Transcript Multi-modal approaches to teaching Economics

Multi-modal
approaches to
teaching
Economics
Vanessa Smith
Methodist Ladies’ College,
WA
Motivation
 Increasing
competition to attract students
 Syllabus changes
 Increasing awareness of the need for
differentiated learning experiences that cater
for a variety of intelligences
 New opportunities presented by technology in
schools and at home
A major problem
... it’s true, economics can come across as
pretty boring. It is a singular achievement of the
economics profession that it has managed to
make the study of our daily lives and
interactions about as exciting as a maths quiz.
Jessica Irvine (2012), Zombies, Bananas and Why There are No
Economists in Heaven, p. 1
Learning styles
 Explicit
consideration of learning styles may
help us engage both students and teachers,
boosting the profile of economics even in the
face of increasing competition
Learning styles
 Visual
 Auditory
 Read/write
 Kinaesthetic
 All
students and teachers can benefit
from understanding their own preferred
learning style
 Questionnaire at http://www.varklearn.com/english/index.asp is very useful
My philosophy
 Economics
is an exciting, relevant area
 Theories last a long time but the applications
are always changing
 This sense of immediacy, excitement and
relevance needs to permeate economics
programs
 I have found that each of the following
strategies can assist in developing student
engagement and understanding – and
they’re lots of fun!
Simulation games
 Have



several advantages:
Make economics “real”
Experiential learning
Can be used either to introduce or consolidate
materials
Simulation games
Free games
 ASX

www.asx.com.au/resources/sharemarket-games.htm
 ECB

sharemarket game
games: €conomia and Inflation Island
www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/educational/
Simulation games
Commercial games
 SimCity
 Civilisation
/ Age of Empires / Empire Earth
 If
you’re interested, you can even draw on
MMOs such as World of Warcraft and Guild
Wars 2
 Board
games such as Monopoly or Risk
Simulation games
Create your own games
 Multiplier
 Elasticity
 Market
game: “I spend, you spend”
emporium
for lemons: market failure due to
asymmetric information
Simulation games
Create your own games
 There
are many ideas in the Economics
education literature, but these generally need
to be adapted for the school context:




www.economicgames.org
http://people.virginia.edu/~cah2k/teaching.html
http://www.marietta.edu/~delemeeg/games/
http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/themes/games
 Journal
of Economic Education is very useful
 Economics
teaching blogs and Twitter
Visual strategies
 Routines
for drawing diagrams
 Summary tables
 Visual organisers
 Colour
 Different presentation media
Visual strategies
Dealing with diagrams
 Draw
in the same order each time:
Price
S
P1
D
Q1
Quantity
Visual strategies
Dealing with diagrams
 Make
effective use of colour to distinguish
between “old” and “new” points:
Price
S
P1
D2
D1
Q1
Quantity
Visual strategies
Summary tables
Perfect
Competition
Number of firms
Type of product
Control over price
Barriers to entry
Nonprice competition
Economic profit
(long run)
Examples
Monopolistic
Competition
Oligopoly
Monopoly
Visual strategies
Visual organisers
Visual strategies
Causes and effects summary
• Successful
advertising
campaign
• Increase in
disposable
income (if this
is a normal
good)
• Demographic
or seasonal
changes
Increase in
demand
• Shortage (refer to
diagram)
• Consumers bid up
prices, leading to
a contraction in
demand
• Profit-maximising
firms revise
production plans
upwards, leading
to an expansion in
supply
• New equilibrium
(refer to diagram)
Visual strategies
Other visual tools
 A3
or A5 paper
 Mind maps


