Promoting economic literacy: Combining news articles and clicker questions in a large introductory microeconomics course

ABSTRACT

The author of this article presents a brief introduction to the use of current events news articles in an introductory microeconomics course for business students. Popular press articles are integrated with small-group peer instruction, and student understanding is assessed using student response system, or clicker, questions. Examples of lesson learning objectives are presented, along with a discussion of how news articles and clicker questions are combined to promote student interest and engagement. Sample clicker questions are also provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Clicker questions
• current events
• economic education
• news article

JEL CODES:

• A20; A22

Notes

1 CWSEI (2017) discusses different grading schemes instructors use to grade individual responses to clicker questions and presents pros and cons to each method.

2 Although Boyle and Goffe (2018) cannot attribute the student learning gains to the clicker questions directly, they contend students may benefit from the considerable feedback received and the opportunity to practice higher cognitive-level questions.