Since I started the doctoral program in Environmental Policy, I have been actively making efforts to enhance my pedagogical training. I have experience in assisting and instructing several undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral-level classes in Environmental Economics, Natural Resource Economics, and Public Policy and Analysis. During my studies at Duke University, I enrolled in the Certificate in College Teaching program, participated in the Teaching Triangles, and completed two courses – Fundamentals of College Teaching and College Teaching & Visual Communication. There are two objectives I embrace in teaching: First, I aim to help students to build a foundational understanding of economics. To achieve this, I focus on linking economics concepts and models and asking students to summarize class materials in short paragraphs. Second, I aim to help students apply economics models to critically evaluate policy-relevant and real-world issues. To achieve this, I focus on introducing real-world scenarios and helping students write policy memoranda.
Clarification, Connections, and Summarization: To achieve the first objective, I focus on providing clarification of class materials during class sessions and office hours. I create a clear structure of economics concepts and break down concepts and models in clear detail and offer graphical approaches to help students understand the class materials. For instance, in the master’s Environmental Economics class, many students who did not major in economics have difficulty understanding the introductory economics concepts, such as demand and supply. To help students understand, I draw demand and supply curves, list the steps in calculating consumer and supplier surplus, and point out the regions representing consumer and supplier welfare. Students are also able to learn how to link homework questions to the class materials and how the class materials can be used to solve homework questions. In the master’s Natural Resource Economics class, students are required to use excel solver to solve a dynamic fishing decision problem. Students are usually confused how the excel solver question can be related to the dynamic optimization problem. During my office hours, I first review the class concepts and help students understand the main objective of the question is to maximize the sum of firm’s discounted profits. Students then go through the excel steps to calculate the sum of discounted profits and use solver to find optimal path that maximizes the total profits.
Understanding how class materials are related is one essential step in understanding economics and achieving good class grades. Students mention review sessions before exams are helpful in understanding the links between the concepts. For instance, in the master’s Resource and Environmental Economics class, students are asked to use the demand and supply curves to calculate the total social welfare with presence of externalities. Students need to compare the welfare loss when imposing different policies, such as cap and trade or tax policies, when the demand or supply curve is uncertain. The review sessions help students better prepare for exams by asking them to solve questions requiring understanding of multiple lecture materials.
Summarizing the complicated economics concepts into short paragraphs is another important step in understanding the class materials. To achieve this, I ask students to write short summaries on economics concepts during office hours and review sessions. In the master’s Natural Resource Economics class, to help student better understand the optimal long-run stock of a natural resource, students are asked to use concepts of natural capital and financial capital to explain the optimal path in different scenarios, such as fisheries, old growth forests, and oil extraction.
Evaluations and Feedbacks: Writing thoughtful exam questions is one useful channel to evaluate students’ understanding of course materials. In the undergraduate’s Public Policy class, I helped the professor write multiple choice questions requiring students linking class materials. For instance, a question related to game theory combines statements for two-player, multiple-players, simultaneous-move, and sequential-move games. Students need to fully understand the concepts in the broad game theory topic to select all the correct statement(s). Providing detailed feedback to homework and exams is another tool to reinforce students’ understanding. I provide detailed grading rubric and feedback when constructing and grading homework and exams. In the master’s Natural Resource Economics class, many students have difficulty correctly discounting future profits in the dynamic setting question. When grading their homework, I check each period’s discounting, point out in which period the discounting is wrong, and list a few other options of discounting equations. Students see all the partial credit options that break down all the score points, so they understand in which step they solve the questions wrong.
Applications: The optimal goal of learning economics is to apply the course concepts to reality. I help students connect economics models and concepts to real-world problems and critically evaluate policy programs. In the undergraduate’s Public Policy and master’s Environmental Economics class, students are required to write professional-quality policy memoranda for a range of target audiences. In writing the policy memos, students need to apply the course materials to real-world policy issues. For example, students need to apply cost-benefit analysis and provide suggestions on the city construction programs to the city mayor. During class time, students learn the sample policy memos, such as structure and format, and understand the key economics-related elements that help answer the policy questions. Because people who do not major in economics may have difficulty understanding professional economics terminologies and concepts, how to break down complex issues into components that are more easily and quickly understood is important. I help students reconstruct the wording and structure so the recommended policy action and supporting evidence can be better understood by non-expert audiences. Detailed grading rubric is provided after grading, for example, whether students clearly stated the policy recommendations and provided well-justified analyses in supporting their suggestions. Students mention the policy memos help them understand class materials and it becomes easier for them to link news to economics in the real world.
I plan to integrate these materials and principles in my future teaching. I will also continue to actively encourage students’ feedback on my teaching and to seek out additional pedagogical training resources for improvement.