Conference sessions in Classroom practice and student engagement
Sparking joy in economics teaching
Keynote at DEE 2023,Economics teaching in the post-COVID classroom
Presentation at DEE 2023,IREE best paper presentation: The economics instructor's toolbox
Presentation at DEE 2021,Exploring student study habits in a large, online, macroeconomics module in order to design effective interventions
Presentation at DEE 2021,The CORE pedagogy: is there a difference in student performance and engagement?
Presentation at DEE 2021,Student engagement with online learning
Presentation at DEE 2021,Which learning resources do students perceive as most valuable and does usage contribute to student module success
Presentation at DEE 2021,The effect of class attendance on student performance
Presentation at DEE 2019,Class attendance is regarded as important in higher education. In reality, however, absenteeism is reported rampant in undergraduate courses at universities (Romer, 1993). Romer (1993) found that, on average, one-third of students are absent from undergraduate Intermediate Macroeconomics courses at three major US universities. There has been considerable debate concerning the impact of class attendance on academic performance and mixed evidence is found. Using a sample of economics second-year undergraduate students in a UK university, my preliminary analysis suggests that class attendance has a significantly positive impact on academic performance and this finding is robust to different control variables. I also discuss possible approaches to foster higher class attendance rate. Moreover, I am now trying to get a larger dataset on Economics undergraduate students at UCL to investigate how lecturecast affects class attendance and whether the relationship between class attendance and academic performance depends on the availability of lecturecast.
An evaluation of the University of Greenwich Employability Passport (GEP): journeying into employability
Presentation at DEE 2019,The University of Greenwich has supported effective employability policy and practice and worked closely with practitioners, managers, senior staff and academics to develop strategies to embed effective employability practice within the curriculum. The Greenwich Employability Passport (GEP) is one of these initiatives. The GEP initiative started some years ago (2012) with the purpose of expressly recognising student’s extra-curricular activities and endorse them more effectively to enhance the student’s employability opportunities. The ultimate aim of the GEP was to encourage students’ awareness of employers’ needs, students’ confidence, proactivity and expansion of professional networks. The GEP initiative prompted the design of a research project to explore and evaluate possible relations across the degree of students’ engagement in the scheme, the academic performance of students and the likelihood to obtain a good graduate job on completion of the degree. A unique data set was built to match and triangulate the survey data on GEP with centrally held university administration data on graduate outcomes and with data collected by the Higher Education Statistic Agency (HESA) on Destination of Leaver in Higher Education (DLHE). This new rich data set has been used in this paper to investigate students’ engagement in the GEP at different levels of academic progression and students’ academic performance, as well as to explore the effects of the GEP intervention across different cohorts of graduates (i.e., the 2014 cohort of graduates before the GEP, and subsequent cohorts of graduates under the GEP scheme). The results of the study are presented in this paper.
Open versus structured research environment in undergraduate Economics: A case study from the University of Southampton
Presentation at DEE 2017,Undergraduate research provides opportunities to learn in depth about a particular topic. Nowadays, many undergraduate programmes in Economics make an extensive effort in offering the possibility to conduct research. In some programmes, the undergraduate dissertation is a core component, while in others it is an option chosen or offered to a selected group of students. Which kind of support is required to undertake an independent research project? In some cases, qualitative comments suggest that a dissertation may be a very demanding task to undertake at undergraduate level. In 2015/16, the Department of Economics at the University of Southampton introduced some important changes in the organization and assessment of the undergraduate dissertation. The changes have been implemented to facilitate an effective way to develop a research project in a short time frame. First, we introduced specific research topics and guidance on how to access the relevant data. Second, we anticipated the preparation of the research project by allowing an earlier on supervisee-supervisor allocation. Third, we changed and increased one of the summative components. All measures, aimed at improving the student experience, allowed for an increase in the structure of the undergraduate research project. In this paper, we investigate the impact of those changes on finalists’ performance. In particular, we compare an open topic versus a structured dissertation and we test the hypothesis that, at undergraduate level, a more structured approach to research improves students’ performance. Preliminary results confirm the hypothesis.
