Teaching Statement
I have been a teaching assistant and lecturer of economics for seven years for both graduate and undergraduate students in France and in Benin. During my PhD studies, I was fortunate enough to have the chance to attend pedagogical courses. From those background and experiences that I gained, I believe that teaching economics is not about lecturing to students, it is about presenting abstract economic concepts to students in a way that they can connect the concepts to their own life experience and solve real life problems. Consequently, I believe that the following four principles are important for teaching economics: 1) Basic concepts; 2) Applications; 3) Motivations and 4) Feedbacks. In the following, I describe each principles and provide concrete examples of how I achieve them.
I- Basic concepts
Students need basic concepts of any courses which are crucial for their learning process. In this sense, a solid background is essential for students to progress. Accordingly, I start my teaching by explaining basic economic concepts related to the course, mainly for undergraduate students. I usually precise the fundamental materials that are useful to understand the remaining of the course. It avoids frequently going back to materials that I have explained before. For example, in Microeconomics class, I insist on how important are the scarcity, demand and supply and equilibrium concepts in understanding the consumer or producer optimal allocation problems. While in a Macroeconomics class, understanding the measurement of economic aggregate and the different mechanisms that describe their relationships are essential. I achieve the same in statistics and probabilities class for graduate students. Basically, I make the interpretation of different statistics indicators a central part of this course in order to facilitate their understanding of results from economic and social data. For each of my courses, I usually provide reference books for both basic concepts and advanced learning.
II- Applications
I believe that a good way to understand a concept is to be able to translate and connect it to real life applications. In this sense, students are able to accumulate knowledge by relying on their own experience instead of abstracts economic concepts. I usually contextualise my teaching with economic, social and political news. For example, in the second semester of 2017, I was a teaching assistant for undergraduate classes in game theory. During this period, there was a presidential election in France and some candidates were facing judicial issues. I adapt these judicial issues to the prisoner's dilemma and the battle of the sexes. I was impressed by how quickly the students understood the concepts. They were able to easily explain the two concepts in other contexts. Similarly, in a microeconomics class, to illustrate an exchange economy in a world of two agents and the Edgeworth Box, I used the International Space Station (ISS) mission conducted by Thomas Pesquet, Peggy Whitson and Oleg Novitski as an example. At that moment, the Expedition 51 to the ISS was launched and most of the students were able to understand this concept.
III- Motivations
I perceive teaching not as standing in front of the classroom and solely talking to students, but as a dynamic session in which both students and lecturer interact and participate. Thus the lecturer is responsible for guiding students in the learning process and therefore must motivate them. I believe that a good way to motivate students is to highlight the contribution of the course to their future professional career. For example, in an applied informatics class, I usually inform students about how the course helps them to build the informatics skills that are required nowadays for the job-market. Consequently, I am able to capture their attention and to induce their engagement in the course. I am also convinced that the participation of students in solving problem sets contributes to make the class more dynamic and to create an inclusive learning environment. In this way, I easily identify their mistakes and provide appropriate explanations. I also consider the heterogeneity of the classroom by creating different groups that allow more interactions between students. Sometimes, it allows me to flip the classroom for specific topics by providing online materials through the university platforms (moodle for example).
IV- Feedbacks
As a lecturer, it is important to have feedbacks from students and colleagues to improve my teaching methods and to adapt them to the students needs. I usually identify the heterogeneity of my classroom and treat my students equally. My goal is not only to focus on students who particularly follow well the course, but also to consider students who have a slow understanding for some reasons including my teaching approach. I ask students in and outside the classroom how slow or fast I am when I am teaching. Sometimes, I ask a colleague to attend my class and to provide comments on how I can improve my teaching. I use all these feedbacks to adapt and develop a better teaching approach. Then, the course materials become more relevant for students and they are able to follow the course.
V- Other essential skills
Additionally to the four above mentioned principles, I believe that some others characteristics may also have influence on teaching economics. For instance, a self-confident lecturer often demonstrates their passion for their discipline and it increases the students' satisfaction. For all my teaching, I spend time preparing the materials and anticipating some questions that students may ask. It is also important to have a good management skills that help to maintain a good learning environment. Thanks to the pedagogical training, I develop some classroom management strategies that benefit my teaching. For example, I usually start my teaching by setting rules as baselines of the classroom together with students and to get their agreement. Consequently, I make them responsible for the harmony of the class leading to a favourable teaching environment. This facilitates the management of any misconduct that may arise from some students. Moreover, when teaching, I always have in mind that as a lecturer I will have a positive impact on my students as a role model. Therefore, I pay much attention to good professional attitudes and I am always available to meet students outside classroom for any reasons including re-explaining specific part of the courses materials.
I believe that the assessment of the course is very important to evaluate the impact of teaching methods and materials on the learning process of students. For example, I always introduce my teaching by clearly specifying to students that they should not consider the examination as a burden. Examination has an important role in the learning process and should be considered as a good way to assess whether students really learn something from the lessons in the course materials. In this sense, students should focus more on perpetual comprehension rather than a futile cramming. Over my experience, I notice that this reduces the students' stress and allows them to actively participate in the course by asking comprehensive questions.
Although I haven't taught courses related to my main research fields yet, that is, environmental and energy economics, I am convinced that teaching and research are good complements. I believe that there is no better way to keep the course material reflecting current understanding than updating it with the latest research. However, I use energy and environmental context to construct problems sets for students. For example, I refer to climate change risk to explain optimal decision under uncertainty.