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Diversifying Our Portfolio: A Wiki of Best Teaching Practices for Economists

Purpose

The purpose of this wiki is to promote best teaching practices in economics. We wish to provide a place for economics departments and faculty to disseminate and to discover data, analyses, and prescriptions for improving the inclusiveness of the discipline. We also wish to encourage thoughtful reflection on why inclusion and diversity are important to the future of economic theory and policymaking and on how the choices of instructors and gatekeepers affect student participation and achievement.

How You Can Help

  • Read these pages.
  • Share your research.
  • Post information and statistics to new or existing pages of the wiki.
  • Contribute questions and comments to the discussion of pages.
  • Provide general feedback.


Content Areas

Top strategies for the classroom

1. Use inquiry-based learning.

2. Avoid stereotype threat.

3. Consider the impact of wait time during classroom activities.

4. Promote inclusive communication.

5. Use cooperative learning.

6. Employ the use of technology wisely.

7. Incorporate service learning.

Top policies for departments

1. Offer a course on Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Economics or on heterodox theories of economics.

2. Encourage older students to become peer mentors for younger classmates.

3. Utilize summer bridge programs to ease transition into introductory courses.

4. Alter the introductory textbooks to better portray the diversity of the population.

5. Recruit and retain a diverse faculty that will have an impact students on a more diverse level.

6. Actively recruit students who were may have been underprepared or unsure about the academic subject from high school.

Top practices for instructors

1. Provide opportunities for involvement with research early on.

2. Reflect on and learn more about personal prejudices and values.

3. Emphasize that biology is not destiny.

4. Incorporate heterodox theories of economics into curricula.

5. Provide opportunities to get to know students personally.

6. Share these study tips.

7. Be aware of a third theory of discrimination.

8. Realize that our concept of efficiency, Pareto efficiency, reinforces the status quo.