Pre-arrival Reading: engagement, identity, belonging

One of the most common questions that teaching teams receive from students prior to their arrival on campus is a ‘suggested’ reading list. Some students — in particular (but not only) those who have already studied A-level economics — ask about the key textbooks used in year 1. Most students are keen on learning more about the wider economics literature that can help them better understand what to expect from their higher education and also support them in their transition to university studies.

The students’ request for a reading list can be interpreted in various ways such as a sign of anxiety and, hence, a desire for clearer expectations or evidence of excitement and interest in fully engaging with their chosen discipline. The pedagogical research on the transition into higher education highlights suggested or recommended pre-arrival readings as a way to create connection and foster a sense of belonging and identity. Hence, it is important to support such students’ requests and, whenever possible, to engage actively with their interests.

When preparing a reading list, teaching teams should consider what they wish to achieve by sharing it with students. Is the reading list just meant to provide information? Or should it help to actively connect with the students and make them feel part of the institution? If the latter is the main objective, how can it be achieved? We can consider three ways in which pre-arrival readings can shared with students.

‘Passive’ Engagement

If information is the primary objective of the pre-arrival reading list, then a list of key/core/interesting readings can be shared with arriving students for them to explore; they can consult the various suggested readings in their own time. It is important to make sure that the reading list is annotated to clarify the importance or relevance of each reading while pointing to the skills and/or knowledge that students will learn. Once shared with students, it is then left to them to search for the readings and engage with them prior to arrival on campus.

‘Interactive’ Engagement

Pre-arrival readings can become an opportunity for a deeper and interactive engagement where students are asked to read some of the suggested resources and either summarise the content, or provide some reflections and critical analysis. In turn, the teaching team engages by providing feedback and actively involving all students in the discussion. The engagement can move from one reading/resource to another as the discussion of an old reading is exhausted. Multiple readings and discussions can be held at the same time.

By actively engaging with peers and academics, a feeling of community and belonging will quickly develop. At the same time the reading activities should be designed to help students develop critical skills, improve their communication, value and respect the views of other students. The interactive engagement can take place on the department’s VLE or on some other easy-access platform e.g. a dedicated Teams team. It is important that students’ contributions are regularly moderated and that their views are valued and appreciated even if they might not always be as clear and as relevant as they should. In the context of such an approach to reading lists, the concept of ‘reading’ becomes broader than just textbooks or books to include newspaper articles, blogs, reports etc.

Properly trained student ambassadors can support or take charge of the moderation activities, in particular if academic availability is limited during the summer. Ambassadors will also be able to provide very helpful insights about being a student at university.

While the pre-arrival reading interactive experience can conclude upon the students’ arrival on campus, teaching teams can consider extending it to the welcome week period and beyond.

• Welcome week could be designed to include activities such as debates, discussions, presentations of one or more of the pre-arrival readings;
• The students’ active engagement with some of the readings could count towards part of the learning and/or assessment of a first year skills or introductory economics module[1];
• Students can be asked to start writing blogs prior to arrival on campus: the blogs can help students develop their economics writing skills and their efforts can be acknowledged as part of the assessment of a first year skills or economics module;
• Students’ engagement with and enthusiasm for economics reading can be harnessed into a ‘book club’ or other extracurricular activity that students can participate in and manage themselves (with or without input from academics) during their stay at university.

Institutional Engagement

The ‘Big Read’ scheme is an example of how pre-arrival reading can be implemented at an institutional level with the aim of fostering enrolment, engagement and retention. The ‘Big Read’ is a ‘shared reading scheme’ where a free book is sent to every student about to start at the university with copies made available to staff in all roles and departments across the institution. The book gives everyone something in common before they arrive and means there is something to talk about before the first day. Usually, a programme of events around the themes of the book are organised and will help students to meet new people, get to know their teachers and peers beyond the classroom and make the most of their university experience.

A number of UK universities such as Kingston University, Sheffield Hallam and St. George’s University run the Big Read scheme at the start of each academic year. While the ‘Big Read’ scheme is usually implemented at an institutional level, individual departments or subject areas can still consider introducing it at a ‘local’ level and embed it within their welcome week activities. The reading can then feature in a number of events and/or also be embedded in the curriculum as part of one or more of the year 1 modules.

Suggested readings for your own pre-arrival reading list

The following is a suggested, yet not exhaustive, list of resources and readings that can be considered for inclusion in any reading list shared with incoming students. The suggestions have been divided into different ‘themes’ and media that cater for differences in preferences and provide flexibility in the organisation of engagement activities.

Books

‘Light Hearted Introduction’ to Economics

In recent years a number of books providing a light-hearted but yet insightful introduction to economics have been published. These books can be a great start for students who are new to economics while, at the same time, still provide interesting insights to students familiar with economics ideas.

• Rebecca Campbell, Anthony McGowan, (2023), How to Teach Economics to Your Dog: Oneworld Publications
• Ha-Joon Chang, (2023), Edible Economics: The World in 17 Dishes: Penguin
• Grady Klein, Yoram Bauman (2014) The Cartoon Introduction to Economics, New York: Hill & Wang
• Peter Antonioni, Sean Masaki Flynn (2010) Economics For Dummies, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons
• Henry Spearman Mystery series: in this series of three short books, economist Henry Spearman turns detective and uses economics ideas to solve mysterious murders.
  • Marshall Jevons, (1993), Murder at the Margin: Princeton University Press
  • Marshall Jevons, (2024), A Deadly Indifference: Princeton University Press
  • Marshall Jevons, (2024), The Mystery of the Invisible Hand: Princeton University Press

General Economics

A number of books reflecting on the role, purpose and challenges faced by economics in dealing with many topical current socio-economic issues have been published in recent years. These readings can be the springboard for some interesting discussions with students about the opportunities that economics provides to inform policy making.

