IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/9314.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Learning from physics education research: Lessons for economics education

Author

Listed:
  • Simkins, Scott P.
  • Maier, Mark H.

Abstract

We believe that economists have much to learn from educational research practices and related pedagogical innovations in other disciplines, in particular physics education. In this paper we identify three key features of physics education research that distinguish it from economics education research - (1) the intentional grounding of physics education research in learning science principles, (2) a shared conceptual research framework focused on how students learn physics concepts, and (3) a cumulative process of knowledge-building in the discipline - and describe their influence on new teaching pedagogies, instructional activities, and curricular design in physics education. In addition, we highlight four specific examples of successful pedagogical innovations drawn from physics education - context-rich problems, concept tests, just-in-time teaching, and interactive lecture demonstrations - and illustrate how these practices can be adapted for economic education.

Suggested Citation

  • Simkins, Scott P. & Maier, Mark H., 2008. "Learning from physics education research: Lessons for economics education," MPRA Paper 9314, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:9314
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/9314/2/MPRA_paper_9314.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Myra H. Strober & Allen Cook & Kasi Allen Fuller, 1997. "Making and Correcting Errors in Student Economic Analyses: An Examination of Videotapes," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 255-271, September.
    2. W. Lee Hansen & Michael K. Salemi & John J. Siegfried, 2002. "Use It or Lose It: Teaching Literacy in the Economics Principles Course," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 463-472, May.
    3. William E. Becker, 1997. "Teaching Economics to Undergraduates," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 1347-1373, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Scott Simkins, 2011. "Using Just-in-Time Teaching to Promote Student Learning in Economics," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark Maier & Scott Simkins, 2011. "Lessons from Physics Education Research: Lessons for Economics Education," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 36, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. William E. Becker, 2000. "Teaching Economics in the 21st Century," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 109-119, Winter.
    3. Swee Liang Tan & Roy Ng, 2007. "A Hybrid Approach to Case Teaching," Working Papers 23-2007, Singapore Management University, School of Economics.
    4. Woltjer, G.B., 2004. "Crude oil: using a large case to teach introductory economics," Research Memorandum 014, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    5. Michael K. Salemi, 2003. "A Model Teacher-Education Program for Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 455-459, May.
    6. Edward M. McNertney & Robert F. Garnett, Jr., 2006. "Using a Simple Simulation Model to Help Students 'Think Like Economists' in Intermediate Macroeconomics," Computers in Higher Education Economics Review, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 18(1), pages 34-39.
    7. van de Laar, M.M. & de Neubourg, C.R.J., 2004. "Emotions and foreign direct investment: a theoretical and emperical exploration," Research Memorandum 013, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    8. Geoffrey Schneider, 2011. "The Purpose, Structure and Content of the Principles of Economics Course," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 27, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Swee-Liang Tan & Roy Ng Jin Hou, 2007. "A Hybrid Approach to Case Teaching," Development Economics Working Papers 22479, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    10. Bret Sikkink, 2019. "Socratic Seminars in the Economics Classroom," Journal of Economics Teaching, Journal of Economics Teaching, vol. 4(2), pages 76-92, December.
    11. Andrew Worthington & Helen Higgs, 2003. "Factors explaining the choice of a finance major: the role of students' characteristics, personality and perceptions of the profession," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21.
    12. Gerald Eisenkopf & Pascal A. Sulser, 2016. "Randomized controlled trial of teaching methods: Do classroom experiments improve economic education in high schools?," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(3), pages 211-225, July.
    13. Phillip Saunders, 2011. "A history of economic education," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Linda Dynan & Tom Cate, 2009. "The Impact of Writing Assignments on Student Learning: Should Writing Assignments Be Structured or Unstructured?," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 8(1), pages 64-86.
    15. Brad R. Humphreys & Joshua C. Hall & Hyunwoong Pyun, 2015. "An Inventory of Sports Economics Courses in the US," Working Papers 15-49, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    16. Mark Maier & Joann Bangs & Niels-Hugo Blunch, 2010. "Context-rich Problems in Economics," Chapters, in: Michael K. Salemi & William B. Walstad (ed.), Teaching Innovations in Economics, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. David Zetland & Carlo Russo & Navin Yavapolkul, 2010. "Teaching Economic Principles: Algebra, Graph or Both?," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 55(1), pages 123-131, May.
    18. Hall, Joshua C. & Podemska-Mikluch, Marta, 2015. "Teaching the economic way of thinking through Op-eds," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 13-21.
    19. Ninos Malek & John Estill, 2024. "A Random Walk Down San Fernando Street," Journal of Economics Teaching, Journal of Economics Teaching, vol. 9(1), pages 17-30, February.
    20. Robert F. Garnett, Jr., 2009. "Rethinking The Pluralist Agenda In Economics Education," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 8(2), pages 58-71.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic education; physics education research (PER); research-based teaching; preconceptions; metacognition; transfer; context-rich problems; peer instruction; just-in-time teaching; interactive lecture demonstration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A2 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:9314. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.