Paper(coming soon) with Erik Craft and Maia Linask:
This paper describes a new approach to increasing content relevance and student engagement in Principles of Microeconomics by organizing the class around a cohesive theme. While continuing to teach students standard introductory material, we use supplementary readings, assignments, and examples throughout the semester that are related to a specific topic. Themed sections for Principles of Microeconomics were piloted at University of Richmond in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 on the topics of crime, inequality, dating, and globalization. In this paper, we provide an overview of our approach, including the institutional environment in which it was implemented, examples of how we related the themes to economic principles, and instructor perceptions of the benefits and difficulties of themed classes. We also share results from a survey eliciting students’ perceptions of the themes.
CTREE 2023 Workshop: Adding a Theme to your Principles class
Theme examples:
Crime (taught by Melissa Spencer): Teaching Principles of Microeconomics with Crime Examples
Inequality and Economic Mobility (taught by Erik Craft): Inequality Econ 101 Syllabus
Dating, Marriage, and Sex (taught by Maia Linask)
Globalization (taught by Tom Zylkin)