The International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics provides a comprehensive resource for instructors and researchers in economics, both new and experienced. This wide-ranging collection is designed to enhance student learning by helping economic educators learn more about course content, pedagogic techniques, and the scholarship of the teaching enterprise. The internationally renowned contributors present an exhaustive compilation of accessible insights into major research in economic education across a wide range of topic areas including: - Pedagogic practice - teaching techniques, technology use, assessment, contextual techniques, and K-12 practices. - Research findings - principles courses, measurement, factors influencing student performance, evaluation, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. - Institutional/administrative issues - faculty development, the undergraduate and graduate student, and international perspectives. Teaching enhancement initiatives - foundations, organizations, and workshops. Grounded in research, and covering past and present knowledge as well as future challenges, this detailed compendium of economics education will prove an invaluable reference tool for all involved in the teaching of economics: graduate students, new teachers, lecturers, faculty, researchers, chairs, deans and directors.

The economics major is a central part of a college education. But is that economics major doing what it is meant to do? And if not, how should it be changed? This book raises a set of provocative questions that encourage readers to look at the economics major in a different light than it is typically considered and provides a series of recommendations for change. Responding to a Teagle Foundation initiative on the role of majors in higher education, the contributors - eminent economists and administrators - consider the relationship between the goals and objectives of the economics major and those of a liberal education. They address questions such as: What is the appropriate training for a person who will be teaching in a liberal arts school? What incentives would motivate the creation of institutional value through teaching and not simply research? They also explore whether the disciplinary nature of undergraduate education is squeezing out the 'big-think' questions, and replacing them with 'little-think' questions, and whether we should change graduate training of economists to better prepare them to be teachers, rather than researchers. Providing a stimulating discussion of the economics major by many of the leaders in US economic education, this book will prove a thought provoking read for those with a special interest in economics and economics education, particularly academics, lecturers, course administrators, students and researchers.

The economics major is a central part of a college education. But is that economics major doing what it is meant to do? And if not, how should it be changed? This book raises a set of provocative questions that encourage readers to look at the economics major in a different light than it is typically considered and provides a series of recommendations for change. Responding to a Teagle Foundation initiative on the role of majors in higher education, the contributors - eminent economists and administrators - consider the relationship between the goals and objectives of the economics major and those of a liberal education. They address questions such as: What is the appropriate training for a person who will be teaching in a liberal arts school? What incentives would motivate the creation of institutional value through teaching and not simply research? They also explore whether the disciplinary nature of undergraduate education is squeezing out the 'big-think' questions, and replacing them with 'little-think' questions, and whether we should change graduate training of economists to better prepare them to be teachers, rather than researchers. Providing a stimulating discussion of the economics major by many of the leaders in US economic education, this book will prove a thought provoking read for those with a special interest in economics and economics education, particularly academics, lecturers, course administrators, students and researchers.

The International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics provides a comprehensive resource for instructors and researchers in economics, both new and experienced. This wide-ranging collection is designed to enhance student learning by helping economic educators learn more about course content, pedagogic techniques, and the scholarship of the teaching enterprise. The internationally renowned contributors present an exhaustive compilation of accessible insights into major research in economic education across a wide range of topic areas including: - Pedagogic practice - teaching techniques, technology use, assessment, contextual techniques, and K-12 practices. - Research findings - principles courses, measurement, factors influencing student performance, evaluation, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. - Institutional/administrative issues - faculty development, the undergraduate and graduate student, and international perspectives. Teaching enhancement initiatives - foundations, organizations, and workshops. Grounded in research, and covering past and present knowledge as well as future challenges, this detailed compendium of economics education will prove an invaluable reference tool for all involved in the teaching of economics: graduate students, new teachers, lecturers, faculty, researchers, chairs, deans and directors.

Service learning is an experiential learning pedagogy that enables students to integrate their study of economics in the classroom with service activities in their communities. It can enhance both economic literacy and the quality of our communities by helping to make economics more accessible to an increasingly diverse student body, increasing student citizenship skills, and improving the relationship between colleges and universities and their communities.
The two parts of this volume provide a theoretical basis for service learning and offer lessons gleaned from applying it in the classroom. The theoretical chapters outline the learning theory and models of service learning as they can be applied in economics. Service learning is introduced here as a technique that teaches students to "do economics." Also included are specific models of service learning and an overview of assessment issues. The applications chapters detail various examples of using service to enhance learning. These range from using a single service experience in a class to courses that use service experiences as the focus and context for learning economics. Course topics cover environmental and natural resources, statistics, econometrics and research methods, principles and economic issues, labor, the economics of gender, forensic economics, and development economics. Each application provides details regarding the institutional environment in which it was implemented, type of course, enrollment, and process through which student learning was enhanced. Handouts and abbreviated syllabi are included.
Economics educators have a stake in improving their students' long-term economic literacy. Service learningoffers significant benefits beyond those offered by pedagogies traditionally found in economics classrooms and should be considered as a teaching strategy by economics professors everywhere.
Kim Marie McGoldrick is Associate Professor of Economics, University of Richmond. Andrea L. Ziegert is Associate Professor of Economics, Denison University.

Service learning is an experiential learning pedagogy that enables students to integrate their study of economics in the classroom with service activities in their communities. It can enhance both economic literacy and the quality of our communities by helping to make economics more accessible to an increasingly diverse student body, increasing student citizenship skills, and improving the relationship between colleges and universities and their communities.
The two parts of this volume provide a theoretical basis for service learning and offer lessons gleaned from applying it in the classroom. The theoretical chapters outline the learning theory and models of service learning as they can be applied in economics. Service learning is introduced here as a technique that teaches students to "do economics." Also included are specific models of service learning and an overview of assessment issues. The applications chapters detail various examples of using service to enhance learning. These range from using a single service experience in a class to courses that use service experiences as the focus and context for learning economics. Course topics cover environmental and natural resources, statistics, econometrics and research methods, principles and economic issues, labor, the economics of gender, forensic economics, and development economics. Each application provides details regarding the institutional environment in which it was implemented, type of course, enrollment, and process through which student learning was enhanced. Handouts and abbreviated syllabi are included.
Economics educators have a stake in improving their students' long-term economic literacy. Service learningoffers significant benefits beyond those offered by pedagogies traditionally found in economics classrooms and should be considered as a teaching strategy by economics professors everywhere.
Kim Marie McGoldrick is Associate Professor of Economics, University of Richmond. Andrea L. Ziegert is Associate Professor of Economics, Denison University.