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Reconsidering the Teaching of Economics to Students on Business programmes

Reconsidering the Teaching of Economics to Students on Business programmes. The problem. Inability to grasp abstraction and the idea of assumptions General aversion towards numbers and figures Difficult in seeing the links between theory and practical application

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Reconsidering the Teaching of Economics to Students on Business programmes

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  1. Reconsidering the Teaching of Economics to Students on Business programmes

  2. The problem • Inability to grasp abstraction and the idea of assumptions • General aversion towards numbers and figures • Difficult in seeing the links between theory and practical application • Too much to learn in short period of time

  3. Suggested Solution/implementation • Focusing on tangible concepts (from student viewpoint)- The use of Threshold concepts • Hands on study- Enquiry based learning: students allocated firms from FTSE 100 • De-cluttering the curriculum-letting students study concepts relevant to their fields- threshold concepts

  4. Implementation • A total of 241 students in ten tutorial groups and a team of 4 teaching staff • Each tutorial group was allocated a firm from FTSE 100 • The lecturer also picked a firm to use in lectures as an example • The students were required to collect information on their firms and use these as the basis for their learning • Each student maintained a wiki page • The lecturer also maintained a wiki page of the firm used in class. • Regular feedback and three formal assessment points • Word limit was set for each point of formal feedback

  5. Results • Increased engagement • Number of updates between assessment points • >2 46%,38%,58% (affected by aversion to the use if wikis) • Improvement in work as measured change in quality of work • Quantity of data collected (more data: 75%,68%) • Quality of discussion: reproduction of data vs. engaged discussion (discursive: 43%,77%,87%)

  6. Improvement in total performance on module • Lack of control group • Lower failure rate • More students passing with better grades

  7. Challenges • The initial set up of the groups was very difficult • Timetabling • Changes in class sizes • Registration problems (year 1) • Majority of students using a wiki was difficult initially, especially in the context of learning • Demonstrations helped bust still a slow start • Portfolios preferred • Some students found it difficult to engage with enquiry based learning • Some students felt that they would have benefited from higher word counts. Compromises had to reached and word count had to be changes and the number of intervention points reduced.

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