In this section, I would briefly like to discuss the seven principles of good teaching (Chickering and Gamson, 1987) and how I try to incorporate them into my courses. The first principle is to encourage contact between students and faculty. I continuously try to encourage the students to visit or email me if anything is uncertain. I have consultation hours before and after my lectures in order to ease when the students need to come to see me. Since 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic forced learning online, I have also made my cellphone number available to students so that they can easily reach me with questions. In large classes, it is often difficult to get to know the students, but as the semester continues I attempt to get to know the students’ names. This is made easier when the students either contact me personally or regularly attend lectures. Another way in which I attempt to get to know students is to identify and talk to students who show promise in Economic thinking. This includes advice on what their career opportunities are in Economics.
The second principle of good teaching is to develop reciprocity and cooperation among students. In my first lecture for the first-year students, I told them: "I am only one person, I have a certain way of teaching and learning, and although I will do my best to explain the theory in various ways, my way of teaching may not resonate with you. But there are 100 students sitting around you - the best way to learn is to learn from each other." In my second year group, I saw much more of this with students often coming to see me in pairs or discussions going back and forth between students. In 2018, to further develop this, we introduced a group work project for the students of ECO152. They were randomly assigned a group of four members and each member had to submit a macroeconomic prediction (economic growth, exchange rate, oil price and repo rate). They had to make a contract on meeting and what each member would be responsible for. The feedback from the students was that it was an enjoyable experience for them. In 2022, I continued with this thinking and applied group work to ECO739 where students completed biweekly exercises and peer assessments in these groups. These groups were particularly important in 2022 because most of these students' learning took place online and they were unlikely to have met each other before.
The third principle is to encourage active learning. One way to encourage active learning is class participation. This I have experienced the most in my third-year group. When I ask a question, they often respond with what they think. This means they are actively listening to what is being taught in the lecture and responding accordingly. This was more difficult with the first-year students who are often more shy and scared about their answers. However, one way to encourage active learning in such a large first-year group is to have regular tutorials and exercises in the lectures. In 2018, in ECO152, I introduced revision lectures where I divided the students into groups, gave them response cards (A, B, C, D) and prepared multiple choice questions on a slideshow. They then had to discuss and find an answer in the group and show me their answer. We could then discuss what most students said and what was correct. Given some students' lack of smartphones, this is an easy way to avoid using Clickers. In 2020, shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic, I decided to experiment with flipped classrooms in ECO739. For flipped classrooms, students are expected to prepare beforehand by watching videos and attempting examples of the prescribed material. Students are then expected to do the exercises during the lecture period and only the students talk during this period. This gives the students responsibility for their learning. Most feedback on this was positive and made the transition to online learning easier for the students.
To give prompt feedback is the fourth principle. Regarding prompt feedback, I turn to what I was taught by my mother. My mother was a high school teacher at a rural school for the last years of her working life. She would always return home with a marking to do and start as soon as possible. (She often enlisted the aid of my sister and me with the multiple-choice questions to achieve her goal of reporting back on time.) I try to ensure my own marking and feedback are done as soon as possible. With good planning, marking can be done within a week of the test. I also try to give additional feedback when I disagree with the students' answers, when they answered incorrectly or when they had an incomplete answer. This aids the student in their preparation for the next test or exam.
The fifth principle is to emphasize time on task. I noticed that students are ill-prepared for this. In a recent survey from my third-year class, I asked if students are aware of the notional hours of the course - 63% said no. The notional hours are the total number of hours a student is expected to spend on the course. Given that my course was a 15 credit course, the expectation is that students spend 150 notional hours on the course. Given that we only have two lectures a week, about eight hours a week is students’ own preparation. This includes preparation for lectures, studying for tests and completing tasks. One way in which I attempt to aid students’ time management is spread of assessments over the semester. There is some time between class tests, assignments and essays. These due dates are communicated with the students at the start of the semester in the module outline. As the due dates approach, I remind the students about the assignments due and the requirements of the assignment. If the assignment is longer, I remind them earlier. I have continued with this practice of informing students about notional hours to aid their time management and skills.
The sixth principle of good teaching is to communicate high expectations. There are various ways in which high expectations can be communicated to the students. The first is the expectation that you want them all to pass the course in the end. What I do in my first lecture is to work through the module outline, the various assessments and what I expect of the students. Another way I communicate my expectations of the students is to specifically state what are the outcomes of each assessment and the outline of the tests and exams, as well as the material tested in these.
The final principle of good teaching is to respect diverse talents and ways of learning. As mentioned before, I champion co-operation between students outside of lectures (formalised since 2019 with the group assignment) in order to ensure they are responsible for each other’s learning experience as well. In my materials, I also try to incorporate different examples to aid learning. For example, in my International Economics lecture, I attempt to use examples from different continents and regions to illustrate the various theories. In ECO739, I respect diverse ways of learning by dividing the students into groups which provides the opportunity of peer learning and support, but also give space for individual learning by expecting tutorials to be submitted individually.