Economic Methods Course – A Self Study

ECONOMIC METHODS COURSE – A SELF STUDYCheryl Ayers

University of North Carolina Greensboro

INTRODUCTION

Economic Methods Course

• Half of adults and two-thirds of students do not understand basic economic concepts (CEE, 1999)

• In-service social studies teachers state that economics is the discipline for which they need the most professional development, both in content and pedagogy (Eisenhauer & Zaporowski, 1994)

• Social studies preservice teachers have less formal training in economics than other social studies disciplines (Aske, 2003; Dumas, Evan, & Weible, 1997)

• Teachers who know little about economics have students who know less about economics (Bosshardt & Watts, 1990; Watts & Walstad, 2005, 2011)

• Consequently, secondary social studies preservice teachers are often unprepared to teach economics at the high school level

RESEARCH QUESTION


What are the instructional affordances and constraints of an economic methods course in terms of developing preservice social studies teachers'

pedagogical content knowledge in economics?

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK


Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)

“…the most regularly taught topics in one’s subject area, the most useful forms of representations of those ideas, the most powerful

analogies, illustrations, examples, explanations, and demonstrations—in a word, ways of representing and formulating the subject that make

it comprehensible to others.” (Shulman, 1986, p. 9)

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE


The Case for Economic Methods Courses

• Social studies methods courses typically deemphasize the coverage of economic education (Salemi, Saunders, & Walstad, 1996) to one class, at best (Galambos, Cornett, & Spitler, 1985)

• However, more states than ever before are requiring teachers to teach and test economics at the high school level (CEE, 2011; NAEP, 2013)

• As one of NCSS’s ten thematic national standards, economics plays a central role in developing students into informed and productive citizens in the 21st century (VanFossen, 2005)


REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATUREPCK and Methods Courses

• Studies on how to combine content and pedagogy (i.e., PCK) in social studies typically focus on inservice history teachers (Salinas et al., 2011; Harris & Bain, 2011), preservice to inservice TPCK transitioning (Wilson & Wright, 2010), and what general PCK preservice teachers bring to their social studies methods courses and what they hope to gain (Waring, 2010)

• Only one study by Swan and Hofer (2011) examined inservice social studies teachers’ TPCK in the context of economics

• Literature base on preparing preservice teachers in economic education is almost silent, including the development of economic PCK

• However, several articles have begun the conversation about the format and challenges of an economic methods course (e.g., Joshi, 2003; Joshi & Mari, 2006; Weidenaar, 1980)

RESEARCH CONTEXT


Students

• “Economics for Educators” course taught during Fall 2012 semester

• 11 Students (4 graduates students) between ages of 20 – early 40’s enrolled in the university’s secondary social studies teacher education program

• One student had already completed her student teaching practicum and practiced as a high school social studies teacher for three years

• Five of the 11 students had already completed one to two courses in economic content at the undergraduate level

Instructor

• Former Center for Economic Education director for 10 years in Virginia; currently a PhD student in secondary social studies with an emphasis in economic education


Course Design

• 75 - 80% of class time was devoted to economic content as determined by NC state and CEE national standards

• Main required resources were Schiller’s Essentials of Economics (8th ed.) and CEE’s Virtual Economics

• Assessment Summary

RESEARCH CONTEXT

Assessment Final Grade Percentage/Points

2 Exams 30%Quizzes on Weekly Chapter Readings 10%2 Critiques of Economic Lessons 10%3 Analyses of Economic Events 15%Written Lesson, Demonstration, Reflection 15%Homework Assignments 10%Participation 10%Extra Credit: Economics Teacher Resource Notebook

Up to 3 Extra Points

METHODOLOGY


• Self-studies of instructional practices are reaching new heights in education literature (Dinkleman, 2003; Feldman, 2003), offering evidence-based solutions for education reform (Zeichner, 2007)

• Data sources included student work, pre/post-survey, pre/post-test (TEL), 3 course evaluations, and semi-structured interviews with students after the semester ended

• Data analysis

• Coding, categories, then themes (Miles & Huberman, 1994)

• Triangulation of interviews and course evaluations (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011)

• Inherently personal and situation-specific data will likely prompt readers to generate their own “naturalistic generalizations” (Stake, 1995) as they reflect on their own teacher education practices

• Course also turned into a 3-credit College Teaching Practicum to challenge my assumptions with the interpretations of another professor, thus increasing validity (Maxwell, 2013)

FINDINGS


3 Themes wherein economic PCK emerged

• Course Format – Modeling Economic Lessons

• 2 Course Assignments – Analysis of Economic Events and Active-Learning, Interdisciplinary Economic Lesson

Theme 1: Modeling Economic Lessons

• Experience lessons first as students

• “Pedagogical content knowledge also includes an understanding of what makes the learning of specific topics easy or difficult; the conceptions and preconceptions that students of different ages and backgrounds bring with them to the learning of those most frequently taught topics and lessons.” (Shulman, 1986, p. 9)

• Debrief lesson demonstrations from content and pedagogical standpoints including where high school students might struggle and ways to better connect content to their life experiences


FINDINGSTheme 1: Modeling Economic Lessons

• Solidifies economic content

• “I feel like I learn best when I’m, like, learning how to teach something.”

• “…the concepts that you were trying to teach with those [active learning lesson demonstrations] helped them sink into my memory because, you know, you weren’t just standing in front of the class going over the material. We were actually applying it to something. And having to actively think about it.”

