.

“I took the online class, its an easy A if you put in the time to do all the
quizzes until you get an A on them, because he allows you to do them multiple
times until you get the grade you want on them.”
“I didn't take the online
course. I thought he would be an easy teacher, but if you don't take all lecture
notes and study from the book, I find the class to be hard. I ended up with a C,
but I didn't put much effort in the class.”

Finally the question of fairness is what makes or breaks the instructor. If an instructor gains a reputation as unfair all of his/her scores will be low. This Fairness score is based on perceptions of the students. This perception can be cultivated by first being clear with your expectations. Second these expectations should be repeated at least once a week. Show compassion to the plight of the students.

“I lost my book and he let me barrow his book. This shows how much he cares for
his students to learn. BOTTOM LINE, Mike is a great professor. Definitely one of
the better professors at this school. He is very helpful, very clear, and very
approachable. Always willing to help out.”

Finally stick to your rules! If you bend the rules explain how you bend them.

“Got a light? Just kidding. He is an excellent professor, and he will help you
out--no matter what. Do blackboard, read your damn book, and answer questions in
class; he will recognize that!”

Grade Fortune Teller

The students after taking an exam can go to my Grade Fortune Teller to see if my program can guess their grade. The page has some technical problems.
(question 15 does not appear)

Asking Student to Listen & Decipher

I often use the stories from the show Marketplace in my class. Usually I play the story and ask for students impressions, and after a short discussion jump into the lecture. My hope is to get them interested in the topic of the lecture and to show them the real life applications of the topic.
However as I was listening today I began to wonder how many of my students actually could connect theory to what they hear or read in the news?
I came up with the following idea:

1. Play the story at the beginning.
2. Lecture.
3. Play the story again.
4. Ask them to connect the story to the lecture.

• Instead of using the story as a motivational tool use it as a testing tool (Checking Students Understanding)

The above story about South African movie theatres is a good one for Demand. The story talks about falling price of movie theater tickets leading to more South Africans going to the movie. The relationship between Price and Quantity is one. However there is more! The substitution effect is discussed too. One movie goer states that it is cheaper to go to the movie than to buy the DVD. The idea of compliments is also illustrated in this story.

Grade Inflation

I found the above article, and have had the same experience as the author. I have to admit that I am a bit of softie for students who are on the borderline.

Economic Issue Notebooks

A journal for students to keep. Ask student to keep a journal with news clipping relevant to economics. Now think of this notebook as a blog! This is similar to having a discussion board in an online class. However this is something the student can take away with them. If you catch their interest, they may continue with this blog even after they have left your class. A discussion board in a course management software such as blackboard or WebCT seems like homework, and the student can not share with friends who are not enrolled in the class. A Blog on sites such as this (blogspot) allow the student to be creative and personalize their postings.
The only problem that would have to be worked out is how to grade all these blogs.

Questions for the One Minute Idea!

After the last posting I started thinking about what types of questions should be asked. Should these questions be open ended or check for understanding of basic facts?
I think the first set of questions should be basic facts. By basic factual questions I mean definition or application questions. The final question for the day should be an open ended question. This way the grader will be instructed to check the first few for factual accuracy, and only to give points to correct responses. Everyone will get points for the last open-ended question. However the grader must comment on this answer. This is similar to setting up a Discussion board on an online class.

One Minute Paper

One Minute paper is an idea that I ran across on the Internet. This is a method used by K-12 teachers to keep the students attention focused. They will introduce an idea or a topic. As students’ attention span wanes they hit them with a quiz. The site recommended making students write the question and answer. “The act writing will force the student to focus”.
This method was suggested for high school students. Freshmen college students are not that far out of high school so the method should work for freshman college (especially community college) econ classes.
This could be easily adapted to my classes. From time to time I ask students questions to check their understanding. I wait for them to raise their hand and respond. Sometime they sit and stare telling me that I need to approach the topic in a different way for them. I do this till someone raises his/her hand and give an answer that shows understanding of the topic.
Some of the students stare at me because they are confused and some stare because they have left the class. Instead of asking for a verbal reply I could write the question and giving them one minute to write a reply. I would give them 4 or 5 questions during the lecture. At the end of class where I usually review the main point, I ask them to exchange papers and I ask them to grade one another’s papers.
Should I give them the right answers? Or ask them to figure out the right answer? Maybe ask them to take it home and research the right answers as homework.