• Kate Raworth (2017) Doughnut Economics, London: Cornerstone
• Dani Rodrik (2017), Economics Rules: When Economics Works, When it Fails, and How to Tell the Difference, Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Esther Duflo, Abhijit V. Banerjee (2019), Good Economics for Hard Times, London: Allen Lane
• Diane Coyle (2021), Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and what It Should Be: Princeton University Press
• Mariana Mazzuccato, (2022), Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism: Penguin
• The Freakonomics website and its accompanying books is a great source of interesting readings about applications of economics to current issues.

Behavioural Economics

The growth of and interest in behavioural economics research has led to the publication of a number of engaging books that have attracted the attention of a wider audience. These books provide a great opportunity for students to learn about theory, experiments and data in economic analysis. The books below are examples of some of the most popular books that you can consider sharing with students.

• Daniel Kahneman (2012), Thinking, Fast and Slow, London: Penguin
• Daniel Ariely (2009), Predictably Irrational, London: Harper Collins Publishers
• Daniel Kahneman, Oliver Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein, (2021), Noise. A Flow in Human Judgement: William Collins
• Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, (2022), Nudge. Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness: Penguin Books
• Daniel Ariely (2023), Misbelief: what makes rational people believe irrational things: Bonnier Books UK

Randomness

Often students leave high school with the perception that the theories and models they learned at school are the given answer to any economic issue. At university they start realising that things are not so clear and set in stone and that there is a lot of randomness in the behaviour of the economy and/or in the effectiveness of policies. The readings below provide some interesting introduction to the relevance of randomness and can help students understand that pervasive uncertainty is a feature of any modern economy:

• Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2007), Fooled by Randomness: the Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets: Penguin
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2009), The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: Penguin
• Nate Silver, (2013), The Signal and the Noise, London: Penguin – (check out Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight website!)
• Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, (2016), The Second Machine Age, London: W.W. Norton

Videos and Podcasts

Economics videos and podcasts are another great way to engage students with either the learning of economics or the discussion of current topical issues. Of greater interest for the transition into higher education are the websites of organisations that produce videos and podcasts focused on the economics of current events. Below you can find a list of some such sites.

• The Economist YouTube channel is a great source of videos on the economics of current issues.
• The Financial Times is not only about printed news but also topical and engaging videos.
• VoxEU Videos, Webcasts, Talks and Debates promote research-based policy analysis and commentary by leading economists.
• OECD Videos on wide-ranging topics and issues that affect lives worldwide.
• International Monetary Fund videos
• World Bank Videos on local and global development issues
• Vox Videos and Vox YouTube Channel offer a wide range of videos on current socio-economic issues.
• Watch videos from the Marginal Revolution University to learn how ‘big ideas’ from economics relate to everyday topics.
• History of Economic Thought in rap music in “Fear the Boom and Bust: Keynes vs Hayek”
• Current issues discussed in Economics Explained.

Economic Data

A-level economics introduces students to the use of data and statistics to evaluate economic performance. However, there is limited engagement with actual economic dataset and the manipulation of row data for the production of key economic statistics. Welcome week is a great starting point to help students understand the importance of data analysis and its close relationship with economic analysis. The following websites can be pointed out to students in the pre-arrival readings.

• The BBC More or Less programme is a good place where to start learning how to make a critical and insightful use of data for economic analysis.

The following organisations are both repository of socio-economic data and providers of examples of applications of economic data to the analysis of current economic issues.

• Federal Reserve Economic Data (Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis)
• Gapminder
• Our World Data
• Office for National Statistics
• The World Bank Open Data
• The IMF Database
• OECD Data Explorer

Internet Resources

Another good way to engage with economics is to keep up to date with articles on economic and financial issues published in the Economist and the Financial Times. Make sure you explore the websites of the Bank of England and HM Treasury, and research organisations such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies as well as similar websites in other countries, such as the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve, and for international organisations, such as the Bank for International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund.

Economics Blogs

Blogs are a great way to appreciate how economic ideas, concepts, principles, theories, models and data come together to provide a critical analysis of a current topical issue. Promoting blogs to students is an opportunity to highlight both the structure and style of economic writing and the distinction between description and critical evaluation and analysis. The following are just some of the most popular blogs that you could consider suggesting in your reading list.

• The Economic Observatory is a project that bridges the gap between academic research, government policy and the general public. The goal is to provide balanced and reliable answers to questions about the economy.
• Random Observations for Students of Economics by Gregory Mankiw
• Mainly Macro by Simon Wren-Lewis
• Macro Musings by David Beckworth
• Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok
• Econbrowser: Analysis of Current Economic Conditions and Policy by James Hamilton
• Thoughts on Economics by Robert Vienneau
• The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford
• Opinion by Paul Krugman
• Project Syndicate by Dani Rodrik

Notes

[1] Issues of equity and inclusiveness should be considered when implementing such an approach. For example, a student with work or family commitments might not be able to engage as much as other students.

[2] The Economics Department at UCL provides an example of how such a competition can be organised and run.

[3] Many of the interactive activities discussed in this section can be run throughout the first semester or academic year and can become part of a ‘relentless welcome week approach’. This is something discussed elsewhere in this handbook.