Some considerations about teaching in Higher Education Carlos Cortinhas and Juliette Stephenson

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” Socrates “Numerous are the academic chairs, but rare are wise and noble teachers.” Einstein

Why talk about Teaching (Quality)? Student satisfaction is becoming increasingly important N.S.S., M.A.C.E., League Tables, … £9,000 fees: students as customers Increasingly important for career progression Rewarding

Challenges about Teaching (Quality) Economics Departments/Business School tend to be larger recruiters so classes tend to be larger than average Larger number of EU/International Students than other degrees Variable attendance/effort Heterogeneous background of students Time pressures (Research)

Teaching Teaching is not the same as presenting Presenting: Informed (and homogenous) audience Aim is to relay information Naturally interested and attentive Teaching: Uninformed (and heterogeneous) audience Aim is to develop understanding

Teaching Lecturing Vs Small Group Teaching Lecturing: Mostly one-way communication Interaction possible but not always easy Tutorial/Seminars: Two way communication is desired and expected Often based on small group activity

Teaching: “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” Einstein Avoid “death by PowerPoint” Do not make strong assumptions about student’s past knowledge of the topic – Investigate the background/knowledge of your students Understand that different students have different styles of learning (E.g., Visual – Auditory – Kinaesthetic ); Bloom’s Taxonomy ‘Real world’ applications

Engaging and Motivating students: Using technology-enhanced learning experiences Audience Response Systems

Audience Response Systems (also known as “clickers”): Audience Response Systems Audience response systems are devices that allow interaction between a presenter and his/her audience. TurningPoint is a free software that is built inside Microsoft PowerPoint and allows you to create multiple-choice, multiple- response questions with minimum effort. University of Exeter Business School

Main technology-based tools already implemented at the Business School: Particularly useful for: Increasing participation and motivation in (large) classes Getting immediate feedback on whether students are learning Getting immediate feedback on students preferences on specific topics Stimulating discussion in large group teaching Conduct Classroom Experiments University of Exeter Business School

If elections were held today, who would you vote for? 1.Conservatives 2.Labour 3.Liberal Democrats 4.Others 5.Do not know/would not vote

Turningpoint Reports: TurningPoint generates a large number of different user reports through Microsoft Excel and Word. University of Exeter Business School

Engaging and Motivating students: Using technology-enhanced learning experiences Using Smartphones in the classroom (ResponseWare)

ResponseWare Login ResponseWare Web Address: Session ID: STATS

In which area would you say your research falls into? 1.Microeconomics 2.Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics 3.International Economics 4.Financial Economics 5.Public Economics 6.Labour Economics 7.Others

Numerical: What is the current Bank of England Official Bank Rate ? RankResponses Other Values: 0.5, {0.5, 0} Value Matches: 10

Essay: What is Trefler (1995)’s “Missing Trade” Puzzle ??

Recommendations: Attend a (free) Residential Workshop for new Economic Lecturers (Economics Network) Next will take place on April, 16 and 17 at Bristol University Consult the Handbook for Economic Lecturers ( Become a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

THANK YOU Any questions?

ResponseWare: Examples The lecturer posts a PowerPoint slide with a question After the vote the results appear both on the lecturer’s presentation and on the smartphone/tablet/laptop... And it appears on the mobile device’s screen...

ResponseWare: Examples Unlike clickers, you can also have numerical responses slides....

ResponseWare: Examples And essay slides....