ublished December 2012
Silence. The awkward pause when a student asks a simple question the teacher doesn’t understand. Teacher hesitates, students shift in their chairs. Stuttered half-answer explained in a round-about fashion. Teaching economics to non-economists can be a nightmare. We spend so much time focused on our research and high-level thinking we often can’t explain things in simple terms anymore. We’ve all experienced this. The recent Economics Network workshop in Bristol taught me there are ways to improve the learning experience in order to ensure this never happens.
Talking with students, I am sometimes shocked at their lack of economic awareness. It isn’t just about investing in stocks and shares or how pensions work, but a much deeper lack of knowledge about the world around them. Yes, economists can talk about demand curves, but they often can’t seem to apply the knowledge. Starbucks pricing encourages you to get the more profitable Venti, not the Grande. Being able to understand trends from a graph is important. Measuring poverty isn’t as simple as counting the number of people on the street. I sometimes think these are the types of problems we, as economics teachers, would be better to address in a classroom. I’m not suggesting we turn economics into a study of consumer science, but real-world life isn’t strictly about supply and demand curves or calculating intersection points. We have to relate economics to real world experiences and get even the non-economics students excited.
We need to do more to customise learning so the students find it interesting. Out with the PowerPoints and problem sets used for the last ten years and in with problem based learning (PBL) introduced at the recent Economics Network workshop!
Following on from the suggestions given at the workshop, I recently created a model in class based on Starbucks. The model shows students that Starbucks maximises revenue based on certain assumptions, it then adjusts these assumptions in a series of steps. Students had to work out the most effective pricing strategies; then you add changes over time. Suddenly students discover the Starbucks model has changed over time – they used to make money on brewed coffee, now it is a loss leader to get customers in stores for frapuccinos and caramel macchiatos. Profit maximisation is still about P = TR-TC and business efficiency is introduced without fancy words, but now students have something to relate the equations and concepts to - and to understand how it changes over time, meaning that they will remember it for the exam and apply it to life.
ublished December 2012
Silence. The awkward pause when a student asks a simple question the teacher doesn’t understand. Teacher hesitates, students shift in their chairs. Stuttered half-answer explained in a round-about fashion. Teaching economics to non-economists can be a nightmare. We spend so much time focused on our research and high-level thinking we often can’t explain things in simple terms anymore. We’ve all experienced this. The recent Economics Network workshop in Bristol taught me there are ways to improve the learning experience in order to ensure this never happens.
Talking with students, I am sometimes shocked at their lack of economic awareness. It isn’t just about investing in stocks and shares or how pensions work, but a much deeper lack of knowledge about the world around them. Yes, economists can talk about demand curves, but they often can’t seem to apply the knowledge. Starbucks pricing encourages you to get the more profitable Venti, not the Grande. Being able to understand trends from a graph is important. Measuring poverty isn’t as simple as counting the number of people on the street. I sometimes think these are the types of problems we, as economics teachers, would be better to address in a classroom. I’m not suggesting we turn economics into a study of consumer science, but real-world life isn’t strictly about supply and demand curves or calculating intersection points. We have to relate economics to real world experiences and get even the non-economics students excited.
We need to do more to customise learning so the students find it interesting. Out with the PowerPoints and problem sets used for the last ten years and in with problem based learning (PBL) introduced at the recent Economics Network workshop!
Following on from the suggestions given at the workshop, I recently created a model in class based on Starbucks. The model shows students that Starbucks maximises revenue based on certain assumptions, it then adjusts these assumptions in a series of steps. Students had to work out the most effective pricing strategies; then you add changes over time. Suddenly students discover the Starbucks model has changed over time – they used to make money on brewed coffee, now it is a loss leader to get customers in stores for frapuccinos and caramel macchiatos. Profit maximisation is still about P = TR-TC and business efficiency is introduced without fancy words, but now students have something to relate the equations and concepts to - and to understand how it changes over time, meaning that they will remember it for the exam and apply it to life.
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