Flat world and Cooperative Learning

Another idea observed by Thomas L. Friedman was the idea of flattening of hierarchies. Organizations will be structured horizontally and not vertically as they were in the 20th Century. If I accept this premises therefore I should accept that students need more cooperative learning exercises. However this assumes that they come to my class with a set of tools and will pick up the important concepts.
I have observed a Macroeconomics class of a colleague who uses group activities to teach macroeconomics. Each group was responsible for a section of the chapter that was being studied. The day I served as substitute teacher they were studying fiscal policy. I noticed most of these students did not understand the difference between Nominal and Real GDP. I asked if they had covered this topic and a group in the corner raised their hand. They informed me that they had talked about it 2 weeks ago. I asked if anybody else remembered what this group had talked about. There was a deafening silence. They understood the group dynamics and how to get their groups work on fiscal policy. Was this bad design? Or is it that students concentrate on their bit of work and do not pay attention to other groups presentations? Trade leads to specialization, so were students behaving economics predicted? Does specialization lead to a narrow viewpoint? The students behaved that way in this class.

Flattening the World

Reading the book “The world is flat” by Thomas L. Friedman, I find myself agreeing with his premises. The premise of the book is: Technology combined with globalization is flattening the world. He goes through various examples all positive rising standard of living for Indian in the subcontinent, rising standard of living for the Chinese and flattening of the hierarchies in society, such as in military and news media.
I agree with his observation of the world becoming flatter, however Friedman and other advocates of free trade forget in order to flatten something you must lower as well as raise some standards of living. Advocate only look at the positive of raising standards of living and ignore the lowering of standard of living for the winners of previous century.
Also they forget that winners tend to sit on their laurels and get lazy after awhile. This book touches on this topic by talking of the speed of change this time around. I would recommend that my student to read this book.

This is too theoretical!

I have been thinking about the idea of “conventional wisdom” since I read that it was coined by Galbraith (an economist) as an insult. This insult is a badge of honor today for most of the students. Concrete thinking is valued and formal and abstract thinking is for the intellectuals in ivy (or is it ivory) towers.
This prejudice is a barrier to learning. Why are Americans so anti-intellectual? Why are the French so pro-intellectual (just using the French since they fit the stereotype)?
I think both statements are inaccurate. French, Americans and most homosapiens think in concrete terms. The abstract thinking that brings us the sciences is a skill that is learned through practice. It takes effort to learn this skill. The French do not think anymore in the abstract than Americans. It is just the French find it cool to be intellectual and Americans do not.
We have to think of ways to make the topic interesting for the students. If we do not they will dismiss our topic with: “That is too theoretical!”

Intellectual Diversity

The Otherside in Pictures?

Is there a difference?

No Great Teachers Just Great Students

-----Original Message-----
From: rosie
Sent: 2005/06/10 (金) 18:37
To: Java
Cc:
Subject: Take Care

Hi Mike,

I just want to say it was a pleasure to be a student in both Macro and
Micro. I learned a lot from you, and I do believe you are a great teacher. I
wish you all the best and take care.

My reply to this student was as follow:

Thank you
There are no great teachers just great students. Teachers can not and do not teach. It is actually students who learn. Remember this and you will go far.
mike

Question: Is the above statement true? or am I being modest

Important Concepts in Economics

The following is a list of important concepts that any econ (especially micro) course should be built on:

1. Opportunity Cost
2. Optimal decision making using Marginal Cost and Marginal Benefits
3. Specialization leads to better standard of living (comparative advantage)
4. Incentives matter
5. Invisible hand works but sometimes it breaks down (market failures: externalities, public goods and tragedy of commons)

Could a course be built around these five concepts?

I mean giving these 5 points to the students at the begining of the course and as I teach the course ask them to connect the subject with one of the 5 points. Supply and Demand are basically Marginal cost Marginal Utility curves. Economics profit vs. Accounting profits when teaching Monopoly vs. Perfect competition ties in with opportunity cost.

