Skip to main content

Pre-ASSA Roundtable Discussion/Workshop

In addition to all the sessions during the conference itself, there is a pre-conference roundtable discussion/workshop on Adapting Pedagogical Innovations Across Disciplines. It's on Friday, January 2, from 3:00-5:00 pm in the San Francisco Hilton. I'm not sure if it is still possible to sign up but here is all the info:

=================================================================

Pre-ASSA Roundtable Discussion/Workshop
Adapting Pedagogical Innovations Across Disciplines

At this year's ASSA meeting in San Francisco (Januray 3-5,2009) we will be hosting a pre-meeting Roundtable Discussion/Workshop exploring pedagogical innovations developed in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines and their adaptability in economics. In particular, we will focus on pedagogical innovations developed from physics education research such as context-rich problems, just-in-time teaching, interactive lecture demonstrations, and concept tests/peer instruction.

Our objectives for this Roundtable Discussion/Workshop are to: (1) introduce economists to pedagogical and assessment-related innovations from other disciplines and to encourage more economists to experiment with these techniques in their own classes; (2) encourage more economists to initiate research exploring the adaptability of these innovations in economics (we
believe that there is significant potential in this area, especially with respect to the NSF); and (3) develop a network of economists interested in interdisciplinary pedagogical connections.

To meet these objectives we plan to share insights from recent research on these topics, develop working groups interested in pursuing funded research opportunities, introduce a significant new NSF-funded Economics Pedagogic Portal project, and promote an economics pedagogy blog focused on interdisciplinary pedagogy research and teaching innovations.

The ASSA pre-meeting Roundtable Discussion/Workshop will take place at the San Francisco Hilton on Friday, January 2, 2009, from 3:00-5:00 pm in Room Mason A. ASSA sessions begin the morning of January 3. We scheduled this meeting so even those from the east coast attending the ASSA meeting should be able to attend.

If you can't attend but are interested in this initiative, please contact Scott Simkins (simkinss@ncat.edu) or Mark Maier (mmaier@glendale.edu).

We hope that you will join us for this roundtable discussion/workshop. If you plan to join us, please register at:
<https://utlc.uncg.edu/ncatworkshops/index.jsp>
[Click on Academy for Teaching and Learning, then click on "Sign Up" for the relevant event and complete the registration information. You will receive a confirmation of your registration and a reminder one day before the event.]

-------

Below are links to some useful background readings related to our meeting.

Why Not Try a Scientific Approach to Science Education?
By Carl Wieman
Change, September/October 2007 Volume 39, Number 5
<http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/files/Wieman-Change_Sept-Oct_2007.pdf>
In this article, Carl Wieman, Nobel-prize-winning physicist, discusses how using the practices of science - gathering objective data, building on demonstrated effectiveness, and fully utilizing modern technology - can significantly increase students' learning. Our interest is in how these
principles can be applied to economic education research and the teaching of economics.

See also:
<http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/papers.htm>
----------

Learning from Physics Education Research: Lessons for Economics Education
By Scott P. Simkins and Mark H. Maier
June 27, 2008
Download from one of the following repositories:
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1151430>
<http://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/9314.html>
<http://arxiv.org/abs/0807.3534>

We believe that economists have much to learn from educational research practices and related pedagogical innovations in other disciplines, in particular physics education. In this paper we identify three key features of physics education research that distinguish it from economics education research - (1) the intentional grounding of physics education research in learning science principles, (2) a shared conceptual research framework focused on how students learn physics concepts, and (3) a cumulative process of knowledge-building in the discipline - and describe their influence on new teaching pedagogies, instructional activities, and curricular design in physics education. In addition, we highlight four specific examples of successful pedagogical innovations drawn from physics education - context-rich problems, concept tests, just-in-time teaching, and interactive lecture demonstrations - and illustrate how these practices
can be adapted for economic education.
------

Developing an Economics Pedagogic Portal (grant project)
National Science Foundation
Award Number: DUE 0817382 (2008-2011)
Investigators: Scott Simkins, Mark Maier, KimMarie McGoldrick, Cathryn
Manduca
Abstract available at:
<http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0817382>

------

We look forward to seeing many of you in San Francisco.

Scott Simkins
Mark Maier
Bill Goffe
Steve Greenlaw
KimMarie McGoldrick

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

When is an exam "too hard"?

By now, you may have heard about the biology professor at Louisiana State (Baton Rouge) who was removed from teaching an intro course where "more than 90 percent of the students... were failing or had dropped the class." The majority of the comments on the Inside Higher Ed story about it are supportive of the professor, particularly given that it seems like the administration did not even talk to her about the situation before acting. I tend to fall in the "there's got to be more to the story so I'll reserve judgment" camp but the story definitely struck a nerve with me, partly because I recently spent 30 minutes "debating" with a student about whether the last midterm was "too hard" and the whole conversation was super-frustrating. To give some background: I give three midterms and a cumulative final, plus have clicker points and Aplia assignments that make up about 20% of the final grade. I do not curve individual exams but will cu...

THE podcast on Implicit Bias

I keep telling myself I need to get back to blogging but, well, it's been a long pandemic... But I guess this is as good an excuse as any to post something: I am Bonni Stachowiak's guest on the latest episode of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, talking about implicit bias and how it can impact our teaching.  Doing the interview with Bonni (which was actually recorded a couple months ago) was a lot of fun. Listening to it now, I also realize how far I have come from the instructor I was when I started this blog over a decade ago. I've been away from the blog so long that I should probably spell this out: my current title is Associate Vice President for Faculty and Staff Diversity and I have responsibility for all professional learning and development related to diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as inclusive faculty and staff recruitment, and unit-level diversity planning. But I often say that in a lot of ways, I have no business being in this position - I've ne...

What was your high school economics experience like?

As I mentioned in my last post , I am asking my Econ for Teachers students to reflect on their reading by responding to discussion prompts. It occurred to me that it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to share my thoughts on those issues here and see if anyone wants to chime in. For this week, the students were asked to read the California and national content standards , an article by Mark Schug and others about why social science teachers dread teaching economics and how to overcome the dread, an article by William Walstad on the importance of economics for understanding the world around us and making better personal decisions (with some evidence on the dismal state of economic literacy in this country), and another article by Walstad on the status of economic education in high schools (full citations below). The reflection prompt asks the students to then answer the following questions: What was your high school econ experience like? What do you remember most from that class? How do...