Statement

(pdf version of my teaching statement)

Teaching Philosophy

As a student of economics for nearly a decade, I have been endlessly fascinated by the power that economic modeling has provided me to think seriously about the world around me. From my first classes as a student in principles of macroeconomics through today as I embark on career in researching and teaching economics, the economic way of thinking has transformed the approach I take in solving problems and making decisions in every aspect of my life. The economic way of thinking provides a simple yet powerful lens through which individuals can make important decisions and solve difficult problems. I believe my most important job in teaching economics is to develop this thought process with my students.

In my experience as a teacher, I have developed three key tenets in my teaching philosophy to effectively develop my students’ critical thought process. First, I strive to develop a strong line of communication with my students, both in and out of the class room. In the class room, I strongly encourage students to ask questions and routinely remind them that if one person is confused, then it is likely others are confused, as well. Further, communication extends beyond lecture. I regularly encourage my students to contact me via e-mail with any questions and to stop by my office to receive extra help. I typically hold two regular office hours per week, but I will schedule extra office hours for students who need extra help or for students whose schedules conflict with normal office hours. I believe my communication with students and accessibility is a strong point to my teaching, and I have consistently received high evaluations in these areas.

Second, I am a strong believer in assigning and grading problem sets in preparation for the exams. In my experience as both a student and a teacher, I have learned that a significant portion of learning and understanding comes outside of the classroom. Problem sets allow students to actively practice the material, which in turn teaches students the mechanics behind solving economic problems and develops the thought process used to arrive at a solution. In a similar vein, I like to provide exercises on topics covered throughout lectures that students can perform while studying their notes. For example, if I cover the case of a positive technology shock during class, I will tell students to perform the opposite case of a negative technology shock as an extra exercise. I believe this encourages students to actively work through their notes while studying, rather than simply reading their notes in preparation for exams.

Finally, I believe that the material taught during lecture should routinely be tied back to the real world and current events. Applying the class material directly current events allows students to see that the models are a lens through which economists analyze policy rather than simply an academic exercise. I believe this empowers students to take an active interest in current policy debates, which reinforces the desire to learn the material taught in class. I believe I have been successful in making the material applicable to the real world, as I have routinely received feedback from students (both in my end of semester evaluations and informally outside of class) saying that my classes helped stimulate interests in understanding current events.

Teaching Experience

While a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan, I have had the opportunity to serve as a graduate student instructor (GSI) for a Professor as part of a large lecture four times and serve as the instructor for my own course twice. As a GSI, I have accumulated teaching experience in a wide variety of undergraduate economics course, as I have taught principles of microeconomics, intermediate microeconomics, intermediate macroeconomics, and financial economics. As an instructor for my own course, I have taught principles of macroeconomics twice. In all of the courses I have taught, my evaluations have been exemplary. As evidence of my strong teaching, I was recognized by the economics department twice for outstanding instruction as a GSI for teaching intermediate microeconomics and intermediate macroeconomics.

My responsibilities as a GSI included leading two to four discussion sections per week, holding office hours, grading exams and homework, and helping write exam questions. My goals as a GSI were to provide concrete and clear explanations and examples of the topics introduced in lecture during my discussion sections that help provide students intuition for the material and to prepare students for the exams. I found that preparing handouts for each discussion section was a useful communication tool for conveying material. The handouts helped organize the discussion section and provided a structure for students follow when preparing for the exams. Please see the “Teaching” link on my personal website for examples of handouts I prepared for my discussion sections as a GSI for intermediate macroeconomics.

