The Scholarship of Teaching
One current work in progress explores the effects of using primary data in the classroom as a pedagogical tool to better engage students with the course material. An experiment was conducted over the course of three semesters comparing two sections of a course entitled “Women in the U.S. Economy,” a 300-level general education economics course taught at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Students in the treatment group interviewed couples using a survey adopted from Phillip Blumstein and Pepper Schwartz’ American Couples (1983). Class data was then compiled and students were required to use the data to explore issues discussed in the course through homework and papers. Members of the control group analyzed the data but did not take part in collecting the data. Pre- and post-tests (see Appendix H for the pre and posttests) were employed to measure changes in student learning. I was able to show that collecting primary data that is later used in homework assignments and papers significantly improved student exit exams in two of the three semesters analyzed.
Appendix I shows the major regression results from this analysis and the manuscript that is currently under review at The American Economist can be found in Appendix J.
Other Scholarly Activities that Inform My Teaching As Related to ECO336
Published Articles in Refereed Journals
Forthcoming. “The Demise of State Run Child Care in Bulgaria: Causes and Implications.” Co-authored with Mieke Meurs. Submitted to Journal of European Social Policy, December 2003.
2004. Co-authored with Irene Dingeldey and Susan Ulbricht. “The Commodification of Lone Mothers' Labor: a Comparison of US and German Policies.” Feminist Economics, Vol. 10(2): 115-142. Acceptance rate is 20% as of the last year calculated, 2001.
2003. “Continued Decline for Ethnic Minorities in the Transition?: Changes in Ethnic Earnings Differentials in Bulgaria, 1986, 1993 & 1997.” Economics of Transition, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Vol. 11(4): 621-648. ISI Journal Citation Reports Ranking: 2003: 117/169, 2002: 40/166. Impact Fator: 0.367
2002. “Changes in Gender Wage Differentials in Bulgaria’s Transition from Plan to Mixed Market.” Eastern Economic Journal Vol. 28 (4): 481-498. Acceptance rate: 25%
2002. “Has the Shift Toward Markets Hurt Ethnic Minorities? Changes in Ethnic Earnings Differentials in Bulgaria’s Early-transition” The International Journal of Manpower Vol. 23(1): 9-31. Acceptance rate: Less than 30%
Working Papers Currently Under Submission
○"Occupational Segregation by Ethnicity in the Early Transition: A Comparison of Bulgaria and the Czech Republic" Previously reported as research presented at the Union for Radical Political Economists, meetings for the Allied Social Science Association, Atlanta, GA, January 2002. Submitted to Feminist Economics, resubmitted July 2003. May 2004, asked to revise and resubmit a second time. Resubmitted May 2004.
Service Activities That Inform My Teaching As Related to ECO336
○Self Sufficiency Program Advisory Board, 2003-2005.
○Currently co-editing a special issue of Feminist Economics on the transition in Central and Eastern Europe with Drs. Edith Kuiper and Marianne Ferber.