I have not thought this out all the way but it could satify student thirst for specifics at the same time converting them to the dismal religion of economics.

Did I forget any other concept? These are the five I usually cover. Have I forgotten any other? Should I cut this list down (5 concept is too many)?

Fixation on Grades

Today the summer vacation or in my case summer unemployment begins. I searched for the next teaching position found none, so I started watching CSPAN. There was Greenspan testifying in front of Joint Economic Committee of congress. He was arguing his case for Pay-Go and Free-Trade. He used the concept of opportunity cost. He made the basic arguments of scarcity and prioritizing. He argued that we could implement protectionism but there is a cost to protection. He told the story of how he did not like competition but his competitor ultimately made him into what he is today.
This made me wonder how many of my students (if watching most likely not) would make the connection between my obsession with opportunity cost and what Greenspan was saying.
I am asking this question because students tend to focus on specifics rather on general concepts. They want chapters, pages, and test questions. Basically they are focused on getting a grade.

Renew my faith and prove me wrong

The following is an email from a D student. She knows her grade. I am waiting for another email asking me for a higher grade. I hope she disappoints me and does not write back. I am becoming too cynical and I need to have my faith in the students renewed.

Professor J,
Hi! I'm ---- from your Mon/Wed morning classes. I just want
to apologize for hardly ever attending class without informing you
first. ALL those reasons are very personal, however, I know you probably
feel offended about my performance in your class. I know that the class
hardly participated in the class discussions, for that I apologize. I
just want you to know that you've actually made me learn a few things
about the economy. I actually LEARNED something. You're actually one of
the few teachers I've encountered during my college career that was
WILLING to teach, to try to get everyone involved. I'm sorry if I or the
class made it feel awkward for you. But I just wanted to let you know
that you are a wonderful teacher. I wish I could have attended EVERY
class session though... Take care!
The filipino girl that was either late to class or didn't show up

Rational Versus Emotional

I ended up runner up for my current position. The school went with someone with more experience and a bigger degree. My rational side understands the schools choice and why they chose the other candidate. However, the emotions of not getting the position are confusing. On the one hand I am proud that out of 150 candidates I made the top 6 and out of the top six I made the top two list. However at the same time I feel betrayed. This is funny since they do not owe me anything, however I feel it.

This made me think is this what happens with entitlement programs. Is this what political scientist tap into?

From the Economist Magazine

WISE ENOUGH TO PLAY THE FOOL?

Jun 2nd 2005

In praise of lovable bunglers

IT IS a universal dilemma. What to do with the jerk at work, the person who is so disliked by their colleagues that no one wants to work with them? The traditional answer is to tolerate them if they are at least half-competent--on the grounds that competent jerks can be trained to be otherwise, while much-loved bunglers cannot.

An article in the latest issue of the HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW suggests that such an approach seriously underestimates the value of being liked. In a study of over 10,000 work relationships at five very different organisations, Tiziana Casciaro and Miguel Sousa Lobo, academics at Harvard Business School and the Fuqua School of Business respectively, found that (given the choice) people consistently and overwhelmingly prefer to work with a "lovable fool" than with a competent jerk.

The authors suggest that as well as training jerks to be more charming--although "sadly there are people who are disliked because they are socially incompetent, and probably never will be truly charming"--companies should also "leverage the likeable". Amiable folk should be turned into "affective hubs", people who can bridge gaps "between diverse groups that might not otherwise interact".

Re-evaluating jolly types who spend long hours hanging round water-coolers is currently fashionable. Ronald Burt, a sociologist at the University of Chicago and a leading proponent of "social capital"--an explanation of "how people do better because they are somehow better connected with other people"--has written a book ("Brokerage and Closure", to be published by the Oxford University Press later this summer) in which he describes the "clusters" and "bridges" that are typical of organisations' informal networks. Mr Burt calls the people who form bridges between clusters "brokers"; they resemble Ms Casciaro's and Mr Sousa Lobo's affective hubs. In practice, Mr Burt has found that brokers do better than people without the social skills to cross the spaces between clusters.