As an instructor for principles of macroeconomics, I prepared my course from scratch. My responsibilities included planning the course curriculum, preparing course notes, writing and grading of all problem sets and exams, and issuing final grades. My goals for my principle of macroeconomics course were to introduce modeling techniques to rigorously analyze the macroeconomy, use the economic models as a means to develop the students' critical thought processes, and apply the models to study current topics in the news. To accomplish these goals, I administered short answer and essay questions for problem sets and exams. A typical style of question I ask on problem sets and exams is to present a quote from an economist, politician, or news source describing either macroeconomic policy or the current macroeconomics environment and ask students to analyze the quote within the context of the models studied in class. These questions required students to identify the issue to be analyzed within the quote, determine the correct model to apply to the issue, work through the model to find a solution, and effectively communicate their findings through writing.

In both my work as a GSI and instructor of my own course, I wanted to provide an atmosphere encouraging students to ask questions in section, via e-mail, or during office hours. To foster this environment, I had two to three hours of office hours per week, encouraged students to request office hours by appointment if either scheduled office hours did not fit their schedules or if a student needed additional instruction, and instituted a policy in which I would answer all e-mails pertaining to the course within twenty-four hours. In my end of semester course evaluations, I regularly received feedback from students highlighting my ability to handle questions and my accessibility to ask those questions, both in and out of lecture, as a strong point of my teaching.

Teaching Interests

At the undergraduate level, I would enjoy teaching both principles and intermediate microeconomics and macroeconomics, with a particular interest in the macroeconomics sequence. I would also enjoy teaching undergraduate econometrics and advanced undergraduate courses on macroeconomic topics such as stabilization policy and financial crises. At the graduate level, I could teach the first year macroeconomics sequence, and I would be happy teaching a second-year graduate macroeconomic sequence on New Keynesian models, fiscal policy, investment, and financial market frictions.

Student Numerical Evaluations

The University of Michigan requests students to provide an anonymous evaluation of their instructors at the conclusion of each course. As part of the evaluation, the University provides a standardized, numerical portion of the evaluation. For each question, students may choose one of the following responses:

5 – Strongly Agree

4 – Agree

3 – Neutral

2 – Disagree

1 – Strongly Disagree

Below is a summary of the numerical evaluations I received per course. I will provide copies of the original evaluations upon request.

Note: I was the instructor of record for Principles of Macroeconomics. I received departmental awards for my semesters teaching Intermediate Microeconomics and Intermediate Macroeconomics recognizing my work as a GSI as one of the ten best in the department in each semester. The Economics department typically employs around 65 GSIs per semester.

Student Evaluation Comments

In addition to the standardized, numerical evaluation, the University of Michigan provides an opportunity supplement the standardized portion of the evaluation with anonymous written comments. Below is a sample of written comments I received. I will provide copies of the original written comments upon request.

Principles of Macroeconomics, Head Instructor:

“Instruction in this course was phenomenal. He had his own handouts instead of a textbook which made it easier for students to master the material. Also, he was very helpful and made all students feel comfortable to go to office hours to receive extra help.”

“One of the questions said, ‘I was stimulated to discuss related topics outside of class.’ If I could, I would give this 100,000 out of 5. It really stimulated my interests, and especially at this time (election all but centered around economics) it was very beneficial to learn these concepts. I feel like a much more aware/competent person directly because of this class.”

“It was fun being in your class. I enjoyed some of the dry humor. You did a great job considering this was your first time teaching this course. Have a wonderful summer. Thanks for everything!!”

“Awesome.”

“An overall excellent teacher and course. The curriculum was well planned.”

“Josh did a great job teaching the course. He taught it well and caught his mistakes quickly. He was also available to help via office hours. He did an overall great job teaching the course.”

“I really enjoyed the course. Good job keeping rather dry material interesting and applicable.”

“Good class. Learned a lot! Teacher tried to form bonds outside of just economics. Notes and classes were easy to follow. No problem with teaching method as he was willing to spend time outside of class to clarify things.”

“Great job, especially as a first time teaching the class!”

“Thanks for a job well done!”

“Excellent GSI!”

“Very good at explaining material. I really got a lot out of this class and enjoyed learning it. Graphs got a little repetitive some times.”

