Using Integrative Graphic Assignments to Promote Deep Learning of the Market Mechanism

Abstract

Economics faculty expect that students have an integrated understanding of economic theory upon graduation and that they grasp and appreciate how all elements of markets naturally move to equilibrium. Through assessment activities, the authors discovered that their students were not developing that knowledge, so they turned to learning theory to help develop assignments that would lead students to integrate across economic theories. The assignments they developed can easily be added to existing curricula and greatly enhance student understanding of how markets work in disequilibrium and equilibrium.

Keywords:

• graphing assignments
• intermediate microeconomics
• knowledge transfer

JEL code:

• A22

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank the economics faculty at Seattle University for their participation in reviewing the graphing assignments for assessment purposes and the Teagle Foundation for a grant supporting this research.

Notes

An appendix that contains the solutions to the problems presented in the text is available upon request from the correspondent author. The authors have also provided additional extended problems and solutions in a Social Science Research Network working paper (SSRN #2498671).

Notes on the discussions of figure 3 are also included in SSRN #2498671.