Teaching Economics Perspectives on Innovative Economics Education

This book looks at a number of topics in economic education, presenting multiple perspectives from those in the field to anyone interested in teaching economics. Using anecdotes, classroom experiments and surveys, the contributing authors show that, with some different or new techniques, teaching economics can be more engaging for students and help them better retain what they learned. Chapters cover a wide range of approaches to teaching economics, from interactive approaches such as utilizing video games and Econ Beats, to more rigorous examinations of government policies, market outcomes and exploring case studies from specific courses. Many of the chapters incorporate game theory and provide worked out examples of games designed to help students with intuitive retention of the material, and these games can be replicated in any economics classroom. While the exercises are geared towards college-level economics students, instructors can draw inspiration for course lectures from the various approaches taken here and utilize them at any level of teaching. This book will be very useful to instructors in economics interested in bringing innovative teaching methods into the classroom.

Chapter 1: The Development of Interactive Classroom Activities to Teach Economic Freedom to Students of Various Learning Styles.- Chapter 2: Video Games in Teaching Economics.- Chapter 3: One-Shot Game: A Free-Market Approach to the Principles of Microeconomics Class.- Chapter 4: A Highly-Simplified Pollution Abatement Game.- Chapter 5: Assignments to Engage Students in Economics Study Abroad Programs.- Chapter 6: The Economic Principles of my Cancer Treatment: How to Use Medical Experiences to Teach Economics.- Chapter 7: Textbook Confessions: Government Policies and Market Outcomes.- Chapter 8: University and High School Economics Educators Partnership: A Model from LaCrosse, Wisconsin.- Chapter 9: A Classroom Experiment: The Redistribution of Quiz Scores.- Chapter 10: Making Economics Stick with Econ Beats.- Chapter 11: Navigating the Economics Major: The Effect of Gender on Students' Degree Pathways.- Chapter 12: Taking a Path Less Traveled: Mastering Metrics Without a Textbook.- Chapter 13: Structured Writing Assignments in an American Economic History Course.- Chapter 14: Integrating the Economic Way of Thinking into US History Courses.

Joshua C. Hall is an professor of economics, department chair, and director of the Center for Free Enterprise in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University. He earned his bachelor and master degrees in economics from Ohio University and his Ph.D. from West Virginia University in 2007. Prior to returning to his alma mater, he was the Elbert H. Neese, Jr. Professor of Economics at Beloit College and an Economist with the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. Hall is a past President of the Association of Private Enterprise Education. In addition to being a co-author on the widely-cited Economic Freedom of the World annual report, he is author of over 100 academic journal articles, including over a dozen in economic education.