A book published in English this week, but already a CAUSE CeLeBRE in France, portrays most employees as fools--lovable or otherwise. Corinne Maier's "Bonjour Laziness" (Pantheon Books) is a worm's-eye view of a corporate world where only three creatures exist: sheep ("weak and inoffensive"); pests ("poisoning the general atmosphere"); and loafers ("their only aim is to do as little as possible"). In the view of Ms Maier, a practising psychoanalyst as well as a part-time employee of EDF, a French power firm, pests (ie, jerks) rule the corporate world. (So does being a jerk give you the skills needed to get to the top? And only in France?) The rest can only hope to lie low and await their pension. LES MISeRABLES! But, assuming you are lovable, far better, surely, to follow the Burt route: head straight for the water-cooler.

See this article with graphics and related items at http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4033731

Format of class

My time at RCC is over and have decided to forward students' suggestions
folder to the blog. I don't know how long I will have access to my RCC
email account. Later I will go over them and add my comments.

Mike Javanmard
Economics Instructor
Riverside Community College

-----Original Message-----
From: anonymous@5s_rcc_eco4_39635.WebCT.Course
[mailto:anonymous@5s_rcc_eco4_39635.WebCT.Course]
Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 2:36 PM
To: Javanmard, Mike
Subject: WebCT Survey -- Suggestions

----------------------------------------
Question 1
Do you have any suggestions to improve this class?Answer
Honestly, I prefer courses that are essentially theory instruction to be
presented in lectures, and then re-enforced by reading. Perhaps it is
just the format that I have grown used to, but I feel like I learn more
from listening.

Am I this good or just easy?

-----Original Message-----
From: anonymous@5s_rcc_eco4_39635.WebCT.Course
[mailto:anonymous@5s_rcc_eco4_39635.WebCT.Course]
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 7:22 AM
To: Javanmard, Mike
Subject: WebCT Survey -- Suggestions

----------------------------------------
Question 1
Do you have any suggestions to improve this class?Answer
Well, even though you won't know who wrote this, I still want you to
know that I think you are doing a great job. I enjoy the class, I find
the material interesting, and your jokes, if a bit corney, do a good job
of making certan points memorable. (and that helps with the tests) If
you are teaching another night class (perhaps ECON-6, or whatever the
next level is) next semester, I'll probibly be in that class too.

My letter to the editor

I wrote the following as a letter to the editor for the school newspaper back in late April. They have not printed my letter and yet they printed another attack on the so called "Liberal Prof."
Just a point of clarification I am not the "Liberal Prof. " that they are attacking, and the complaining students are right to a certain extent about these Prof.

I would like to challenge the tone of the opinion piece in the April 7th issue
of Viewpoints “The big battle in the classroom” and point out some of the faulty
reasoning that was used in this piece. As an economist I have been trained to ask for data to back up claims that are made. I would ask the author to back up her assertion that “majority of students and instructors are liberal”. Has she surveyed the student body? Is she citing a survey of instructors? What methodology did she use? How did the study define “Liberal”? How did the study separate the “Liberal” from the “Conservative”? Was it by Party Affiliation?
My second objection to this piece is as an educator.
Sometime educators play the role of Devil’s Advocate to challenge student
beliefs, providing a new perspective to them. Sometimes I take on positions in
my economics class that I do not believe myself. I do this to give students a
different outlook on the issue being studied. Education and exercise are similar
in that they are both uncomfortable. Most people both on the so called “left”
and the “right” when challenged with an unfamiliar or different idea become
uncomfortable. Could it be that the instructors accused of being “liberal” are
just challenging the students to look at the world differently and thereby
causing discomfort for the student? For example the reader might have me pegged
as a “liberal” instructor. However, I am a registered Republican and view myself
as “conservative”. I would argue a “conservative” student will learn more from a
“liberal” instructor then from a “conservative” instructor, and the “liberal”
students are the real losers in these classes. Having one’s views challenged is
not comfortable but if views are not challenged they become flabby ideas or
worse meaningless dogma.