Teaching Methods
In order to teach economics in a manner that coincides with my philosophy, I provide students with a variety of pedagogical and assessment strategies. My classes include lectures, but I also make it a priority to engage students in group work, presentations, formal and informal debates, service work outside of the university, computer labs and programs like Excel and SPSS, and discussions via Desire2Learn.
My process of evaluating students, while ever-improving, consists of questions ranging from multiple choice, essays, and problems, to participation in class and longer projects with writing-intensive requirements. I utilize a variety of methods because I believe there is no single adequate strategy to teach or to learn.
Specific Activities
Thursday Student-Led Discussions
Because I believe that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach something, I require that student groups take ownership of one week of the course material. At the start of the semester I assign students to a group and to a particular week of the semester. They are required to become the “experts” on the issues presented that week. On Tuesdays I present the economic theory and the information from the main textbook, on Thursdays, the student-led group presents the information from the supplemental articles and is expected to generate discussions in the class on the topics. They are encouraged to not rely only on PowerPoint and to engage students with group activities and discussions.
D2L
I regularly take advantage of on-line technologies such as Blackboard and Desire2Learn in my courses. These technologies allow me to continue classroom discussions outside of the classroom and they also enable shy students to get involved in discussions. Online discussions provide another avenue through which I can gauge the level of understanding at the individual level. This is particularly true for ECO336 where some of the topics can become quite sensitive. D2L allows even the most hesitant students to contribute to the discussion.
During the majority of the semesters over the past five years, students were required to lead and participate in online discussions on D2L. Each week, one group of students is assigned to be the group that masters the material. They present material on the Thursday of that week an are required to lead discussion on D2L.
I assign four formal writing assignments to the class over the course of the semester. These assignments are quite difficult and require the students to exhibit several levels of learning. In each of the papers, the students are required to identify and describe the issue. Then they need to choose the relevant economic models to describe the reason the issue exists, then they are required to use primary data gathered by the class (see below in “Teaching Development & Efforts to Improve Student Learning) for a description of the project of gathering primary data) to test the theory to see if it is relevant to the local study. I am prompt and thorough in grading these assignments. While it is difficult to receive an “A” on these papers, I cover the assignments with comments and suggestions. After returning the papers, I post those that received an “A” grade and I allow students to turn in early drafts of their later assignments for a pre-review and comments before the final draft is due. See Appendix C for an example of the Formal Writing Assignments.
Volunteer Experience
Part IV of the course is devoted to the topic of Welfare and Poverty. The issue of women and poverty has been written about extensively from academic articles to popular books. We spend time discussing shocking statistics such as the extent to which women and children make up the population of poor people in the United States and around the world, and the link between domestic violence and poverty. We spend time analyzing the shift on welfare policy in the United States with the 1996 welfare reform bill. We read popular books like Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed about a journalist who attempts to make ends meet as she imitates a low wage worker in three US cities, as well as Jodi Raphael's Saving Bernice which personalizes the issue of domestic violence and welfare reform. Still, the issue of poverty is removed. In order to get students more involved in the material, they are required to volunteer for 20 hours at a local agency that deals with poverty directly. Students have volunteered for soup kitchens, cooperative gardens, women's shelters and the Salvation Army.