Educating Economists - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 047206486X ISBN 13: 9780472064861

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 1992

Synopsis

What should economists learn in undergraduate and graduate programs? And how does this differ from what students are being taught? In a series of provocative essays, the contributors to Educating Economists cast a critical eye upon the profession and offer solutions to the serious problems they identify in contemporary economics education. The failure of economics teaching is the theme that connects all of the papers in this volume: the failure to develop the skills needed by undergraduate teachers of economics and the failure to prepare students to do work in government and business. The authors point out that professors have lost sight of the skills needed to deal with real-world data, to gain access to existing knowledge, and to critically examine issues, models, and data. Instead, they argue, tenure-minded graduate professors, focused on the use of high-powered mathematical techniques to write formal, technical articles, prepare students only to do abstract research within a framework that just a few other fellow graduates can understand. This situation results in the systematic degradation of the quality of undergraduate economics education and of the institutional usefulness of economics. The contributors conclude that a substantial restructuring of economics education and of the economics profession, including its tenure requirements, is needed and would allow the discipline—and its practitioners—to make a much stronger and more relevant contribution to the people and institutions whose behavior it attempts to explain.

About this title

Review

'This volume is an excellent outcome of an American Economic Association Committee for Economic Education project aimed at advancing the teaching of economics within a liberal arts context. Dave Colander and KimMarie McGoldrick assembled a most able panel of contributors for this effort that includes dialogue on what should be taught, how it should be taught, and how that teaching and learning should be assessed and rewarded. To the editors' credit, they have not attempted to dictate policy but to stimulate debate on the topics. This volume is a must read for anyone seriously interested in the teaching of economics at the tertiary level.' --William E. Becker, Indiana University, US

About the Author

Edited by David Colander, Christian A. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Economics, Middlebury College, US and KimMarie McGoldrick, Joseph A. Jennings Chair in Business, Professor of Economics, University of Richmond, US

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 047206486X
• ISBN 13: 9780472064861
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: Colander David, Brenner Reuven