Sarah E. Jackson Assistant Professor of Economics The Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi

 Jot down 2-4 questions you might ask on a homework assignment or an exam ◦ What would an ideal answer look like? ◦ How likely is it your students will give you an ideal answer? ◦ Could a student get a good grade without really understanding the concept? ◦ Could a student arrive at a different answer but still be correct? If so, how would you grade it? ◦ Would you like to be able to expect more?

 What answers would you expect for: ◦ You were at the mall & saw a cool TV. You were willing to pay $650 but it was priced at $725 so you didn’t buy it. The next week you find out you won the TV! Your friend offers to buy it from you for $700. Should you sell it? Why or why not? ◦ Mary can paint 6 walls or tile around 2 sinks in one day. Marcus can paint 10 walls or tile around 5 sinks. Who should specialize in tiling? Why? ◦ Are poor people better off in a free market economy or a centrally planned economy? Why?

 How to Solve It, George Polya, 1945 ◦ Four steps to solve math problems  Understand the problem  Devise a plan  Carry out the plan  Review/extend

 Immediate benefits ◦ Helps student work through difficult problems ◦ Encourages students to provide well-reasoned answers ◦ Allows instructor to see where misunderstandings are occurring  Longer term benefits ◦ Develops critical thinking, logic, & writing skills ◦ Allows for deeper exploration of course material ◦ Helps student see the broader implications of economic concepts

 ABCD Method ◦ Developed after seeing Robert Beichner from NCSU share the method he uses for problem solving in physics (called GOAL) ◦ Four steps to solve econ problems  Analyze the problem  Background information  Combine to solve  Double-check & reflect

 A ◦ Box “Why” ◦ Underline “supply” ◦ Maybe underline “upward-sloping”  B ◦ Supply: the relationship between price and the quantity firms are willing to produce/sell; the minimum price the producers will accept for each additional unit ◦ Upward-sloping: P & Q s move in the same direction

 C  Box “The minimum price the producers will accept is based on the cost of production. We know that the cost of production rises as quantity increases, therefore, the firm will require a higher price as they produce more.”  D  I have to be careful to explain WHY, not just restate information the question has given. (or some other reasonable lesson)

 On the back of each ABCD handout is 1 of 5 examples; share them around so everyone gets to see a few  Try writing an ABCD answer & rubric for the questions you jotted down earlier ◦ Do you see any benefits to using the ABCD method? ◦ What problems do you foresee to using the ABCD method?

Please feel free to contact me with questions or to share your experiences if you try the ABCD method. Sarah E. Jackson