Teaching Economics: The real and the ideal

However, to the extent that such incentive systems, including departmental budgetary allocations, apply across the disciplines other explanations for the relatively poor performance of economics in CEQs must be sought. One explanation may be poor pedagogical practices in economics. The paper puts the case that the typical syllabus, textbook, support materials and assessment practices are inappropriate to deep learning. The literature tells us that students will take a surface rather than a deep approach to learning when the workload is perceived to be heavy (eg. Smith and Brown, 1995). It is argued that the workload in economics is heavy because we try to teach too much, especially in first year. There is therefore not enough time for teaching approaches that are conducive to deep learning. The web, however, may provide the solution. The continual improvements in web based teaching materials have freed the lecturer from the traditional lecture style and created opportunities for deep learning approaches in the class or lecture.

The paper also argues that it is not just the volume but the content of the typical first year economics syllabus that is inappropriate. Some particular aspects of basic models in macro- and microeconomics are identified as having very little real world relevance, such that in the opinion of the authors they should be jettisoned in favour of an approach of working backwards from selected contemporary examples to establish just what theory is necessary. In growth areas of economics teaching - eg in the MBA context - it is clearly "motivation" and "relevance" that students respond to.

There is a strong link in the literature on student learning between the skills and attitude of the teacher and the achievement of deep learning outcomes (Marton et al. 1997, Ramsden, 1992). Here, the absence of formal teacher training is one factor which may inhibit quality teaching but, again, this problem is not exclusive to the economics discipline. It is difficult to think of another profession for which half of the job description, in our case teaching, requires no formal qualification; or another industry (tertiary education) with an annual output value of more than $4 billion (in Australia) with virtually no perceived incentive to increase output quality.

To address the problems of pedagogy and incentives the paper argues for: (i) intensified efforts to measure teaching quality, for example via the mandating of external teaching audits (which are currently done on a voluntary and occasional basis by some departments); (ii) incentives for academic teachers to undertake teacher training; and (iii) allocating amounts of departmental budgets to "teaching accounts" of individuals on the basis of teaching performance.