Curric-onomics: WHAT TO TEACH, AND WHEN? The Structure of Content, Choosing Contexts, and the Repeating Quest – Part 1
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 areas of theory relate to study of different ‘sized’ domains; the firm and market (which
combine as microeconomics) and the nation and globe (which we consider as
macroeconomics). Some aspects of study run through all layers, for example
labour markets which can be studied at the firm, market, national and global
levels, and PPF which can be applied from the tiniest micro context right up to
global issues such as specialisation and international trade.
Displaying this thinking graphically can help students to
understand the whole subject and also to understand the journey they will take
though their studies.
Choosing Contexts
Whilst the doll formation and content of the canon at each
layer is fairly well agreed upon, the precise embellishment of each doll can (and
does) vary widely from teacher to teacher. This is therefore, in some ways, the
most important aspect of considering ‘what to teach’ in economics as teachers
have huge creative licence here. Which case studies? Which countries? Which
markets? Which firms? Which time periods?
What counts are ‘core’ knowledge with regards to contexts is
far more a matter of intuition, tradition and preference and there is much less
unity of agreement on what must be studied in this respect. I would
hazard a guess that almost every teacher will allude to case studies of the
impact of smoking in teaching externalities, or the Greek debt crisis when
teaching about public sector finances, but should students know about the
construction of the Hinkley Point C power station, the takeover of EE by BT,
the introduction of the Euro in Lithuania or the nature of tariffs imposed by
Tunisia?
Exam board specifications make very little reference to
required contexts beyond the broad mention of phrases such as ‘markets such as
housing, transport and oil’ or the like, and a few mentions of specific events
like the Great Depression and the 2008 financial crisis.
This is an area of curriculum thinking which I feel is likely overlooked quite frequently in a subject which is heavily focused on the theory. Often the application context seems to be chosen almost at random, last minute or with regards to what’s convenient, without much wider thought on what we should actually be covering in terms of context. And whilst it might seem I am presenting this as ill-thought-out, and maybe sometimes it is, alternatively it is possible to argue that selection of context 'last minute' is exactly what should be happening, as we endeavour to remain topical, act as news-connected role models and pique curiosity. Interestingly teachers are engaged in debate about the issue of 'topicality' and I would thoroughly encourage you to explore Andrew Lay's (2020) blogs on this topic.
This is certainly an
area where I will be thinking more and writing more, and where others may also
like to contribute to the field, in order to establish what would and should represent a
rich, powerful and coordinated curriculum with regards to context choice.
How much ‘contextual’
work?
It can be very easy to dedicate large amounts of time to explanation of
the often rather complex substantive knowledge in an abstract manner. Coverage
of ‘the theory’ often precedes application of it to a context, but how much
application and case study work should be we doing?
From a disciplinary knowledge and expert ‘user’ perspective,
we could consider that we do need plenty of application practice as students
must be shown how theory can be applied across a range of
markets/firms/countries etc. in order to be able to ultimately be able to
skilfully and appropriately apply this themselves in a new and unfamiliar
situations. If students have only experienced price elasticity of demand in
contexts where consumers need or are addicted to a good, how could they
understand application of the theory in contexts where consumers do not really
need a good at all, but yet their responsiveness to price changes is minimal as
the product represents a tiny percentage of their income.
The answer to this question really does therefore seem to
be: as much as possible. ‘More is more’ in terms of exposure to contexts but
teachers should consider prioritising breadth of contexts in order to
offer contrast at least when faced with time constraints. Encouraging students
to read widely outside the classroom is also important in enabling them to
increase their contextual awareness.
There is also a hierarchical element to this contextual
work, as students should initially be presented with simple examples where
basic theory appears to ‘just work’ and neatly explains the situation, before
moving up to messier situations where more specific or less obvious
applications are required, where standard theory doesn’t seem to fully
explain what is happening, or where different theoretical approaches could
explain the same reality.
The Repeating Quest
If there is one repeating narrative element within the
course, then it is the question of whether the government should intervene or
not. Time and again we introduce theoretical and often ‘free market’ systems
and models, demonstrate their abstract and theoretical operation, consider the
‘real life’ behaviour and performance of such systems, then explore government
interventions to affect behaviour and performance, before finishing on
exploration of why that can also fail.
My initial thinking around this seemed to relate the progression of the subject journey to something of a spiral model, where teaching returns time and again to the same concepts at increasing levels of difficulty. This didn’t quite seem to convey the full picture though, and therefore I have developed a ‘zigzag model’ of curriculum to reflect not only the repetitive nature of the subject (as we continually revisit the stops on the zigzag path) but also the back-and-forth veering between free market versus interventionist perspectives.
The sequencing of the zigzags over time is hierarchical in
nature as some zigzags are more conceptually straightforward than others, and
thus I would happily posit the rationale for some zigzags being taught before
others. The sequencing of zigzags is not, in my opinion, something that can be
cumulatively developed over time in any order.
The graphic below attempts to represents this repeating quest to some degree,
mapping each zigzag quest within the doll layers, although it fails to convey the actual
journey I will take through the domain landscape, and thus I shall describe the
key sequencing principles that should sequencing choices in words in my next post.
Practical Steps for
School Teachers
1.
Consider the different ‘Russian doll’ layers of the subject content. Arrange teaching into segments that relate to these
layers. Recognise and highlight to students where concepts transcend
different dolls.
2.
Take time to deliberately think about and make
choices around your use of contexts. Ponder the importance of topicality. Be careful to consider contextual work as
hierarchical and ensure you include sufficient practice to develop high levels
of disciplinary 'application' knowledge.
3.
Notice the repeating quest and highlight this to
students along the way so they can also see the repetitions and develop their schema
in such a way.
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