Intermediate Macroeconomics, GSI (Received Award as one of the top ten GSIs in the Economics Department):

“Josh Montes is an excellent GSI, I went to three different GSI discussions (including Josh's), and I felt he was the best at teaching the material.”

“Joshua was concise, clear and to the point. He simplified all the complicated materials in lecture and made them very easy to understand. He is great at explaining and is a great teacher! His sections often had visitors from other sections because of his outstanding teaching skills. The handouts he made were also extremely helpful!”

“It was overall a very enriching class. Josh had a deep understanding of material and presented it in a very clear and concise matter.”

“Josh was an excellent instructor! One of the best I have ever had in the Economics department!”

“Lectures were very clear and the lecture slides with notes on them were a tremendous help. I also liked that articles were posted to relate the concepts we were learning to the real world.”

“Montes is the man.”

“I thought that Josh was extremely well prepared for discussion and very knowledgeable on the course subject. It would have helped if the pace of discussion was slower so we could concentrate on the material being covered instead of scrambling to copy down everything from the board and trying to figure it out all later. You handled questions very well and had a good balance between asking us to supply the answers or just telling us how to solve a problem. Thank you for always being willing to help and responding email as well!”

“This discussion section really helped us a lot and the GSI is a really nice and good instructor. He helped a lot with our problem set and exams.”

“Josh, it’s hard to evaluate you from only one hour a week and considering I never went to Office Hours, but I do appreciate the time you spent on the handouts and the intensity of the section so that we could get the most out of it. Good luck with the PhD.”

Principles of Microeconomics, GSI:

“Good job! If it weren’t for you, I’d probably be failing!”

“Josh, please be a GSI for Econ 102!”

“Josh, you were awesome! I honestly feel lucky to have the combination of you and Professor Malone.”

“organized instructor; good confidence level; maintains productive/positive atmosphere”

“Muy bueno.”

Intermediate Microeconomic Theory, GSI (Received Award as one of the top ten GSIs in the Economics Department):

“Josh is an excellent, excellent instructor. He explains concepts clearly, rarely makes mistakes in his calculations, and is willing to help students until they understand the material. I would hire him as a tutor for future classes no matter how much he charged.”

“Josh explains the material in a very straightforward and understandable manner. He shows great enthusiasm for the material and is continually conscious in regards to helping his students. Excellent GSI given the difficult material.”

“Josh is an excellent gsi who explains concepts and problem solutions clearly and patiently. Section is a very useful complement to the lectures.”

“exercises in section were extremely helpful in understanding the homework; gsi was very knowledgeable and willing to help students; sometimes it was hard to read the board, the writing was sometimes too small; gsi was good in handling situations when students were not participating”

“Josh is very good at teaching a hard subject. He is very deliberate and is very well prepared for each class.”

“Montes was the only reason this class was bearable.”

“Very thorough, step-by-step instructions. Without discussion, I don’t think I would have done as well as I did.”

“One of the best GSIs ever!”

“Josh was a very good GSI - he provided great explanations during discussion, and was always helpful during office hours as well. He also sympathized with students when we were confused by what we were learning in class, which helps make everyone feel better.”

“Very good GSI; approachable, nice, clear in discussions, stimulated class discussion, had a sincere desire for your students to learn.”

“Josh was a great discussion teacher. Discussion was very clear and helped a great deal in understanding the material.”

Financial Economics, GSI:

“Excellent section. Josh was a great discussion leader. Everything I was confused about that week was usually all clarified.”

“Josh did a great job explaining concepts that were often obscure.”

“Josh was extremely friendly and knowledgeable… and it was a lot of fun to have him as a GSI. He explained and clarified what was taught in lecture in an efficient way, which was extremely helpful. Overall, I greatly enjoyed discussion.”

“I thought this discussion section explained things clearly and simply.”

“Awesome GSI. Explained things clearly.”

“Great job, Josh.”

“Josh knew his stuff and examples were helpful.”

Teaching References