Syllabus and economics: Reasoning with Generation “Why”

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors propose to enhance the syllabus for economic courses with economic explanations. They argue that providing economic rationale for course policies can increase student interest in the course and at the same time positively affect student attitude toward course policies. The authors describe practical strategies for incorporating economic explanations into the syllabus and present insights from piloting the technique.

KEYWORDS:

• Application
• economic education
• principles of economics
• syllabus

JEL CODE:

• A22

Notes

1. Students usually find it humorous that with the group work they can finish the assignment faster than if they worked on the assignment individually. During such discussion we verbally acknowledge such “benefit” from the student perspective, but ask students to keep in mind that getting out of the class early should not be the goal during the group assignment.

2. Available at https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/10_Principles_of_Economics

3. It is important to note that the syllabus should be made available to all students during the first class. The instructor can distribute the simple version of the syllabus (without explanations) during the first class, but leave the discussion of the syllabus until the second class period.

4. The examples of the syllabi are available upon request.