Enhancing students’ engagement through inclusive team work
Presentation at DEE 2017,The paper is reflecting on the potential to raise students' engagement through ongoing teamwork and class interaction of diverse study groups. We are building thereby on the feedback received from two student cohorts taking a module on the European economy before and after Brexit. The student teams or study groups have been encouraged to research the effects of economic integration or disintegration on individual countries, thus linking theoretical material to real economic developments. The country teams produce reports accessed by peers online, via the university portal, and in advance of related class discussions. Designated study groups facilitate seminar discussions based on their own country reports, with questions prepared by peers in advance of the class. To evaluate the impact of teamwork and peer learning, we survey all students involved in the module across two academic years. We monitor the novelty they perceive in terms of the task, and explore any peer learning along with the methods of communication used by smaller or larger teams. Social networking applications such as WhatsApp or Facebook are found to be by far the most conducive for collaboration towards the completion of these reports. New students’ interaction is cited as most valuable in diverse groups including international students. Finally, preparation of questions to peer reports in advance of class discussions has been highlighted as an asset towards communication skills and critical thinking.
Can multiple small feedback activities improve students’ performance and opinion of feedback? Evidence from compulsory final year module
Presentation at DEE 2017,This paper studies the performance of final year Economics students and their opinion on feedback after introducing three small activities (up-to 500 words) for which students can receive written feedback at different points of the semester. These activities involve writing up-to two current affairs essays using course materials, plus one essay answering the questions for one of the seminars. The availability of several feedback points allows to offer a system of feedback that resembles “continuous evaluation” available at lower levels of education. While the word limit of 500 words, and the deadline, at any point of the semester but never all at once, are designed to ensure a manageable work load for staff. After completing the activity, students receive a form designed according to the so-called “seven principles of good feedback” popularised in the educational literature by REF. Our findings show that our intervention increases students’ opinion of feedback markedly, according to the module evaluation survey students’ satisfaction doubles. Further, we also find that our intervention enhances students’ performance. The intervention takes place into a compulsory final year module, Advanced Macroeconomics, which makes our findings relevant for inference for the NSS.
Teaching Real Analysis to economics students
Presentation at DEE 2017,Teaching a proof based course such as Real Analysis to economics students can be achieved even in a short intensive course. I will discuss how I train students, aspiring to pursue postgraduate studies, to reflect on mathematical ideas, critically study proofs and eventually write short proofs themselves. Teaching and learning are based on the Round Table model. The teaching components of the course are delivered in a variety of ways such as lectures, and short pre-recorded videos. Concepts and results are presented in a rigorous yet intuitive way and learning is based on activities and peer-instruction. The model is implemented on a termly second year undergraduate course for dual mathematics and economics degree, as well as on short summer intensive course for economics students which is delivered partly online and partly in campus.
Know thyself - students as subjects in an ad-hoc research
Presentation at DEE 2017,In education, science curiosity should be an important motivating factor for gaining knowledge and self-development. However, this type of curiosity erodes with age and it is increasingly difficult to awake it among students. Microeconomics is a particular course, which when lectured traditionally with chalk and talk could completely discourage from further exploration of theoretical models. On the other hand, microeconomics has incredible potential to create science curiosity, as its models directly relate to the observed economic behaviour of people. We need, however, the stimulus that will trigger the curiosity. Such an incentive could a natural desire to know thyself. This paper shows the method of using the ad hock research to create the science curiosity on the basis of self-curiosity. In this method the students before classes participate in the on-line research, with the passive role of subjects. Before this survey/experiment they should not have any knowledge on the issue. Shortly after the survey they are informed that the results of the study will be used to provide microeconomic models, and they are encouraged to try to answer the questions whether their decisions or answers were consistent with economic theory, optimal or efficient, and how those decisions could affect the welfare of the others. In this way, the teacher creates an information gap among students, a sense of deprivation - unsatisfied need for knowledge on the decisions taken. There appears the science curiosity that can be addressed during the lectures and/or explored by students themselves.
Loss aversion as incentive to study
Presentation at DEE 2015,The One-Minute Paper: A Qualitative Analysis
Presentation at DEE 2015,Assessing the effectiveness of peer assisted study schemes
Presentation at DEE 2015,Teaching and Learning Economics Using Modern Art
Presentation at DEE 2015,See also
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