Sunday, 4 September 2005

Economists lead the way in showing what’s wrong with college teaching.

by Lanny Arvan via XplanaZine

The idea that trained professionals in the field don’t know the fundamentals of the principles course is scary, but I’m guessing it is not that uncommon and I’m guessing it happens in disciplines other than economics. Look at me. I never took that principles course where opportunity cost is taught and I never took the intermediate course where presumably the opportunity cost idea is amplified and used extensively. And while I think my graduate education was excellent, it really helped me to think seriously about economic models, the language and technique that were used from the get go was meant for insiders in the field.


Lanny has articulated a typical problem about the industrial model of education when everything was designed in locked step. At certain time of the day, at certain year level, you are taught a particular principle. If, for whatever reason, you missed this lesson, that will be missed forever.

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