Skip to main content

Odds and Ends

  • I hope Gail and KimMarie don't hate me for using this picture but they should be very proud of the work they did putting together the International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics (disclosure: I worked with Gail and Steve Buckles on the chapter on large-enrollment courses). The book is a bit pricey for most people to keep on their personal shelves but you should definitely bug your library to make sure they have a copy!
  • Speaking of Gail and KimMarie, they and Tisha Emerson are  co-organizing economic education sessions focused on innovative teaching practices at the 2012 Southern Economic Association (SEA) meetings. The Southerns will be November 16-18 (Friday-Sunday) in New Orleans, LA.  "Each session will be organized as a panel where each presenter will discuss innovative teaching practices they have employed.  More specifically, each panel session will have 5 – 6 presenters offering a 10-15 minute presentation of a new teaching technique or idea.  To accompany your presentation you will be asked to prepare a brief paper (3-4 pages in length) explaining the technique or idea you have implemented, the context of your innovation (school, class level, class size, etc.), and advice and instructions for others who might want to adopt your innovation.  The written summaries will be due one week before the conference. Submissions should include a title, brief description of the pedagogical innovation, and full contact information for the presenter (including name, affiliation, address, phone number, and emaill submissions should be sent to Gail Hoyt at ghoyt@uky.edu by no later than Monday, March 12."
  • I haven't seen The Lorax yet but there is something about the economics of the original story that has always bugged me and Tim Haab sums it up nicely (by the way, if you haven't already seen it, this collection of literal Seuss titles is great!).
  • I've never had a student directly say anything to me along the lines of 'I pay your salary' or otherwise suggesting they have 'bought' a particular grade simply by paying tuition but I recently read something (though sadly, I can't remember where) that I will file away to pull out if I am ever faced with such an idiotic sentiment: "You are paying for college much like you pay for a gym membership - your payment buys you access to the equipment but does not guarantee results. To get results, YOU must do the work." 

Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Yeah, I agree. If you attend the ASSA meetings, you can get a decent conference discount...

      Delete
  2. Two of the superstars of economic education. Gail and KimMarie rock!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments that contribute to the discussion are always welcome! Please note that spammy comments whose only purpose seems to be to direct traffic to a commercial site will be deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

What are the costs?

I came across an interesting discussion about a 19-year-old intern who was fired from The Gazette in Colorado Springs for plagiarism. There appears to be some controversy over the fact that the editor publicly named the girl in a letter to readers (explaining and apologizing for the plagiarism), with some people saying that doing so was unduly harsh because this incident will now follow her for the rest of her career. I was intrigued by this discussion for two reasons - one, it seems pretty clear to me that this was not a case of ignorance (as I have often encountered with my own students who have no idea how to paraphrase or cite correctly) and two, putting aside the offense itself, I have often struggled with how to handle situations where there are long-term repercussions for a student, repercussions that lead the overall costs to be far higher than might seem warranted for the specific situation. As an example of the latter issue, I have occasionally taught seniors who need to p

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

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