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Content Analysis and Practices of Market and Mixed Economies
NOTE: All three of these lessons can be done on their own or piggy back on each other.
Lesson #1: Survey and polls and the Normal Curve
Curriculum Outcomes:
9.2.4 compare and contrast the principles and practices of market and mixed economies by
exploring and reflecting upon the following questions and issues:
• What are the principles of a market economy? (ER)
• Why do governments intervene in a market economy? (ER, PADM)
• Why is Canada viewed as having a mixed economy? (ER, PADM)
• What is the role of the consumer in market and mixed economies? (ER)
• To what extent do consumer actions reflect individual and collective identity? (ER, I)
• How has the emergence of labour unions impacted market and mixed economies? (ER)
• What are some similarities and differences in the way governments in Canada and the
United States intervene in the market economies? (ER, PADM, GC)
• How do the economic systems of Canada and the United States differ in answering the basic
economic question of scarcity? (ER, PADM, GC)
This lesson can be used with a smart board and clickers.
This can be adapted for any grade level. Instructor needs to choose a current issue that is relevant for
their program of studies.
Example: Grade nine social studies: (9.2.4 program of studies- see above)
How should governments deal with the systemic failure of important corporations such as banks and
automakers?
1. Use clickers to do a class poll on the issue. Here are some suggested questions instructors can
use. Each student must take a yes or no position?
a. “Should the US government provide bailouts to banks?”
b. “Should the Canadian government provide bailouts to automakers?”
c. “Should the government lower corporate income tax to stimulate the economy?”
d. “Should the government increase regulation on industry to protect society?”
e. “Should government increase spending on social programs in these though times?”
f. “Should government privatize areas of the economy that can b e profitable?”
2. Present poll results on the screen for all students to see.
3. Challenge the student to come up of way to asses where on the economic spectrum the class
sentiments lie using the results of the poll. Give 3 minutes for them to determine a solution.
4. Provide the answer. There can be many ways to assess class sentiment, but all will have to
assess for each question which answer will move the economy to the right. Easy way to do this is
5.
6.
7.
8.
to give a score of 1 for each right slide answer and -1 to each left slide answer. Most students
will add up each side and give a ratio 90 left : 60 right answers.
Have each individual student put their clicker response where their cumulative perspective the
economy on the spectrum.
Using the criteria the developed, use the clicker program to graph the cumulative class
perspective on the economic spectrum.
You may go one more step and chart each of the students left or right of the class average.
If you wanted to integrate math into the lesson, one could plot the responses and look for the
normal curve.
Instructor can deviate anytime in the lesson to stimulate discussion. Lesson can be about
methodology or about issues depending on the student interest.
Lesson Two (Research Method: Content Analysis)
This can be piggybacked onto Lesson one or it can stand-alone.
Curriculum Outcomes:
9.2.4 compare and contrast the principles and practices of market and mixed economies by
exploring and reflecting upon the following questions and issues:
• What are the principles of a market economy? (ER)
• Why do governments intervene in a market economy? (ER, PADM)
• Why is Canada viewed as having a mixed economy? (ER, PADM)
• What is the role of the consumer in market and mixed economies? (ER)
• To what extent do consumer actions reflect individual and collective identity? (ER, I)
• How has the emergence of labour unions impacted market and mixed economies? (ER)
• What are some similarities and differences in the way governments in Canada and the
United States intervene in the market economies? (ER, PADM, GC)
• How do the economic systems of Canada and the United States differ in answering the basic
economic question of scarcity? (ER, PADM, GC)
1. Go to : http://marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm
2. You may have to filter to get to more of a specific area such as headlines from Canada +
Economy.
3. Have students perform a content analysis on the headlines (process described below).
4. Have students Create criteria for right leaning policies (can be done individually or as a class;
if this the first time doing content analysis I would recommend doing it as a class)
5. Have students Create criteria for left leaning policies
Example: More government involvement in form of the following:
 Increase in taxes
 Increase in regulation
 Public ownership
6. Have a category for unknown. You may or may not allow students to look into the article to
examine if they are left or right.
7. Categorize each headline
8. Summarize finding; Generalize trends
9. Break students into groups and assign each of a country. Have them do content analysis on
their country.
10. An alternative can be to develop a timeline of trends by all choosing the same country but
different years.
For example: headlines in the business section 6 months prior to the financial meltdown and
compare 6 months after.
11. Have each groups share their findings
12. Have the class create a hypothesis or generalizations base on the combined finding.
Example: Economic sentiment prior to the financial meltdown was more right leaning than after
the financial meltdown.
Example: American perspective on the issue of the extraction oil and gas is more to the right of
the economic spectrum than Canada’s
Example: Alberta’s perspective (Alberta’s headlines in the past year) on extraction of oil and gas
favors less regulation than Ontario’s perspective.
Example: (Cause and Effect)
deregulation causes Economic Boom causes more deregulation causes economic bust
headlines late 1990’s - economic growth graph-headlines 200-2007- econ growth graph
Lesson Three: Magazine Cover
Provide students with a variety of current/controversial issues.
Example:
“Should Canada privatize health care?”
“Should the Canadian Government participate in Oil Sands development by starting up a crown
corporation?”
“Should the Canadian Government increase regulations on oil sands development to protect the
environment?”
1. Have the student play the role of a lobbyist who is hired to create a magazine to influence the
public and/or decision makers (government officials)
2. Have students create a magazine cover to show only one perspective of the issue.
3. Prior to starting the cover have the student create 2-5 basic message they want to convey.
Example: Privatization of health care if more efficient
Privatization of health care is aligned to most Canadian core values: freedom of choice
and democracy.
4. Then have students use a variety of techniques to convey that message?
Stories, Color, Headlines, Images, Font, Metaphors, Symbols,
5. Have the student create a magazine cover to show the opposite perspective on the issue.