Economics in Context

1
Economics in Context

• Teaching Economics to non-Economists
• Judith Piggott Fran Smith

2
Economics in Context

• Economics for non-Economists
• Business Economics
• Usually compulsory
• Unpopular
• Packed syllabus
• Traditional lecture/seminar format
• Exam
• Poor attendance
• Very low averages
• Very high failure rates
• Little knowledge carried forward

3
Economics in Context

• Meant.
• Poor reputation of Economics on Business Degrees
• Threat of cutting out of such degrees in present
  and future
• Rethink required
• Starting point a module to provide Economic
  Literacy
• Michael K. Salemi (2005) Teaching Economic
  Literacy Why, What and How, International
  Review of Economics Education (vol.4, issue 2)
• If it isnt essential, leave it out.
• Threshold Concepts work at Staffordshire
  University

4
Economics in context

• Legacy Principle/approach
• To be able to take something forward, even if
  limited
• 3 Things
• Engage students with contemporary issues and use
  theory to explain these
• Enable them to have an economic perspective on
  contemporary events
• Leave them with a sense of what economics does
  and why it is important

5
Economics in Context

• Two big questions Micro and Macro
• Recession
• Food Prices
• What economics do students need to answer the
  questions?
• Micro
• opportunity cost
• externalities
• possibility frontiers
• Supply demand
• Shifts
• Elasticities

6
Economics in Context

• Macroeconomics
• Economic Growth
• Consumption
• Investment
• Interest Rates
• Government expenditure/taxes
• Exports/Imports
• Exchange Rates
• Keynesian Aggregate Demand diagram
• Fiscal Monetary Policy

7
Economics in Context

• Semester 1 126 students
• Semester 2 215
• 8 weeks, 3 hours a week
• Seminar PBL format
• Case studies,
• Simple data,
• Videos
• Board Game
• Lecture
• Seminar practice the economic concepts more
  traditional

8
Economics in Context

• Assessment
• Individual
• Powerpoint slides with notes
• Groupwork
• Presentation of flowchart
• Instant feedback and mark
• Group Report
• Participation Engagement mark

9
Economics in Context

• What happened?
• Average of old module 42 sem 1 49 sem 2
• Average of new module 56 sem 1 55 sem 2
• Failure rate old module 37 sem 1 18 sem 2
• Failure rate new module 6 both
• Some change is due to
• coursework not exam
• attendance mark
• Groupwork
• BUT
• Average for individual was around 52 both
  semesters

10
Economics in Context

• 3 students applied to change to Economics Fields
• Staff enjoyed it more Associate staff very
  enthused
• Feedback from students
• Semester 1
• Lectures 88 satisfied but 72 only felt they
  maintained interest
• Seminars 63 felt they supported learning and
  53 interesting/varied
• Assessment 73 felt it was interesting
• Semester 2
• Lecture 90 satisfied and 85 felt interest was
  maintained
• Seminars 95 felt learning was supported and
  95 felt they were interesting and varied
• Assessment 90 found it interesting
• Finally Did the module improve their
  understanding?
• 96 felt it did

11
Economics in Context

• What will I change this year?
• Not the format
• Assessment
• Powerpont slides keeping
• Groupwork
• Usual groupwork problems
• University rules prohibit now
• Replaced by
• Peer assessment individual
• Into the unknown..
• It is not perfect but a step in the right
  direction for us!

12
Legacy Principle

• One of our main objectives was to create
  understanding that is carried forward
• Has this happened?
• This is something we have to see in the future
• And perhaps to test?