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  WHAT TO TEACH, AND WHEN? The Structure of Content, Choosing Contexts, and the Repeating Quest – Part 1 The thinking in this section accepts: -           That in economics we will teach students the core canon of existing economic thought (presented as ‘the best we have thus far’, rather than ‘fact’) in terms of substantive knowledge. -           That we will also teach the required 'user' disciplinary knowledge elements of application, analysis and evaluation to enable students to become skilful users of existing theory, as well as developing 'theorist' disciplinary knowledge and wider awareness by questioning existing theory and highlighting the continued development of the subject. The Structure of the Subject I conceive of the substantive subject knowledge in economics as being arranged in different parts or layers. I have named this idea: the ‘Russian doll model’. The core area...

  WHAT TO TEACH? The Nature and Purpose of Economics as a Subject. What IS economics? It’s an odd starting point, but crucially important! As Backhouse and Medema (2009) explore in their interesting article on the definition of economics, “economists are far from unanimous about the definition of their subject”. So, step one involves deciding in some form what in fact is the subject you are trying to teach! My own conclusion to this question is that economics is the subject in which we study how groups of individuals allocate resources. Whilst I do allude in my teaching to the fact that societies could use all manner of methods to allocate resources (strength, intelligence, need etc.), in reality, the primary field of study is exploring the degree of use societies make of a free market system to do this versus a system of government invention. What truth are we seeking? A popular idea in curriculum thinking is that of ‘truth’. What ‘truth’ are we seeking in economics? At ...

  Curric-onomics  (n): A collection of brief thoughts and notes on my thinking relating to designing an economics curriculum. Offered as blog posts.   Available now: WHAT TO TEACH? The Nature and Purpose of Economics as a Subject. WHAT TO TEACH, AND WHEN? The Structure of Content, Choosing Contexts, and the Repeating Quest – Part 1 Coming soon! WHEN TO TEACH? The Repeating Quest – Part 2 HOW MUCH TO TEACH? Front-loading, Pattern Training and the Path to Network Thinking  WHEN TO TEACH? Ensuring a Memorable Sequence  HOW TO TEACH? Please see other blogs I have written on various aspects of application of cognitive science within teaching and learning, as well as my BrewEdClee 2021 video, CogSci-o-nomics !  Further Sources for Economics Curriculum Inspiration @econosaurus - Twitter, web chat & blog - https://www.econosaurus.co.uk/ Sequencing - https://www.econosaurus.co.uk/single-post/econ-ed-chat-june @apwlay - Twitter & blog - https://teachingextern...

  Missing Chapters There are some excellent books out there on curriculum. My eyes were opened by Mary Myatt (2018); Clare Sealy and co. (2020) enriched my understanding; Ruth Ashbee (2021) schooled me further in theory, concepts and language. But every time I get to the section on ‘subjects’ in any education book, I flick tentatively through the pages, yet I know in my heart of hearts that there probably isn’t going to be a section on my subject! That is absolutely not a criticism of these amazing and incredibly useful books though. There are a great many ‘small’ subjects out there and there are, of course, practical limits to what can and should realistically be published in a book that is written for all teachers, and thus (obviously) not  every  subject can feature. Furthermore, even if one attempted obsessively to try to include them all, what would one actually write? Often very little exists for small subjects in terms of a developed subject community or rele...