Teaching Application and Communication of Economics

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Teaching application and communication of
economics Dean Garratt and Stephen Heasell
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Workshop Session Abstract

• We host this interactive workshop as a way to
  explore and discuss with colleagues the value of
  seeking new opportunities by which hard-pressed
  HE tutors of economics can equip students to use
  sound economic analysis effectively for various
  purposes which make a distinctive difference in
  civil society, including graduate employment.
• We observe that incentives facing grade-hungry
  students and their tutors often produce curricula
  whose activities and assessments focus
  predominantly on specifying a limited range of
  analytical models. Insofar as those activities
  and assessments require and elicit application of
  economic analysis to live issues or cases of
  interest beyond the community of academic
  economists, they seem often to do so largely for
  the limited purpose of illustrating features of
  some such model. We sense collusive rejection by
  students and tutors of learning to express
  analytical uncertainty and contextual complexity
  in a constructive critique of a reductionist
  model, as they seek the line of least resistance
  to an upper second or beyond.
• Declared module, course and institutional
  learning outcomes now recognising aspects of the
  broader context of HE, including employability
  and global citizenship. Various indicators
  suggest, nonetheless, that evidence of knowledge
  and skills which graduate economists offer to
  employers when applying for jobs does not match
  closely what employers seek from them.
• Is tacit collusion between students and tutors
  widespread does it contribute to a mismatch of
  capabilities or expectations, and what are the
  cost effective ways to align incentives
  sufficiently for newly graduating students to
  demonstrate the contribution of their HE to civil
  society?

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Economics Network Employers Survey

• Areas of knowledge and understanding identified
  as very important
• Incentives and their effects
• Social costs and benefits
• Microeconomics of decision-making and constrained
  choice
• Opportunity cost

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A Brief Introduction and Agenda

• Evidence of disappointed expectations about what
  graduates in economics can do beyond academia
• prompting an attempt to pool tutor reflections on
  the effectiveness of course syllabus, delivery
  and outcomes
• Discussion phase 1 towards explanation of
  disappointed external expectations (Diagnosis)
• Discussion phase 2 towards resolution and
  reconciliation (Prescription)

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Economics Network Employers Survey

• EN Employers Survey, 2014-15
• Skills and knowledge gaps of graduates in
  economics
• Skills identified as very valuable
• Communication of economics ideas
• Ability to analyse economic, business, social
  issues
• Ability to organise, interpret, present
  quantitative data

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Economics Network Employers Survey

• Employers rating of skills
• Weakest (not very high)
• Critical self-awareness
• Awareness of cross-cultural issues
• Applying what has been learnt, in a broader
  context
• Creative and imaginative powers
• Strongest (very high)
• Fluency in using IT/computers
• Analysing and interpreting quantitative data

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Economics Network Employers Survey

• Areas of knowledge and understanding identified
  as very important
• Incentives and their effects
• Social costs and benefits
• Microeconomics of decision-making and constrained
  choice
• Opportunity cost

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Economics Network Employers Survey

• Skills or knowledge in need of further
  development within economics courses
• Application of economic theory
• Communication skills
• Quantitative skills
• Critical thinking
• Economic history and the history of economic
  thought
• Cost-benefit analysis

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QAA Benchmark Statement latest

• Nature and Context of Economics key intellectual
  features ability to
• abstract and simplify to identify and model the
  essence of a problem.
• analyse and reason - both deductively and
  inductively.
• gather evidence and to assimilate, structure,
  analyse and evaluate qualitative and quantitative
  data.
• communicate results concisely to a variety of
  audiences, including those with no training in
  economics.
• think critically about the limits of one's
  analysis in a broader
  socio-economic context.
• ability to draw economic policy inferences, to
  recognise the potential constraints in their
  implementation and to evaluate the efficacy of
  policy outcomes in the light of stated policy
  objectives.

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QAA Benchmark Statement latest

• In assessing students' work, the following
  criteria may be adopted
• Focus on the questions asked and/or identified
  key problems
• Choice of arguments, relevant theory or model,
  for the area specified or question asked
• Quality of explanation
• Demonstration of consistency, coherence and
  purposeful analysis
• Use of evidence and knowledge of institutional
  and historical context
• Collection, processing, analysis and
  interpretation of data
• Extent and quality of critical evaluation
• Demonstration of knowledge of relevant literature

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Workshop Discussion Phase 1

• What limits the extent to which newly-qualified
  graduates in economics can use their distinctive
  skills and subject knowledge, in a valuable way
  beyond academia?
• For example, is it (mainly)
• what is learnt (and taught) about economics?
• how economics is learnt (and taught), including
  course structure and delivery?

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Workshop Responses Phase 1

• Summary of Diagnostic suggestions by Groups (no
  particular order)
• some tutor arrogance (offering little critique of
  what is taught or how it is taught )
• difficult to instil confidence among individual
  students for attempting, or responding to,
  constructive critique
• narrow range of tutor experience of work beyond
  academia
• students remain unaware of skills in application
  they possess a tutor feedback problem
• overloaded syllabuses and student cohort sizes
• explosion of opportunities to work with data sets
  but not applications in external context
• courses culminate in a project or dissertation
  couched in academic terms
• texts largely are aligned with academic
  priorities, not applications in external context
  
• student personality types drawn to economics
  courses
• Group endorsement of one suggestion by Dean and
  Stephen (see conference Abstract)
• an element of tacit collusion based on
  opportunity cost, between time-poor grade-hungry
  students and research-orientated tutors (plus
  perhaps other academic parties) leading to
  familiar, predictable course outcomes based on
  specifying the technical toolkit

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Workshop Discussion Phase 2

• Is the difference between what new graduates
  in economics can distinctively do and what is
  expected of them beyond academia a problem which
  tutors should address?
• What further could feasibly be done to reconcile
  that which new graduates in economics are capable
  of doing with the expectations of prospective
  employers?

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Workshop Responses Phase 2

• Following the Prescription phase 2 discussion,
  Groups still found it difficult to suggest quick
  or easy reforms the closest were
• require all students to write a dual summary of
  their final year project report or dissertation
  which is accessible to an intelligent non
  academic readership, alongside the academic text
• an embedded course input with current students,
  by alumni who have experienced application of
  economic analysis beyond academia
• simply moderate the quantum of economic models
  included in the syllabus at all undergraduate
  levels of study
• meet employers regularly to agree reasonable
  expectations of newly-graduated students of
  economics