Teaching Philosophy 

My teaching philosophy centers on active learning. I have found in my classes that learning occurs best when students work with each other and me on specific questions or problems. To this end, I implement active learning strategies in my classes. One of my go-to strategies is called “think-pair-share (TPS).”  TPS entails four components: 1) an interesting but not obvious question or problem that I give to class; 2) asking students to turn to their neighbor and discuss the problem (3-5 minutes); 3) encouraging collaboration by me walking around the classroom and asking different groups what they are thinking; and 4) groups reporting their answers to class and me summing up what was learned.

On one occasion, for example, I used TPS to help students understand why the long-run aggregate supply (LRAS) does not depend on the price level. As I walked around the classroom, I encouraged students to talk to their neighbor and make noise. One of the chief benefits of TPS is that it gives students a little time to think and process the material. Another benefit is that I learn where students are struggling. The LRAS exercise was instructive for me: one student asked, “what is the price level?” and another asked “why are you asking this question? I restated these questions for the entire class, which gave more focus to students, but also helped them see that they were not the only ones struggling. TPS also helps students to become more comfortable with talking about economic concepts and asking questions.

I have found that students often struggle to see how economics connects to real-world problems and issues. To address this difficulty, I often introduce a problem by asking students to think of themselves as the key decision maker, whose choices will impact their own lives. TPS then draws students into the issue as they discuss it with their classmates. It shows them how other students think about the problem, which in turn lowers anxiety and builds confidence. One of this semester’s topics examined the determinants of individual consumption and investment. For this issue, I asked students to think about and vote on whether they were optimistic, pessimistic, or neutral about their own future economic situation. Students were surprised by the diversity of views and laughed as the discussion progressed. I used the tally of votes to explore how the class’s views and expectations helped with understanding consumption and investment spending in the macroeconomy.  

I have also found that active learning strategies help address problems that arise from prior knowledge. For example, most if not all students start the semester thinking that “investment” means buying stocks and bonds. I use TPS to pause the class on this important concept. It gives students time to think about their prior knowledge and helps them understand that investment in macroeconomics is spending by businesses and households on productive capacity.

I believe that higher education greatly benefits from diversity, encompassing various ideas, histories, cultures, and philosophies, enriching college classrooms with different experiences and viewpoints. These differences not only help students appreciate the value of diversity but also recognize the uniqueness of each individual within both the classroom and society. My firsthand experience teaching lab sessions for graduate-level macroeconomics courses at UNH vividly illustrates this. These sessions typically feature students hailing from diverse corners of the world, including India, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh, and the United States. The consistently excellent evaluations I've received from these lab sessions have bolstered my confidence in my ability to effectively teach in diverse classrooms and mentor students from vastly different cultural backgrounds.

I love teaching economics. I am passionate about economics’ power to help us make sense of future possibilities or to understand the present or the past. I look forward to learning more strategies to actively engage students in seeing this power.