| Simon W Bowmaker, Edward Elgar, 2010, 432 pages, £95 |
| Economics is often perceived as a dry, uninspiring,
abstract subject. Scottish writer, essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle
once described the discipline of economics as the “Dismal Science”. This
pejorative term reflects the widely held view that this science is
boring, inaccurate and gloomy. As a discipline, economics has been slow
to adopt innovative approaches to teaching. Ben Steiner’s character from
the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a popular caricature of this
‘dismal science’ in the classroom: highly abstract concepts delivered in
a monotone voice, which ultimately send the students to sleep. Simon
Bowmaker’s collection of interviews with twenty-one leading economists
at universities in the United States is a welcome and timely rebuttal of
this misguided – though prevalent – depiction of how economics is taught
in the classroom. |
| The book is divided into three parts: fundamentals,
tools and applications. Each part contains several teaching areas within
economics, ranging from the traditional ‘bread and butter’
economic-principle subjects (Microeconomics/Macroeconomics) to
contemporary, cutting- edge areas which are pushing the boundaries of
economics, like race and gender and behavioural economics. |
| The most important theme in this book, indeed any
book which deals with teaching . irrespective of discipline . is: what
actually makes a great teacher? The question is posed in the foreword by
Robert M Solow in the form of a question to be tested. Do “people who
like teaching turn out to be good teachers” or “do naturally good
teachers end up enjoying teaching?” (p vii). The simple answer is: there
is no simple answer. |
| One of the great strengths of this book is the
myriad of complementary and conflicting factors which come to define a
great teacher. Most people would agree that preparation, hard work and
subject knowledge is important, especially for inexperienced teachers,
but these interviews seems to suggest that passion, energy and
enthusiasm for teaching separate the gifted from the vast majority, and
that this medium is an essential part of effective teaching. When
recalling his time at Harvard, Benjamin Polak speaks of this “infectious
enthusiasm”, which his best teachers had. “The one thing I learned from
them, beyond just the clarity and the method, was the excitement of the
subject.” (p 81). |
| While the techniques range from chalk and talk (Polak
and Medema) to storytelling (Frank); showmanship and performance
(Taylor) to experimental (Laibson); empirical testing (Greene) to
observation and hands-on experience (Eichengreen), an overriding theme
of these interviewees is a genuine and sincere love of teaching. The
ultimate reward, so memorably expressed by William Greene, is “when a
student says, ‘Now I get it, now I understand’, there is no feeling that
beats that. That’s opium, it really is.” (p 103). |
| This book offers a fascinating insight into how
economics is taught at elite Ivy League and other private universities
in the United States, which have huge financial endowments and attract
intellectually curious and highly-motivated students drawn from the
upper-percentile ranks of society. One wonders whether the chalk and
talk approach adopted by the likes of Polak and Medema offers any valid
lessons for an average lecturer at a typical university with a wide
distribution of student interests and motivations? |
| That criticism aside, The Heart of Teaching
Economics is a marvellously entertaining and lively book. All who read
it cannot help but come away from the experience with a richly enhanced
understanding of the power, virtue and importance of teaching. One can
only hope that this book will help change the attitudes towards teaching
from within academia, so that Frederic Mishkin’s experience is a thing
of the past: “Where if you’re a good teacher you’re not only not
rewarded for it, you’re punished for it.” (p 380). |
Wayne Geerling
La Trobe University |
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