The economic naturalist writing assignment

Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. Students can absorb ideas in the form of equations and graphs, but in most cases only with considerable effort.

Wherein lies the problem? How do instructors or lecturers overcome this?

Recent case studies

This case study will evaluate a pedagogical device pioneered by Robert Frank: I will conclude with a series of questions and answers posed by students when I piloted this writing assignment in my own teaching in Introductory economics classes have limited impact on economic understanding Walstad and Rebeck, One cause of this is that most courses try to cover too many concepts, with the result that not enough attention or time is devoted to mastering the important threshold concepts Frank, The idea that less is better in teaching economics is not new Becker, Getting Economists to agree on a list of threshold concepts which should be mandatory in an introductory course creates a new dilemma Frank, The most important thing, according to Frank, is that lecturers begin with a well articulated short list of principles, and then illustrate and apply each principle in the context of simple examples drawn from familiar settings Frank, These principles will be revisited in different contexts later in the course.

Students should then practice the principle by using it to solve simple problems taken from their own observations, and ultimately, to pose original questions which are then answered by the same basic principles Frank, Dismal Science Another related problem is the image of Economics as a dry, uninspiring, abstract subject.

This pejorative term reflects the widely held view that this science is boring, inaccurate and gloomy or, in line with Malthus, has gloomy predictions.

The economic naturalist writing assignment can be seen as a means of reorientating introductory classes: giving students more opportunities to practice Economics (Hansen, Salemi & Siegfried ). I adopted this assignment as part of a new 2 nd year elective I introduced at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, in “Economics of Everyday Life”. Robert Frank's 'The Economic Naturalist Writing Assignment' is a form of writing intervention, in which students are asked to pose an interesting question about some pattern of events or behavior they have personally observed (a real life event), then use basic economic principles to solve the question in no more than words (Frank, . May 12,  · This question came from Peter Hlawitschka in an “Economic Naturalist” writing assignment for my economics course at .

As a discipline, Economics has been slow to adopt innovative approaches to teaching Becker,; Becker and Watts, Most Economics programs are designed with graduates and PhD students in mind, even though they make up a miniscule number of students studying Economics: The heterogeneous makeup of the student body in any introductory class requires an approach to teaching economics which can embed threshold concepts Sloman and Wride, A point raised by Gary Becker in the mid s is sadly still pertinent: The Economic Naturalist Frank uses the economic naturalist writing assignment in his introductory economics courses.

Students formulate their own question based on a real life observation and are encouraged to write free of algebra, graphs and complex terminology, in a manner understandable by a relative who has never studied economics the so-called Grandma test Frank, Individual students may prefer particular learning styles, such as visual, aural or conceptual.

Student essays from the Economic Naturalist writing assignment | The Economics Network

His writing assignment, therefore, is a practical application of this approach. Students who come up with an interesting question are more likely to have fun and devote energy to the task, and talk to others about it, which reinforces the practical aspects of what they learned.

The learning is now internalised and great stories are usually remembered forever Frank, The economic naturalist writing assignment can be seen as a means of reorientating introductory classes: I adopted this assignment as part of a new 2nd year elective I introduced at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, in The aims of the assignment were shamelessly borrowed from Frank and encouraged students to: I provided a simple theory refresher at the start of the subject, and organised parallel workshops in week 1 of the semester for students who felt they needed additional help, to ensure that all students understood the basic microeconomic concepts upon which the subject is built.

All students were required to write at least one reflective essay for the semester along the guidelines set by Frank with one slight modification: Getting students to come up with an interesting question is easy for some but hard for most at the beginning.Student essays from the Economic Naturalist writing assignment Home» Learning & Teaching» Ideas Bank» Economic Naturalist Writing Assignment Provided by Wayne Geerling, LaTrobe University with grateful thanks to all the students who contributed.

Sep 29,  · The economic-naturalist writing assignment plays to this strength.

Learning economics is like learning a language. Real progress in both cases comes only from speaking. The economic naturalist writing assignment can be seen as a means of reorientating introductory classes: giving students more opportunities to practice Economics (Hansen, Salemi & Siegfried ).

Student essays from the Economic Naturalist writing assignment | The Economics Network

I adopted this assignment as part of a new 2 nd year elective I introduced at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, in “Economics of Everyday Life”. Frank's book is primarily a report of some of the economic naturalist writing assignments that first-year students of economics over the years have written in Frank's Introductory Economics course.

12 assignment plays directly to this strength. It calls for the title of each student’s paper to be a question.

For three reasons, I have found it useful to insist that students pose the most interesting questions they can.

First, to come up with an interesting question, they must usually consider numerous preliminary questions, and this itself is a useful exercise. Robert Frank's ‘The Economic Naturalist Writing Assignment’ is a form of writing intervention, in which students are asked to pose an interesting question about some pattern of events or behavior they have personally observed (a real life event), then use basic economic principles to solve the question in no more than words (Frank, .