David L. Prychitko
Shortly after I began teaching in the 1980s I lost interest in what my students thought. To this day I really don't care to know what they think.
Outrageous? No. But where does my interest lie? As I now prepare for the upcoming semester, it hit me in a way that I've never been able to clearly articulate for over a quarter of a century of teaching. And it's so simple.
I don't want to know what my students believe or think. I have neither the time nor the interest. Instead, I want to know how they think. Are they using the economic way of thinking? And, if so, are they merely using the same words and terms that I use in the classroom, or are they absorbing and understanding economic analysis? I feel that my goal as an educator is to offer them a way of learning how to think about complex social phenomena. "What do you think about minimum wages?" -- forget it. "How do you think about minimum wages?" Now we have something to discuss.
Job market applicants are often asked to write up something about their teaching philosophy. If I were to ever do so, I'd sum up mine in one sentence: I have no teaching philosophy, or at least none that I'm aware of. (I also have no clear method, no bag of tricks, nothing special to offer.) I do, however, have a single purpose -- to encourage my students to think like an economist.
But don't you -- given that they are "thinking like an economist" -- want to know WHAT they are thinking too?
In other words, can't you still learn from them?
Posted by: liberty | August 18, 2009 at 09:59 PM
My focus is to both to teach them a way of reasoning and to learn how they reason. I also learn from them when they provide an argument that challenges my own, as that might sharpen my skills but more importantly I learn by recognizing my own failures (and successes) in teaching them the material.
Posted by: Dave Prychitko | August 19, 2009 at 09:48 AM
Right, and when they " provide an argument that challenges [your] own" then you learn WHAT they think! :)
So, it isn't right to say that you lost interest and don't care what they think - though it may be enjoyable to shock people by saying that.
Posted by: liberty | August 19, 2009 at 02:01 PM
To think like an economist is something that many economists with PHD's here in my university don't do. Only about 30% of the faculty is composed by real economists, the ones that understand price theory.
Posted by: Rafael Guthmann | August 19, 2009 at 09:21 PM
Are there books that elucidate the "economic way of thinking" that you'd recommend to the general reader?
Posted by: Uncensored Rev | August 27, 2009 at 05:13 PM