NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/sci/econ/9489

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-21 | 2.8 KB

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From: [e-mail] (T. Scott Thompson)
Newsgroups: sci.econ
Subject: Re: Declining Intro Enrolments
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Date: 21 Dec 92 13:51:28 GMT
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[e-mail] (Robert Canright) writes:

>Having an interest in economics, now that I see how money is one of the
>most important factors in engineering projects, I asked a professional
>economist about a good intro textbook.  He told me not to waste my time &
>to go directly into micro & macro-economics textbooks.

>If the intro texts truly are a waste of time, maybe the classes are too.

Around here the "micro" and "macro" texts _are_ the introductory texts
for economics majors.  Most general economics books are written at a
level most appropriate for high school students, and I could only
recommend the courses that use them to the most math-illiterate
students.  If you know how to read an X-Y graph and have even a vague
intuitive idea of the relationship between the slope of a curve and
the area underneath it then you should definitely start with
"intermediate" level courses.  Of course you will then have to be
willing to commit two terms if you want to learn something about both
macro and micro.

My first economics course was taught by an inspired high school
teacher who rarely had us open the book and instead taught the
important concepts through game playing.  We set up simple economies
in the classroom and found the equilibrium by actually letting the
economy run.  Then we would analyze what happened and why.  This meant
that we learned _general equilibrium_ concepts right from the start.
We only learned the usual supply and demand partial equilibrium
analysis later.  This is a very effective teaching method.
Unfortunately, it does not help the textbook publishers, and requires
extensive teacher preparation, which is inadequately rewarded at many
colleges and universities.  So we don't see too much teaching of this
sort.

I would be very interested in seeing articles on the net about
innovative teaching methodology in economics courses.  Most new
Ph.D.'s in economics have virtually no training in how to teach,
having been left to their own devices in graduate school.  (I am
speaking about U.S. training.  Perhaps things are better elsewhere.)



--
T. Scott Thompson              email:  [e-mail]
Department of Economics        phone:  [phone]
University of Minnesota        fax:    [phone]