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Dismal Science? Using Popular Culture to Make Economics Engaging

Dismal Science? Using Popular Culture to Make Economics Engaging. ATEC2010 The Australasian Teaching Economics Conference Frontiers in Economics Teaching. Hamilton June 2010 Dr Wayne Geerling. Ben Stein, the Face of Economics. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Voodoo Economics. Chalk and Talk.

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Dismal Science? Using Popular Culture to Make Economics Engaging

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  1. Dismal Science? Using Popular Culture to Make Economics Engaging ATEC2010 The Australasian Teaching Economics Conference Frontiers in Economics Teaching. Hamilton June 2010 Dr Wayne Geerling

  2. Ben Stein, the Face of Economics • Ferris Bueller’s Day Off • Voodoo Economics

  3. Chalk and Talk • Slow to adopt innovative approaches to teaching • Traditionally: • Chalk & talk • Teacher-centred • Passive student learning. • Reinforces notion of “dismal science” • Economics classes improve understanding BUT impact is limited

  4. Economic Naturalist • Reorientate introductory classes: • Think like an Economist • Practice like an Economist • Exercises applying economic reasoning to everyday life: • Essays • Presentations • World’s greatest debates

  5. Non-Traditional Approaches • Use multimedia or popular culture to: • Stimulate discussion • Illustrate basic concepts • Explain abstract concepts at an advanced level, e.g. game theory • Classroom experiments: • In-class • Lab setting • Online

  6. Economics of Everyday Life • Demonstrate relevance • Economics as a social science • Stress intuitive appeal • Now it’s time to “walk the walk”

  7. Economists in Commercials • Watch the Commercial!

  8. Learning Economics with Movie/TV Clips • Makes learning easier & more efficient • Illustrates key concepts in an interesting way • Introduce concepts at the beginning of a lecture • Assigned as homework to embed learning • Economics in the Movies • Homer Economicus (Simpsons)

  9. Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi” • One of the more memorable scenes. Can anyone describe what happened? • Can we apply any Economic concepts? • Seinfeld

  10. www.moviesforecon.com

  11. Movie Scenes for Economics • Entire Catalogue

  12. TV for Economics • Complete list of shows

  13. Using Music to Teach Economics • Extension of Becker’s work in the 1990s: • Any music genre: • alternative • country • hard rock • hip-hop • modern rock • pop • From Abba to Zeppelin, Led

  14. From Abba to Zeppelin, Led • From ABBA to Zeppelin, Led • Search by musical genre, song title, artist or keywords (economic concepts). • Volunteers?

  15. Flash Music for Economics • An extension of the previous example • Interactive animations first used in the 2000s • Interactive web graphs • Animations for Macroeconomics & Microeconomics • Music, lyrics & economics integrated into a classroom setting via an animation format

  16. Animations open in a separate window and they will play automatically in your browser if you have Flash installed

  17. Flash Music for Economics: www.musicforecon.com Open each class with an animated song Choices: A – Diamonds from Sierra Leone – Kanye West f. Jay Z (cool hip hop) B – Satisfaction – Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, economist?) C – eBay – Weird Al(funny parody) D – Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Green Day (modern punk) Music and Economics: your choice!

  18. Teaching Economics with YouTube • A further extension of this medium: film classroom experiments & upload clips onto YouTube • Benefits of an interactive learning environment • Medium students use in their spare time • Dirk Mateer

  19. www.youtube.com/dmateer

  20. Conclusion • Ditch the “chalk & talk” • Use the new mediums • Active learning • Link content to everyday life • Transform the “dismal” science… • Applicable to any discipline

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