Sources of Advice on Teaching and Learning
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Economics-specific
Fall 2008 teaching conference for new Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs)
Robert Reich, Professor of Public Policy in Berkeley’s Goldman School and former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, delivers the keynote address at the Fall 2008 Teaching Conference for new Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs). It this 40 minute video, Reich talks about teaching, the role political views should or should not have in the classroom and takes questions from the floor on a variety of teaching topics. Useful for lecturers looking for a some tips on classroom practice. Requires a Flash player.
Biz/ed (UK)
Biz/ed is a service for students and educators of business studies, economics and accounting. It is part of Cengage Learning, an educational publisher. There are company facts which provide details about the marketing, operations, strategies, etc. of leading organisations. Biz/ed also hosts data sets and has a learning materials section which houses worksheets, glossaries, study skills, and notes for business, economics and MBA students. Virtual Worlds contains a number of simulations including the Virtual Factory, which applies business theory to the real world, and the Virtual Economy - an online model of the economy based on the Treasury model, with an extensive range of supporting materials. The Current Topics section contains academic information related to Economics and Business topics that are in the news
Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical Education (UK)
The Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical Education aims to "promote the improvement of statistical education, training and understanding at all ages". Their website includes information on teaching statistics in higher education, details of courses on specific statistical teaching topics and details of their collaboration with the Higher Education Academy Maths, Stats and OR Network.
Economic education web
This site contains a large number of resources for teachers of economics at all levels. There are links to lesson suggestions and useful web materials for schools. 'Data and Info' is an extensive set of categorised links to economics teaching resources.
Active learning techniques
Scrolling down this page, you find a succession of abstracts from the economics education literature, describing simple class games to teach specific topics.
Inomics
Database of economics departments and research units (by geographical region and subject area), job opportunities, conferences, working papers via Repec, economics internet links from the Open Directory Project, maintained by the Berlin-based research group.
Post-Autistic Economics Review
Critical articles on mainstream (neoclassical) economics, and alternatives, including ideas on how to revive and teach disappearing heterodox traditions [eg Post-Keynesianism, Austrian Economics, Marxism, Neo-Ricardianism, Old Institutionalism]. Articles are all non-technically presented, many by prominent economists within and outside the neoclassical tradition. Also background information and news on the 'Post-Autistic Economics Network' and its quest to preserve a non-mainstream curriculum.
History of economic thought website
Impressive, very large site on history of economic thought, including a long alphabetical list of historical economists with profiles and further links to original documents on the same server. You can also browse by school of thought - Pre-Classical, Anglo-American, Heterodox Themes, Classical, Continental, and Keynesian. You can examine the same material by theme: there are impressive documents in the categories of Business Cycle Theory, Empirics and Econometrics, Imperfect Competition, Economic Development, Uncertainty and Information, Game Theory and Finance Theory and includes weblinks and references. It is hosted at the graduate faculty of economics of the New School University New York
Enhancing teaching using MATLAB add-ins for Excel
Illustration of the application of MATLAB, as an add-on to Excel, to a classroom demonstration of an economic problem. Provides a link to the Mathworks site for ExcelBuilder. The problem is to determine when it is best for retirees to start drawing their social security payments, given that these rise in real terms if taken later. Cumulative payouts are calculated for three starting-ages, showing how a strategy of delay starts to pay off as life expectancy increases.
Understanding economics and economists
Chapter 1 of David Colander's 'The Making of an Economist, Redux' (Princeton University Press 2007), reviewing the career paths of economists and the formation of the profession's 'elite' from a US perspective. Information on the number and changing composition of the US economics graduate community, the contents of courses, what economists do, and a summary and reactions to the AEA's Commission on Graduate Education in Economics report.
Writing for economics (UK)
This is a tutorial in writing skills, using real examples of student coursework and marker's comments from a microeconomics course at LSE. It is the outcome of a mini-project funded by the Economics Network. It covers short answer questions and writing longer pieces by constructing arguments for essays.
Teaching intermediate macroeconomics using the 3-equation model (UK)
Carlin and Soskice have developed "a version of the 3-equation model that can be taught to undergraduate students and can be deployed to analyze a broad range of policy issues, including the recent credit/banking crisis and the oil and commodities price shock. It can be taught using diagrams and minimal algebra" in this 26 page paper from UCL. It also includes an appendix on the central bank’s loss function: graphical representation and references for further reading.
General
Fall 2008 teaching conference for new Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs)
Robert Reich, Professor of Public Policy in Berkeley’s Goldman School and former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, delivers the keynote address at the Fall 2008 Teaching Conference for new Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs). It this 40 minute video, Reich talks about teaching, the role political views should or should not have in the classroom and takes questions from the floor on a variety of teaching topics. Useful for lecturers looking for a some tips on classroom practice. Requires a Flash player.
ALT: the Association for Learning Technology (UK)
The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) is a membership organisation bringing together all those with an interest in the use of learning technology in higher education. The Association's aims are to: promote good practice in the use and development of learning technologies in higher education; facilitate interchange between practitioners, developers, researchers and policy makers in higher education and industry; and represent the membership in areas of policy such as infrastructure provision and resource allocation. Their website includes news and event information, policy documents, details of special interest groups and the annual ALT conference.
Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) (UK)
SEDA publish a large range of papers and monographs on teaching and learning in Higher Education. They also publish Educational Developments magazine and organise professional accreditation for university teaching staff. The site holds details of the association's conferences as well as a comprehensive list of other events connected to university teaching.
Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) (UK)
The Society for Research into Higher Education was established in 1965 to stimulate and co-ordinate research into all aspects of higher education. It currently publishes the journals Higher Education Quarterly and Studies in Higher Education as well as various books. SRHE also organises conferences, workshops and exchange of information between member academics.
How people learn: brain, mind, experience, and school
This is a complete online book on a general theory of learning, mainly with a schools focus, produced from a psychological perspective. It was produced by the National Research Council and published by the National Academies Press in 1999.
How to teach
These are the personal observations of an education lecturer on his 35 years of university teaching experience. Divided into methods, assessment, media and curriculum, this site also links to the author's related site organising theories of learning.
Teaching strategies and disciplinary resources
Provided by the Center for Research on Teaching and Learning, University of Michigan, this is a large set of links to teaching case studies, browsable by topic. It covers subjects such as academic integrity, evaluation of teaching, learning styles and theories, course design, teaching methods and assessment amongst others.
Assessing learning in Australian universities: five practical guides
The guides here cover on-line assessment, assessing large classes, minimising plagiarism, assessing group work and assessing students unfamiliar with assessment practices in Australian higher education. They digest research into a succession of specific suggestions and cover both the appeal and disadvantages of specific innovations.
Spreadsheets in education
This peer-reviewed electronic journal, launched April 2003, covers innovative ways of using spreadsheets in any area of education.
Cross cultural learning behaviour in higher education: perceptions versus practice
This peer-reviewed paper by a Business and Commerce lecturer reports on specific research and the broader literature about learning styles of international students and the implications for teaching increasingly diverse student cohorts.
Plagiarism tutorial
Online tutorial for lecturers and students on understanding, avoiding and detecting plagiarism. Designed by a US university but principles apply in the UK and elsewhere. Sections include: what is plagiarism, types of plagiarism, why is it wrong, penalties, examples and tips.
This page was last updated Mon Feb 8 16:57:18 GMT 2010