Download Teaching CORE - Aston University

TEACHING CORE
Aston, 28 Sept 2015
TEACHING CORE, Alvin Birdi
TEACHING CORE
1.
2.
3.
4.
Adopting CORE
Adapting CORE
Delivering CORE
Resources to help
1. Adopting CORE
• Coherence – will CORE fit into my
programme(s)?
• Capacity – can we teach CORE?
• Buy-in – will CORE be accepted?
UNIVERSITY A
UNIVERSITY B
Example Curricula
Macro 1, Micro 1,
World Economy History and Theory (40%?),
Quants,
Options
Economics and global history
Economic Instutitions
Economic Theory and Application (1/3?)
Maths / Stats
Options
Macro 2, Micro 2,
Econometrics
Options
Growth, value and distribution
Intermediate Micro
Intermediate Macro
Maths 2/ Stats 2 / Econometrics
Applied Economics
Options
Applied Econ Project
Options
Microeconomics
Macroeconomics
Project
UNIVERSITY A (Micro)
Supply and Demand. Supply; demand; market equilibrium; equilibrium
shocks; government intervention; supply and demand elasticities.
Consumer theory. Preferences; utility; budget constraints; individual
demand; substitution effects; income effects; Applications, behavioural
economics and critiques of rational choice framework Production.
Technology; isoquants; marginal rate of technical substitution; marginal
products; cost curves; long and short run; returns to scale; profit
maximisation; cost minimisation; cost curves; supply curves. Competition.
Profit maximisation; short run; long run; market equilibrium; consumer
welfare; producer welfare; applications. Imperfect Competition; Models of
Oligopoly: Cournot Model; Stackelberg Model; Comparison of Collusive,
Cournot, Stackelberg, and Competitive Equilibria; Bertrand Model; Game
Theory.
An introduction to terminology and Nash equilibria. General Equilibrium
Models and the Welfare Theorems; Externalities, public goods, asymmetric
information – moral hazard and adverse selection.
UNIVERSITY B (Econ Theory)
Microeconomic analysis of a pure exchange economy using indifference
curve analysis and the Edgeworth-Bowley box framework
Concepts of scarcity, preference and choice, demand, supply, exchange, and
equilibrium prices using these tools
Production and supply in a production economy in partial equilibrium
Pareto optimality and market failure in a general equilibrium framework
The basic concepts and analytical procedures of macroeconomic theory: a
simplified two-sector model of the economy, the autonomous expenditure
multiplier, and conditions for equilibrium;
Increasing the complexity of the model: the government and foreign trade
sectors, and money and price-level inflation
The role of expectations and investment
Fluctuations in the level of economic activity and the efficacy of fiscal and
monetary policy
Coherence
• CORE is a module not a programme
• What changes?
•
•
Re-sequencing
Re-prioritisation
• Why?
•
•
Increased motivation provides rationale for year 2
developments
Ease of adoption without (necessarily) disturbing
course logic
Coherence
Capacity and buy-in
•
Quality of the ebook and related readings
•
Pragmatic approach to curriculum change
•
It is not “heterodox” but it does not treat
economics as “settled”
•
It raises issues like inequality, climate
constraints, crisis and methodological
concerns in context
Capacity
Quality of ebook:
students engage differently…
How do you access the materials? (UCL
Data)
60.0
51.7
50.0
41.2
%
40.0
30.0
20.0
30.8
30.0
25.6 26.5
17.5 18.4
17.1
15.0
22.8
10.0
3.3
0.0
Computer
Always
Phone or tablet
Frequently
Occassionally
Read all or
most of
the unit
Didn’t read
before
lecture
UCL
58%
22%
Bristol
12%
57%
PDFs
Never
2. Adapting CORE
Length of Course (20,30,40 out of 120 cp)
Intake (maths level)
Programme type (economics, business studies)
Leibnitzes
Einsteins
Games and Experiments
Discusses and extra MCQs
Choice of units (e.g. Bristol 1-14,17)
Instructors guides and case studies
Adapting CORE
3. Delivering CORE
(at the cutting edge)
• Just in time, clickers/responseware
• Re-imagining the lecture
• Flipping
•
Experiments and Games
Delivering CORE
4. Resources to help
(in Preparation)
• Lecture Slides
• Extra MCQs and Discuss questions
(with Suggested solutions and ideas for class use)
• Experiments and games
• Adapting CORE: pathways through the text
• Data sets from the text
• User community and contributions
Resources to Help
DISCUSS Guidance
Resource Examples
Experiments
Data Files
Images from the chapters
“If you read the whole of Varian, you
could talk about gradients and lines
and curves, but if you wanted to have
a conversation about economics,
you’d struggle”
CORE Econ