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Abstract
The authors of this article make a case for using Fink’s (2013) taxonomy of significant learning in the economics classroom to improve standard-based economics education and to continue transforming the discipline to reduce social inequality along multiple dimensions, including gender, race, and class. Fink’s framework is defined by student engagement with six distinct kinds of learning. Changes in student attitudes, changes in what students know about themselves and others, and learning how to learn in different settings are learning outcomes that are incorporated explicitly alongside acquiring new discipline-specific knowledge and skills. The authors apply Fink’s taxonomy to a module on the minimum wage for principles of economics. They discuss potential activities and reflect on the benefits and challenges associated with using Fink’s taxonomy.
Notes
1 Fink (Citation2013, 7) uses a file directory metaphor when he describes this aspect of significant learning: “students connect what they learn in our courses with their ‘life file’ rather than just with their ‘course file.’”
2 We capitalize the six dimensions of significant learning in order to clearly refer to the specific descriptions that form Fink’s (Citation2013) taxonomy of significant learning.
3 Both instructors attended the 2021 Expanding Diversity in Undergraduate Classes with Advancements in the Teaching of Economics (EDUCATE) workshop hosted by the American Economic Association. This work draws on the backward-design module, where Fink’s taxonomy was presented as an important component of the development of learning outcomes. For more information about EDUCATE, see https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/committees/economic-education/educate-workshop.
4 In both settings, we worked to navigate the hypervisibility of students of color, particularly Black students, in the classroom (Davis et al. Citation2004).
5 Students’ experience with labor markets may be direct as workers, managers, or employers, or indirect through relationships with others who occupy these roles.
6 From Belenky et al. (Citation1997, 193): “A woman, like any other human being, does need to know that the mind makes mistakes; but our interviews have convinced us that every woman, regardless of age, social class, ethnicity, and academic achievement, needs to know that she is capable of intelligent thought, and she needs to know it right away.” (Emphasis added.)
7 See Aerni et al. (Citation1999) for a discussion of learning environments, including “Sage-on-the-Stage,” “Guide-on-the-Side,” and “Co-Learners” or “Learning Communities” in the context of feminist pedagogy in economics.
8 Fink’s (Citation2013) full description of Application incorporates several types of thinking, including managing complex projects, the general concept of thinking (“learning how to think” [p. 45]), creative thinking, and practical thinking. Because a focus on application comes on Day 1 of the module, and, in order to balance the rest of the course objectives, we did not pursue a complex project, although one can imagine a project based on minimum wage analysis of the state where the university is located or the students’ home states. Our approach does reflect the “general concept of thinking” in that we take advantage of a new setting (the labor market) to illustrate “thinking like an economist,” which is a goal of many faculty (Siegfried et al. Citation1991). Thinking like an economist is a contested goal and term (Shanks Citation2019), but, generally speaking, part of what economists mean when they say this is thinking with models and interpreting the predictions and implications of models and their assumptions. Drawing graphs and performing calculations to solve traditional supply and demand questions satisfy Fink’s (Citation2013, 48) criterion for critical thinking, which is defined as a mode of thinking where students have “criteria for assessing the quality of interpretations, explanations, and predictions.” Creative thinking could be achieved by an exercise around the question, “What is different about the labor market, compared to the market for a nonessential good or service, and how is this related to some of the rationales for minimum wages?” or “how might the end-goal that is pursued with minimum wages be accomplished in a different way?” Practical thinking, which involves big-think style questions and making decisions, can be represented in the exam question, “What would be the most likely effects of raising the federal minimum wage in a state like Pennsylvania, which currently uses the federal minimum wage of $7.25? Compare this to the effects of raising the minimum wage in a more populated, higher-cost geographical area such as New York City.” As with other dimensions of significant learning, Fink provides useful criteria and examples for generating specific learning outcomes and designing learning environments to achieve those outcomes.
9 See Goffe (Citation2013) for a study about principles students and common misconceptions they have about economic topics, including their misconceptions about the minimum wage.
10 Similar information around policy history, implementation, and political economy can be imagined for policies other than the minimum wage. If the lesson were structured around a theoretical concept rather than a policy, e.g., the Phillips curve or GDP and alternative measurements, the intellectual history and philosophical critiques of the theoretical concept could be substituted.
11 Luce (Citation2017) discusses the people, movements, and organizing strategies behind the fight for a higher minimum wage.
12 Krugman and Wells (Citation2021), for example, have one small box describing the minimum wage in a unit on price controls.
13 https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/lisa.giddings/viz/GiddingsMinimumWageProjectJune2021/GroupMembershipbyEarningsAtorBelowMW
14 Commitment is described by Perry (Citation1998) as one of the most developed stages of cognitive and ethical development, and the idea of progressing from dualistic thinking to commitment used in this paper comes from this work.