tailieunhanh - Teaching heterodox economics concepts

Although many families may struggle over the coming months, history demonstrates that the . economy is resilient and will recover from the current economic downturn. However, the growth path may not look the same as that envisioned before the recession. In the near term, various factors should help to stem the downturn and eventually increase overall production and lead to employment growth. Most obviously, the ARRA provides $787 billion of fiscal stimulus spread primarily over the next two years. This fiscal stimulus takes a number of forms: tax cuts for working. | The Handbook for Economics Lecturers X____________s Teaching heterodox economics concepts Dr. Andrew Mearman University of the West of England Published by The Economics Network June 2007. 1 Introduction 2 2 Enriching an orthodox programme 8 3 Teaching a heterodox module 13 4 The parallel perspectives approach 17 5 Assessment strategies 28 6 Cases 31 7 Top tips 35 8 Resources 35 The Handbook for Economics Lecturers 1 Introduction The remarkable uniformity across undergraduate economics programmes Reimann 2004 does not reflect the state of contemporary economics. Becker 2004 has bemoaned the way that the undergraduate curriculum has failed to keep pace with developments in economic theory. Authors who have been awarded Nobel prizes for their insights are being ignored. One possible explanation is pragmatic inertia. Undergraduate textbooks have fostered a false sense of an agreed body of knowledge Ormerod 2003 whilst lecturers sunk capital in teaching materials and the opportunity cost in terms of time for research of changing teaching generates a conservative attitude towards the curriculum. Students and the future health of the discipline are the losers from this unhappy conjunction. One outcome is a fall in the number of students wanting to study the subject Knoedler and Underwood 2003 . A survey of students conducted by the Economics Network of the Higher Education Academy in England gathered elicited responses from students examples are shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 Undergraduate students who want a more heterodox experience The basic problem is that the vast majority of economics in the course is orthodox mainstream. Students aren t offered alternative approaches developed by Post-Keynesians institutionalists and Marxists. But the problem seems to be the same elsewhere 95 per cent of the economics taught in higher education institutions is mainstream. More of historical account of the development ideas I believe would be beneficial to understanding why we believe