Teaching philosophy

The versatility of economic analysis is its ability to examine a wide range of choices and decision makers. A business develops a strategy to compete in the world around it. Families plan their economic future together with their choice of how many children to have and how to invest in their education. Financial markets price bonds, stocks, options, discovering ways diversify risk. I want students to use the language of economics to describe choices, resources, and technologies. Economics is a puzzle solver: how should a central bank set interest rates, what’s a good policy to improve education, how do we best create incentives and opportunities for people to better their lives, what steps should a country take to open its goods and financial markets to trade? Economics is an analytic way to think through problems. Initially, there is a large vocabulary to master to describe how people value the things they want and what technologies firms choose to provide services and goods given available resources. To learn this language, students need to think through many examples. 


In my teaching, I am committed to 1) creating a welcoming, inclusive climate in class, 2) making learning accessible for students of all cultures and educational backgrounds, 3)  vary teaching methods to break down barriers to learning, and 4) support students to pursue their goals.

The Universal Design for Learning is an educational framework designed to create flexible learning environments to accommodate individual learning differences. The principles of Universal Design for Learning are  representation, action and expression, and engagement:

 Representation requires teachers  provide multiple means of representing information. Students may have visual and auditory differences, differences in vocabulary, reading level, and language proficiency, and other barriers to learning

An inclusive course climate welcomes and engages students from all backgrounds and encourages everyone to share their different perspectives. An inclusive classroom encourages   students to contribute and inquire openly. Inclusivity allows students to fully participate in the classroom experience and assures the course content is relevant to student diversity 

Economics is applied math and applied math is difficult. So the teacher needs to convey concepts analytically and help students integrate and apply these concepts. My classes are assignment driven, problem sets that rework the material in class and include a twist on that is learned. Discussing homework 

in class is the fastest way to engage students and ‘cut-to-the-chase’ on what problems their having. Working through a difficult problem reveals what people need to understand and fosters a feeling of success. In lecture, I ask students questions about key concepts from the previous lecture and introduce topics in the current lesson. 

I devote time to working through difficulties in assignments. I encourage pair share discussions in class to introduce people to work in groups. I illustrate lectures with examples of how to apply new concepts to problems from current events and from the past. Who knew that the French revolution was a laboratory of how governments solve – or don’t – their budget problems? An economic article about the French revolution teaches all the monetary theory you could ask for. Ancient societies sold promises of grain on the futures markets of their day. In societies without developed financial institutions, discounting future tax revenues of local tax collectors moves money from city center to hinterland. Recent work about how the Federal Reserve targets prices, interest rates, or the money supply. I want to make the classroom into a place where work can get done and where people feel comfortable to express themselves. My goal is to engage more group learning during class. To do this, I structure lecture topics as problems for discussion among groups of students or through pair-share discussions.