Economics for Teachers: Musings about Teaching Economics

At the TIP workshop , one of the first activities was for us to discuss what we consider the most important thing professors can do to facilitate student learning (which we then had to demonstrate through some sort of presentation but that's a whole 'nother story). In my group, we started out with an interesting discussion about whether 'being organized' is the most important thing a professor can do to facilitate student learning. I argued that there are certain things that are sort of a baseline for student learning - to me, being organized and knowing what you're talking about are prerequisites for stepping into any classroom. And I do think that if you aren't organized, students won't be able to learn. But I think of being organized as a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for student learning. Plenty of people deliver content in an organized way; that does not mean students will learn. My group agreed on 'making material relevant' as the id...

Hat tip to Jim Julius, SDSU's fabulous Associate Director of ITS, for a pointer to this article on Engaging Milliennial Learners. Anyone truly interested in reaching our students needs to go read it but I'll warn you that you may not be happy about it. Here's what the author found when she asked Millennials about the characteristics of their ideal professor and ideal learning environment: Millennials feel that the ideal professor should be: 5. "Energetic," "enthusiastic," and "upbeat" with a "positive attitude." I know upon reading the student quotes above, some of you may suddenly feel nauseous. Or perhaps, like me, the very thought of students desiring me to be "upbeat" drains my energy. The audacity of it all!!! 4. "Open-minded" and "flexible." Unfortunately, students are not using the term "flexible" in the physical "Pilates" sense, as they desire flexibility in assignments,...

Today might be one and only time in my life that I will be able to say this: I did something that was more 'thinking like an economist' than Steven Levitt! On the Freakonomics blog this morning , Levitt wrote about how he and his family dealt with a problem with their cat. Unfortunately, their solution to the problem involved doing several different things, any one of which might be the true solution. Since some of the things involve substantial cost (like kitty Prozac - I kid you not, go read it!), it would be good to know what was the real key so they could stop the other things. Levitt uses this as a lesson in the benefits of experimentation. He's basically advocating putting 'ceteris paribus' (all else equal) into action - i.e., keeping everything the same while you change one thing at a time, so you can isolate what works and what doesn't (and I assume this is how they will eventually figure out what they can subtract from their cat's regimen). So the ...

When I discuss taxes and equity, I teach my students about the benefits principle of tax equity (i.e., who pays the tax should correspond to who receives the benefits) and discuss this as one rationale for why we have a progressive income tax system. But students always have a hard time grasping the possibility that "rich" people benefit from government as much as "poor" people. This attitude is also contributing to California's budget difficulties since Republicans are insisting that the budget gap must be closed entirely with spending cuts - I can only assume that those who support this position are seriously underestimating the benefits they personally receive from government services. So I LOVED this editorial from the Sac Bee that points out the many ways that not-poor people benefit from state spending. I'll be using it next semester as the starting point for our discussion of progressive taxes: The largest portion of the state's general fund budg...

The emails about final grades have almost stopped, I got the revisions done on an R&R that needed finishing before my co-author disappears for the summer, and I just got back from the AEA's Teaching Innovations Program (TIP) workshop in Santa Fe so I'm re-energized and looking forward to really starting my summer. For those who aren't familiar with it, TIP began five years ago and "seeks to improve undergraduate education in economics by offering instructors an opportunity to expand their teaching skills and participate in the scholarship of teaching and learning." Phase 1 is the workshop where there are sessions on interactive learning techniques. Participants can also go on to Phase 2, which involves actually implementing some of those techniques into classes, with mentoring and assistance from the TIP staff. And Phase 3 gives participants an opportunity to engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Unfortunately, this is the last year of the origi...