http://hdl.handle.net/2123/194 Search the Channel search http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/simple-search http://hdl.handle.net/2123/208 Title: Lessons to be learned from using Gertner’s game of Cournot oligopoly in the classroom<br/><br/>Authors: Voola, Jo; Giles, Margaret<br/><br/>Abstract: Since the early 1990s, economics departments at Australian universities have become increasingly concerned with falling undergraduate enrolments. This follows concerns by students regarding the relevance of economics courses both in content and delivery to their future occupations and incomes. It is also a result of competition from the more generic business and marketing courses that have been introduced in many commerce faculties. Together with the broader goal of universities to produce employable, well-rounded graduates, the attrition of economics undergraduates has steered attention within undergraduate economics classes to experimenting with a wide range of teaching tools. One such tool introduced by the authors in a second-year competition and business strategies unit in 2004 – a tutorial game on Cournot interdependence – is described in this paper http://hdl.handle.net/2123/207 Title: Economics students’ perceptions of their learning context<br/><br/>Authors: Tang, Tommy; Robinson, Tim<br/><br/>Abstract: Since the late 1960s, economics educators have carried out many research studies designed to explain variations in learning outcomes in economics. Most of these have utilised the input-output approach. Underpinning this approach is the assumption that there is a direct connection between learning inputs and learning output. However, the results obtained in these studies have mostly been found to be inconsistent. This paper argues for a re-focusing of research on the process of learning in economics. It reports on the development of an instrument to measure economics students’ perceptions of key elements of their learning context. Confirmatory factor analysis validates a four-factor model. Differences in students’ perceptions of three economics units in this study will also be discussed. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/206 Title: Teaching political economy: Curriculum and pedagogy<br/><br/>Authors: Stilwell, Frank<br/><br/>Abstract: The teaching of political economy offers an alternative, and a challenge, to conventional economics education. Its emphasis on the competing currents of economic thought, and their association with rival political philosophies, adds complexity to the subject. However, this engagement with controversial issues creates more intellectual excitement than a narrow, ‘technical’ treatment of orthodox economic analysis. There is also more scope for students to link their own personal experiences with the broader concerns of political economy. The competing ‘schools of thought’ approach in political economy provides opportunities for students to debate controversial issues. Significant challenges remain: whether to adopt a ‘problem-oriented’ or ‘system-oriented’ approach, a historical or contemporary perspective, a heterodox economics approach or a broader interdisciplinary approach, and how to avoid the need for ‘suspension of disbelief’ in studying competing economic theories. Careful consideration of the relationship between curriculum and pedagogy is needed. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/205 Title: Multimodal design for hybrid learning materials in a second-level economics course<br/><br/>Authors: Sankey, Michael; St Hill, Rod<br/><br/>Abstract: In 2003 the University of Southern Queensland announced that, owing to cost and demand pressures, student learning materials would be progressively migrated to a ‘hybrid’ model, the centrepiece of which was to be a resource-rich CD-ROM. This was to be supplemented, where appropriate, with print and online material. One of the first courses in the Faculty of Business to be converted was ECO2000 Macroeconomics for Business and Government. In this paper, the pedagogical underpinnings of the hybrid model are outlined, and its application to ECO2000 is discussed. Results of surveys of students and assessment outcomes are also discussed.