Draw freehand or use software such as
Inspiration
Can be created on any mobile device and
then shared
 One-page
 “FBI
wall”
summaries
Kinaesthetic strategies
 Traditional
approaches to teaching
economics haven’t been friendly to those
with a kinaesthetic preferences
 These
 They
class
techniques can benefit everyone
also help build a sense of identity as a
Kinaesthetic strategies
Creating models
 Showing
the general shape of price elastic
and inelastic demand curves
 Sidewalk
 Sending
chalk
a hoop through the business cycle
Keepad clickers
Kinaesthetic strategies
Clickers (classroom polling)
A
fabulous way to liven up multiple-choice
questions
 Questions & alternatives are presented in
PowerPoint
 Students select their preferred response using
a keypad
 A graph showing the number of students
selecting each option can be shown
 Could be used for assessment
Kinaesthetic strategies
Low-cost alternatives
 Depending
on your school’s mobile phone
policy, it may be possible to use Poll
Everywhere (www.polleverywhere.com)
 Team-based
approaches make it easy to find
different sounds for each team

Door bells are fun, but make sure there isn’t a
test going on in the next classroom!
Kinaesthetic strategies
More multiple-choice ideas
 Can

be used at any stage of the lesson
Helps develop students’ metacognitive skills by
encouraging them to reflect on their learning
 Try
getting students to write the questions
 Set
time limits for particular questions

Helps students get used to the speed at which
they need to work in assessments
Auditory strategies
 Music
 Discussion
 Videos
and movies
 Podcasts
Auditory strategies
Using music
 Demand
and supply rap based on Mankiw’s
10 principles of economics

www.educationalrap.com/song/demand-supply/
 Illustrate
 Merle


the phases of the business cycle
Hazard
“The first-and-only Nashville country artist to sing
about derivatives, mortgage-backed securities and
physics”
www.merlehazard.com
Auditory strategies
Discussion
 Using
the language of economics
 Students not always working with the same
group
 Scenario-based activities drawing on
students’ experience
 Economics paradoxes, such as:


paradox of value
paradox of prosperity
Auditory strategies
Videos and movies
 Clarke
and Dawe, Alan Kohler
 Charlie

and the Chocolate Factory
fabulous illustration of structural unemployment,
pressures of competition and applications of
price elasticity of demand
 Create
your own podcasts
Read/write strategies
 Flashcard
 Incorrect
 Writing
economic commentary
questions & marking keys
 Examining
 Wikis
creators
sample responses
and blogs
Read/write strategies
Flash cards
 Useful
for definitions, diagrams and key points
 www.quizlet.com




Free flashcard creator
Computer, mobile device or print them out
Can pay a small annual fee to allow you to
upload diagrams
Flashcards can be shared – wide range of
settings
Read/write strategies
Incorrect commentary
 Take
a written piece of economic
commentary, e.g. a newspaper article, and
insert a set number of mistakes into it
 Students
need to find and correct the
mistakes, fully explaining their work
 Can


be time-consuming but is well worth it
Try getting students to create the incorrect
commentary then swap with their peers
Alternatively, could get students to annotate
commentary
Read/write strategies
Writing questions
 Encourage
students to write their own data
interpretation or extended response questions

Also need to write a marking key!
 Need
to consider which instruction word is
most appropriate

Think about the difference between discuss and
evaluate
Read/write strategies
Sample responses
 As
a class, examine anonymous student
responses from earlier years


Students can try marking them
Identify areas of strength and strategies for
improvement
 Several



possible sources:
Keep copies of work from earlier years
Standards guides in WA
Write your own!
Read/write strategies
Wikis and blogs
 www.wikispaces.com
 collaborative
 embeds
or similar
approach
a cycle of writing, seeking feedback
and reviewing
Next steps
 Currently
creating sets of quizlet flashcards for
the entire Year 11 & 12 courses
 Electronic submission of work
 Developing a simulation game focusing on
the effects of shifts in the exchange rate and
the terms of trade
A final thought...
Economics is about one thing and one thing
only: maximising society’s total stock of
wellbeing, and well, what could be more
important than that?
Jessica Irvine (2012), Zombies, Bananas and Why There are No
Economists in Heaven, p. 2
Questions or comments?
I
love discussing strategies for teaching
Economics! Please feel free to contact me at


[email protected]
twitter: buglegs