McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Teaching Excellence Project funded by CELT

Teaching Economics through Innovative Content

and Effective Teaching Methods

Necati Aydin, Ph.D.King Saud University

College of Business AdministrationEconomics Department

The Problem Statement

Even though economics is one of the most respected fields among social science scholars, it is one of the least popular among students.

Students perceive economics as boring, difficult, dry, irrelevant, and abstract.

Such perceptions significantly undermine student motivation and learning and set obstacles for them to engage in the subjects presented in the course.

The funded project was an attempt to come up with innovative content development and alternative teaching methods for economics.

Positive Contribution

When I moved Saudi Arabia two years ago, I have noticed major problems in teaching and learning.

Rather than complaining, I decided to make positive contribution by changing the established culture of teaching and learning.

The proposed project was part of my ongoing efforts of responding the problem above.

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Project Objectives

Developing and compiling innovative teaching materials

Implementing innovative teaching materials

Implementing innovative and integrative teaching methods

Developing and implementing assessment tool measuring both learning output and outcome

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HHH Model for Effective Teaching

The proposed project is based on my HHH (heart, head, and hand) teaching model which argues that effective teaching has to involve both heart, head, and hand.

The heart component is about caring and loving; the head is about knowing how student learn and how we can help me to understand better; and the hand part is how to help students to apply what they learn.

As seen in the chart in the next slide, in the HHH model, effective teaching is defined as the overlap of heart, head, and hand.

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Alternative Education Paradigm

The HHH model is based on a new paradigm which requires teaching faculty to address WHY, WHAT, and HOW questions in their delivery of content in a way to assure learning. In other words, they should make a strong case to let students

know WHY the topics or courses are important to them. They should present topics (WHAT to learn) using diverse

teaching methods and tools to assure long-term retention of knowledge.

They should also help students to understand HOW they would apply the covered topics to their personal and professional life.

The deep learning will occur if learning takes place in heart (WHY question, affective domain), head (WHAT question, cognitive domain), and hands (HOW question, psychomotor domain).

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Project Implementation

The project was implemented within two semesters. During the implementation phase, the following tasks were completed successfully:

1Developed Innovative Teaching Materials2Developed Innovative and Integrative Teaching Methods3Implemented Innovative and Integrative Teaching Methods4Conducted Pre- and Post-semester survey of student perception of economics and teaching methods5Report project outcome and evaluation6Shared the developed resources and findings with faculty members

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Project Result 1: Development of innovative teaching materials

I developed several teaching materials to be used throughout the semester in course PowerPoint presentation and Blackboard webpage.

They were based on my teaching paradigm which involves heart, head, and hand.

I also compiled relevant teaching materials during the academic year.

The materials included motivational articles and videos, articles for Socratic debate, and inspirational quote.

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Project Result 2: Implementing innovative teaching materials

I utilized the developed teaching materials in my class throughout the year.

I related them to my HHH model to help students accomplish deep learning.

The course learning outcome assessment clearly reveals that the materials were very helpful for students.

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Project Result 3: Implementing innovative and integrative teaching methods

I have implemented several teaching strategies to assure student motivation and participation.

That includes in class debate, brain exercise at the beginning of each class, use of graphs, animation, and video clips, weekly reading reflections, and online Socratic debate forum.

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Project Result 4: Developing and implementing effective assessment tool

I developed an online anonymous survey which consists of two parts.

The part 1 asks students to assess teaching materials, strategies, instructor, and course assessment.

The part 2 asks students to assess the learning outcome of the course.

The survey played a crucial role in helping me to understand the strengths and weaknesses of my teaching materials and methods.

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Effectiveness of the Project - I

I did assess the impact of the project through anonymous survey conducted through Google survey instrument. The survey results clearly indicate that students like

discussion of motivational quote at the beginning of each class.

They enjoy active participation. They like Socratic debate forum.

Surprisingly, they also like and benefit from the applied paper. However, majority of them complaint about the textbook which I already decided to change for the next semester. Some also complaint about time management of each class particularly with long lasting sessions.

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Effectiveness of the Project - II

The second part of survey provides even more interesting evidence for the success of project. It clearly indicates that the implemented teaching

materials and methods were able to change student perception toward economics. For instance, while majority of students used to dislike economics because they thought that it is boring, irrelevant and difficult.

At the end of semester, after taking my class, majority of those students reported positive change in their perception. To me, this was a great success in terms of the ultimate outcome of the course.

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Recommendation

I suggest that CELT (The Center of Excellence in Learning and Teaching) organizes two or three meetings throughout the year to bring awardees together for sharing and helping each other during the project implementation stage.

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Thanks!!!

Many thanks to CELT (The Center of Excellence in Learning and Teaching) for its financial and

academic support in designing and successfully implementing this

project.

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