• “…going through [the lessons] as a student would…a lot of the time, it helped me click in my head exactly what it was we were talking about.”

• “…learning the teaching strategies helped me learn the economic content better that way. So, I think, I think the way it was mixed up was perfect actually. I learned more that way, I think, than I would have just in a regular econ class.”


FINDINGS Theme 2: Analysis of Economic Events Assignment

• The Economic Way of Thinking (6 Principles) – disciplinary-specific reasoning skills (i.e., economic PCK) that generate more informed, productive decision-making requisite of empowered 21st century democratic citizenship

• 3 Analyses of current economic news, scaffolded by a 12-question analysis form (e.g., personal position, compromise between multiple perspectives, policy reform, personal relevance to self and high school students, economic lesson recommendations, etc.)

• Critical Thinking

• “…I think our main goal is to teach kids how to think. And that helps them in a systematic way to think about things and take their own, you know, can take their personal views out of it to an extent and look at things more logically. Which is something I want all people to be able to do.”


FINDINGSTheme 2: Analysis of Economic Events Assignment

• Real-world Relevance

• “I think that the six principles are really helpful in breaking down the economics in the news, specifically…you have to take a moment to step back and to think about, okay, well, what is this? What is the cost? And what are people choosing? And what are the benefits?... In going through the six steps, you see how it plays out. It allows you to see how economics is interwoven into our everyday life.”

• “Being able to break down economic news that you see and using those six principles allows you to better understand what they’re trying to say and if it really makes sense in your perspective and allows you to interpret better [and] better voice your opinions about it.”

• “You can use [the 6 principles] for everything” and “…helps you understand why people make the choices that they make.”


FINDINGSTheme 2: Analysis of Economic Events Assignment

• Solidifies Economic Content

• “Having to use six principles to analyze news and critique lessons reinforced all those econ concepts that we were learning [and] solidifies the concepts into something that’s actually real.”

Theme 3: Active-Learning, Interdisciplinary Economic Lesson Assignment

• Groups of students demonstrated economic PCK by writing, demonstrating/videotaping, and reflecting (self, peer, and instructor feedback) on a 45 minute lesson that integrated economics with another social studies subject and utilized active-learning strategies

• Most often cited as the best part of the course, both in course evaluations and interviews


FINDINGSTheme 3: Active-Learning, Interdisciplinary Economic Lesson Assignment

• Realization of the Broad Applicability of Economics

• All students admitted to not realizing how important economics was to understanding other social studies disciplines, much less just “how many integration opportunities there were” based on their new found realization that “…economics applies to all of life.”

• “[In] every single discipline, you can turn to economics and explain some of the motivating factors for why this was done and why this wasn’t done.”

• Reinforcement of Other Social Studies Subject Content

• “What’s the saying? War’s always over religion or money, so...I think not only does it give students an insight into economics but it lets them further understand the history concepts you’re trying to teach them, too.”

DISCUSSION/IMPLICATIONS


Specific discussions of the affordances and constraints (with recommendations) for each of the 3 themes included in the manuscript

General Discussion

• 21st Century Skills require economic reasoning skills to complete authentic tasks – that is, procedural knowledge (VanFossen, 1995)

• Integrated vs. separate economic instruction research mostly suggests interdisciplinary economic instruction is often ineffective in terms of increasing economic content knowledge (Miller & VanFossen, 2008)

• NCSS (2010) defines social studies as “…the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence…”

• Include integrative lessons and practice in economic methods courses and general social studies methods courses

• Some evidence does exist that infused economic instruction is effective (Schug and Niederjohn, 2008)….if enough accurate, context-specific economic examples and issues are included during instruction (Watts, 2005) – that is, economic PCK


DISCUSSION/IMPLICATIONS• Course Format: Content vs. Pedagogy Trade-off

• Developing economic PCK also improves content comprehension (win-win)

• “…weird for me… because I had taught it before but really didn't understand what I had been teaching before. And, like, some things that I wasn’t teaching right and really didn’t get. I definitely feel like I understand not only the content more, but ways to teach it better and make it make more sense.”

• Perhaps economics and education professors should team-teach

• Ideally after a survey economics course and social studies methods course

• Dream Sequence: Micro/Macro Economic Methods then International Economics/Personal Finance Methods

• As demand for high school economics courses increases, hopefully the supply of economic methods courses will also increase, so secondary social studies teacher education programs develop highly qualified teachers. Effectively developing economic PCK will remain important.

LIMITATIONS• Small sample size, although often necessary for qualitative studies, and

thus highly contextualized findings reduce the degree to which findings are transferable ((Lincoln & Guba, 1985)

• Researcher bias (Maxwell, 2013) that exists due to the fact that the researcher was also the instructor


CONCLUSION


• For students to be empowered for democratic citizenship, they must learn economic content from secondary social studies teachers who have economic PCK (EPCK)

• Economics should include practical life skills at a time in history when the economy is talked about in almost every realm of daily life—the evening news, political platforms, and the family dinner table, to name a few

• “I think most people turn to the news to be informed about what’s going on in the world and things like that, so, if you can’t read a newspaper article and understand the economics of what’s going on in that, how can you have a really deep understanding of what’s going on in the world?”

FUTURE RESEARCH• Qualitative, observational, exploratory studies of inservice teachers to

understand current levels and forms of EPCK

• Comparative studies of field experiences of preservice teachers who completed an economic methods course vs. an economic survey course


QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

Cheryl [email protected]


Economic Methods Course – A Self Study

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