Teaching Experience

Since my undergraduate years, I had the opportunity to teach undergraduate level Economics and Statistics, by being a teaching assistant (TA) for undergraduate courses of entry and intermediate Economics, and instructing a full course on Econometrics and Data Science (ECON 204D) during the summer of 2022. Such experience on producing materials towards entry level students has provided me with the tools to not only produce ground level economic concepts and the statistical tools to aid in economic analysis, but also how to effectively deliver them to students who are not familiar with the materials themselves. Details on my teaching experience are listed in my CV.

1. Teaching Objective: Discovering Economics from A Sea of Information

  My main objective in teaching is to familiarize students to parse these economic models and approaches out from a block of noisy information in real life. One of the fundamental challenges that economics students face is the dissonance they feel between the models they learn and the economic activities that occur in the real world.

  From my teaching experience of ECON 204D, for instance, the most frequent comments I received from the students is that they either didn’t know which models to choose or which statistical methods to use in order to explain the context of the questions. One of the approaches I made to tackle this challenge is to go over a news article that the students were asked to read beforehand, and give the students a general picture of what is going on in a layman's term. Then I dig into the articles more carefully, nudging students to connect certain words with one of the models they learned in the main lectures. During this time, I encourage students to think critically on the connections between the news article and the suggested model, and compare it with other models they learned that may explain the event better. This would spark conversation among themselves in groups that I allow within a certain time limit, which would help them establish such connections between the econometric models that they learn and the real life events they would like to analyze on.

2. Recurring Assessment: Strengthening the Connections across Topics

   Another principle I aim to teach the students is to link the new topics they learned with the topics they learned before during the course of the semester. In modeling open economy in the ECON 101 course, for instance, students faced the same Production Possibility Frontier (PPF) model that they learned two months before in modeling a closed economy where trading is allowed. In approaching topics that are extensions from the topics that they have learned separately, I would proactively make connections between the two settings, comparing different results and explaining the main drivers behind such results that the previous model did not capture.

  First, I ran a 15 minute review session in which I refreshed the students minds about how a country would decide to a country would decide to allocate the resources between two goods when trading is not allowed. Next, I set up the resulting price levels of the two goods that are different from their respective price levels that they can import or export the goods with. Finally, I would draw the resulting allocation point under both closed and open economy on the same PPF graph, illustrating the different result from what they learned before.

  Through such approach, I aim to encourage the students to not only absorb new materials, but also connect them with the topics they have learned before. Reinforcing the students to establish such connections between the old and the new would aid them in my objective of establishing the necessary groundwork required to advance their studies in Economics.

3. Evaluations and Feedbacks : Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

    My commitment to diversity has been shaped by my experiences in mentorship, creating Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), and volunteer activities. A particularly impactful experience was my work recording audio books and study materials for sight-challenged individuals in Seoul Welfare Center for Sight-Challenged People. I took some time conversing with some of the regular attendees, and the challenges they face in a world with little to no visual support. This prompted me to practice my lines and make tweaks in the script in ways that help the sight-challenged students understand the materials better. The experience taught me the importance of adapting communication methods to meet diverse needs and the value of understanding different perspectives.

   In my teaching, I apply this perspective-taking approach to recognize and address the unique challenges faced by students from diverse backgrounds. Just as I break down complex economic concepts for all students, I strive to identify and remove barriers that might disproportionately affect underrepresented groups in economics.

   I view teaching as a two-way street of continuous learning. While students learn economics from me, I learn from them how to be a better teacher and practitioner of economics. I actively encourage feedback on both course content and my approach to diversity and inclusiveness, allowing me to continually refine my teaching methods to better serve all students.

   In promoting diversity and inclusion, I am mindful of the need to balance different perspectives. I strive to create an environment that is welcoming and supportive of all students, regardless of their background, while being careful to avoid any form of reverse discrimination. My goal is to foster an inclusive classroom where every student feels valued and empowered to contribute their unique insights to our collective understanding of economics.