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.