Discovering Economic Preconceptions using Clickers
and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.
In the typical principles of economics classroom, instructors generally present information without regard to their students' preconceptions of the material at hand. However, student preconceptions can influence their learning as these preconceptions may directly conflict with the lesson. For example, I have found that a significant number of student feel that the government controls a majority of prices they face, that real per capita has barely budged for the last half century, and that few know how federal spending and taxes are set. With a clicker, the instructor can quickly sample student preconceptions and adjust the lesson as appropriate. The challenge here is determining exactly what to ask.
Context for Use
Description and Teaching Materials
- the percent of prices the public faces that the government controls (before supply and demand and before a discussion of how prices allocate resources)
- the unemployment rate (will likely have to carefully define) (before unemployment)
- the percent of workers who earn the minimum wage (before a section on prices allocating resources)
- employment growth over the last half-century (before long-run growth)
- the largest components of the federal budget (before fiscal policy)
- is the federal income tax system progressive (before fiscal policy)
- is the U.S. dollar backed by gold (before the definition of money)
- inflation over the last year (before the CPI)
- the duration of unemployment (before unemployment)
- overall, does trade with other countries aid or harm the U.S. (before trade)