“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.”
-Robert Maynard Hutchins
I have had the opportunity to study economics under the guidance of many professors. From these professors I have learned that to excel in the teaching of economics requires planning, persistence, and a strong personal interest in the subject. As persistence and a personal interest in economics are perhaps better conveyed in a C.V. and the individual's body of work, I will focus on my understanding of the planning necessary for an economics course to fulfil the goals of college courses in general and of economics courses in particular.
On Fulfilling The Goals Of A College Course In General
The aim of college courses in general is to promote student development. This will include to some extent both the development of skills necessary for gainful employment and for an elevated thought life, with the exact balance between the two depending on the type of institution. Success at fostering student development requires careful planning of course materials, course policy, and course work.
I believe that course policies should promote and encourage the formation of discipline, responsibility, and time management skills. Toward that end, I support a policy of no late work accepted. As the due dates for work have been picked with care, and as punctuality is a good in itself, the stated due date for work should be maintained. It goes without saying that extenuating circumstances such as illness may warrant an exception to the rule. Also, I believe that assignment dates and due dates for projects, assignments, and exams should be posted at the beginning of the semester and that great care should be taken to maintain the schedule. Such a strong emphasis on the passing of time will allow the students to be aware of where they stand at all times in relation to current and upcoming deadlines. Also, it will allow students a greater ability to allocate time within and across courses.
I believe that course materials should be chosen in a way that fosters the ability to find quality information in the real world yet also guarantees that all information necessary for the course can be found with certainty. In order to promote the ability to find and evaluate source information in the real world, a course should (when applicable) include both required readings from original sources (such as CATO publications and The Washington Post) that are specified by the instructor and required readings from original sources, with guidance on source quality, chosen by students. That a comprehensive information source is available to students can be guaranteed through choice of primary textbook and is rather straightforward.
I believe that the coursework and grade point payout scheme should promote participation in the course reading and should be careful to not emphasize signalling at the expense of learning. I have experienced the misfortune firsthand of courses where completion of the readings was not explicitly rewarded and study guides became memorization sheets to aid cramming. While a motivated student will not be greatly affected by such poor point payout systems, it is nonetheless unfortunate that those students choosing to skip the portions of the course that involve substantial learning will be over rewarded. I believe that the completion of the readings should be incentivized by regular pop quizzes on the readings. Furthermore, one strategy to discourage students from investing in signals at the expense of learning that I found very interesting was the inclusion of a question identical to that on the previous homework on the subsequent pop quiz. By including such a question, the instructor can get a general feel of which students are sending the signal of learning without actually taking the care to learn.
On Fulfilling the Goals Of An Economics Course
Economics, being the study of how society deals with scarcity, is one of the few courses for which there is strong overlap of material between that which trains the student for future employment and that which expands the student's understanding of society as a whole. From the professors that have taught me, I have formulated a three part approach to learning and teaching economics which emphasizes the simultaneous learning of both career oriented and society oriented learning. The three parts are: the ability to identify who is involved and what their incentives are, the ability to identify what tools can be used to formulate and evaluate solutions, and the ability to use the tools efficiently.
The ability to identify who is involved and what their incentives are requires providing context for the textbook models. While textbooks tend to include case study sections, using these to provide context does not provide as much an opportunity to develop the ability to identify the concerned agents and their incentives in the real world. For this reason as well as the reason stated in the previous section I believe that direct source reading assignments are an important part of a successful economics course.
The ability to identify what tools can be used to solve the problem and effective use of the tools requires the professor to be comfortable teaching and presenting mathematical concepts. I believe that it is imperative that professor maintain the context of the situation when presenting the mathematical portions of the course material and that the professor emphasize the ability to match the tools to the instances in which they can be used. As an academic adviser, I frequently hear from students in early econ courses that they were caught off guard by changes in the context when being tested on the tools. As economics is largely about matching tools to contexts, I believe that this emphasis should be clearly articulated to the students.
A Comprehensive Conclusion
Beyond the details and strategies undertaken in the presentation of an economics course, I firmly believe that a personal interest in and motivation to educate is necessary for success. Such a demeanour will, amongst other things, provide the instructor with the opportunity to learn from students and improve their teaching over time. Furthermore, as the primary goal is to encourage the development of the student's thought life, and, as students have unique needs and strengths, respect and interest in the development of students as individuals is a critical factor. Even when starting with good ideas, success requires attention to detail, careful application of the concepts, and a continual re-evaluation of the methods. Personal interest in and motivation to educate is surely at the core of all educational success.
I have had the good fortune to study economics under the direction of many talented professors. Though the successful professors varied in their approach and demeanour, there exists clear common threads within their teaching. Common to all of the successful professors under which I have studied is an organization and predictability of the course, a rewarding of responsibility, a balancing of point payouts which encouraged most those activities which are central to learning, the promotion of the ability to identify and understand economic problems in the real world, a strong ability to teach mathematical concepts, and an emphasis on the ability to apply the mathematical concepts to economic problems in the real world. It is no surprise that such a large collection of positive course attributes occurred most frequently under the direction of professors who have a strong personal interest in the subject itself and the education of students.