Mislearning Economics: Addressing Common Thinking Errors of Principles Students

Mariya Burdina, Ph.D. & Katherine M. Sauer, Ph.D.

mburdina@mscd.edu ksauer5@mscd.edu Metropolitan State College of Denver

April 12th , 2011

2011 Association of Private Enterprise Education Annual Conference, Nassau, Bahamas

Basic premise: People learn new material by putting it in the context of what they already know. In economics, prior experience and knowledge commonly interfere with the correct understanding of the new material.

Outline:

I. Thinking Errors II. Identification Strategies III. Field Experiment

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

Examples of student misthinking fall into three categories. 1. linguistic mindset: derives from the tendency to identify with the everyday language usage of a word - disciplines usage differs from everyday usage - precision of the term matters

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

2. physical mindset: derives from the students physical experiences that cause misconceptions with regard to the understanding of graphical representations

3. resistive mindset: derives from the natural resistance to acknowledge a reality that is different from what the student believes ought to be the case

Kourilsky, M. (1993) Economic Education and a Generative Model of Mislearning and Recovery The Journal of Economic Education 24(1): 23-33.

Examples:
Linguistic Mindset scarcity vs rarity quantity demanded vs demand quantity supplied vs supply inelastic elasticity public good vs public provision of a good zero economic profits vs not earning any money the cost in opportunity cost isnt just money y cost welfare economics vs welfare program y demand for labor vs wanting to have a job y y shift vs movement along unintended consequences vs negative y externalities above vs increasing (on average-marginal graphs)

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

y y y y y y y y y y y y

y y y

Physical Mindset spending money has a cost but spending time doesnt left shift in supply is a decrease binding price ceilings and floors

Resistive Mindset price controls are not always good for consumers (or producers) a monopoly isnt simply a bad thing trade can benefit both parties involved sales tax on consumers or producers yields same outcome ceteris paribus

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

According to the Generative Theory of Learning, people understand new concepts by idiosyncratically relating them to prior experiences and prior stored information. How can we tap in to the students schema and use it to our teaching advantage? Assessing the connections that the students have made can give insight to instructors.

Wittrock, M.C. (1974) Learning as a Generative Process Educational Psychologist. 11(2): 87-95. Republished in original form in 2010 Learning as a Generative Process Educational Psychologist. 45(1): 40-45.

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

Generative Learning Strategies can be broken down into 4 basic categories. Strategies that promote: recall, organization, integration or elaboration.

Sharp, D.C., DS. Knowlton, and R.E. Weiss (2005) Applications of Generative Learning for the Survey of International Economics Course The Journal of Economic Education 36(4): 345-357.

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

1. Organization strategies involve the student imposing an organization on the content. outline summary concept map

2. Integration strategies are those that assist students in making connections to their prior experience and knowledge. paraphrasing creating analogies or metaphors

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

3. Elaboration strategies require the student to connect the new content with additional or extended information. - identifying real-world examples - predicting implications of policies - connecting course content to content from other disciplines - hypothesizing causes for particular outcomes

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

Our Focus: Analogies and metaphors are useful for making abstract concepts more concrete. Analogy Glove is to hand as paint is to wall. Metaphor The lawyer grilled the witness.

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

People use analogies and metaphors so often in everyday communication that they may not even be aware they are doing so. It is common to begin a statement with Think of it as or It is similar to when explaining something that is unfamiliar to a friend.

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

When students construct an analogy or metaphor they are relating new information to information they already understand. Because the students own language is used to construct analogies or metaphors, students can not simply regurgitate definitions and examples from class. An instructor can gauge a classs understanding of a concept by looking at the analogies that students come up with. Analogies can help students overcome the linguistic and physical mindset.

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

III. Evolution of Our Field Experiment Pilot Version 1. After the instructor teaches a concept, students are asked to come up with an analogy for a that concept. - homework for the next class - 3 to 5 answers were volunteered from students to be discussed by class We learned: - some students dont understand analogies in general - by glancing through the submitted work, the instructor could gauge the classs understanding - it is better to have analogies handed in so instructor can process them before discussing as a class

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

Student Examples for quantity demanded vs demand paycheck to 52 paychecks a gallon of gasoline to a full tank Demand is like people in the market for car and quantity demanded is the people willing to pay a certain amount for a car. The need of shoes is big, so well get more shoes to sell. There are 80000 people in Colorado who want to buy an iPhone, but there is only 10,000 available .

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

Pilot Version 2. After the instructor teaches the concept, the instructor offers an analogy for the concept, then the students are assigned the task of coming up with an analogy. - tried in groups in class and as homework We learned: - student answers fall into 3 types: - clever/insightful analogy - analogy very similar to instructors - incorrect analogy

Example:

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

Instructors Price Ceiling Analogy Grocery stores often impose a limit on the number of sale items you may buy. y y Analogy Store policy is to let you buy only a maximum number of a particular item that is on sale. Some people would like to buy more than the limit, but are not allowed to. y y Price Ceiling Legally, a price ceiling is the maximum price that can be charged.

Some people would be willing to pay more in order to be able to purchase the item, but are not allowed to. y Some transactions are prevented from taking y Some transactions are prevented from taking place. place. Student-Generated Price Ceiling Analogies Correct Incorrect Many colleges have a maximum number of times you Some airlines allow you to check one 50 pound bag may attempt a course. Some students would like to free of charge. Some people want to bring more baggage but don't because they will have to pay for it. attempt the same course more times, but are not Some transactions are prevented from taking place. allowed to. Some transactions are prevented from taking place.

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

Pilot Version 3. The instructor teaches the concept, offers an analogy, then gives an assignment where students distinguish between correct and false analogies. - create worksheets - students work together and discuss the merits of each analogy for a particular economic concept

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

Evaluating the Impact on Student Learning: Where: (pending) Tier 1 research university with large-enrollment principles courses - 4 sections (800 to 1000 students) - multiple recitation sections How: The experiment will take place in the recitation sections. - each TA has control and experiment sections 3 to 5 topics will be chosen, TAs will be given instruction on the technique

experiment sections TAs will review the course material as they normally would but will also offer analogies. The students will receive a worksheet involving both traditional questions and analogy questions.

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

control sections TAs will review the material as they normally would but will not offer analogies. Students will receive a worksheet involving only traditional questions.

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

Variable of interest: student performance on exam questions relating to the experimental concepts

We hypothesize that students in the experiment group will score higher on those questions than students in the control group.

I. Thinking Errors II. Strategies III. Experiment

Control Variables: - course performance (homework, attendance, exam average, course grade) - student characteristics (GPA, credits, standardized tests, major, gender, age, previous econ course?) - Instructor and TA dummy variables

Comments? Questions?

To contact us: Katie Sauer ksauer5@mscd.edu 303-556-3037 Mariya Burdina mburdina@mscd.edu 303-556-3131

April 12th , 2011

2011 Association of Private Enterprise Education Annual Conference, Nassau, Bahamas