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Teaching Tips
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by Jim Spellicy
Teacher
AP Economics
Lowell High School
San Francisco, California
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Your administrator has just assigned you to teach AP Economics. Whether you have taught "regular" economics for years or you are just beginning in the profession, the assignment sends waves of apprehension throughout your body. You scramble to find out what your colleagues do, you read countless textbooks, and you beg for ancillary materials from publishers. But in the end, your success will come down to you and how you present the material.
For the last 12 years, I have taught AP Economics, and I have been relatively successful in challenging students to approach the subject with an open mind. A number of my students have gone on to major in economics in college, and I take pride in having offered them a frame of reference on which to build. I am particularly proud because economics was not my major, either at the undergraduate or graduate level. In all honesty, I didn't care for the subject when I first opened up Samuelson's textbook in the 1970s. When I was offered my first job as a teacher, however, the principal said I would be teaching economics. Eager for any job, I accepted the position and began what has become a wonderful journey into a subject I had never appreciated. It hasn't been easy, but today I can honestly say I enjoy teaching economics. I would like to offer a few "tips" to new (or even seasoned) AP Economics teachers. In no way do I claim that these suggestions guarantee success, but I hope they assist you as you strive for success in your classroom.
Tip 1: Learn the material. I do not care how many PowerPoint presentations you have been given, how many overheads you have acquired, or how many fun games you have; you cannot teach AP Economics well without knowing and understanding the material. Yes, this means that you have to study and study a lot.
In my first five years of teaching, I read five to seven different textbooks each time I was teaching a particular concept. I would pour over the texts -- from Baumol and Blinder to Case and Fair to McConnell and Brue -- looking for clear explanations and useful examples. I was looking for someone to explain the concept to me so that I could explain it to my students. I made copious notes and drew countless graphs. I struggled with the material until I understood each and every word I was reading. I pulled my hair out at times in frustration when "dead-weight" loss or "marginal revenue product of labor" evaded my comprehension. But I didn't give up. I pulled another book from the shelf and tried again. I even wrote out information in notebooks from which the pages could not be torn out so as to make my comprehension more permanent. And it worked.
I am a trained historian, so in learning economics I was challenging myself with a new subject. Learning a new subject -- especially economics -- is not easy. However, once you have mastered the new material, it becomes your own. This is truly significant, for when you talk in class, you are not just spouting words but sharing your insights into the subject gained from hard work and determination.
Tip 2: Teach with passion. There is absolutely nothing more dreadful than to have teachers who do not care about what they are teaching. Remember when you were in school, either high school or college, and a teacher came in and just read from prepared notes? You would either nod off or daydream. Many of those classes were so unbearable that you promised yourself that if you became a teacher, you would never bore your students.
I teach the same course four times a day, and by my last class, I am tired and the material no longer feels fresh to me. For the students sitting in front of me, however, this is the first time they have heard or seen the material. I need to share with them the wonder and beauty of what I am teaching. So I try with all my might to always show interest in my subject, and I talk about my subject with passion. I have discovered that when I demonstrate love for my material, the students also develop an appreciation for it. Not everyone is going to love economics; some students are going to be bored. But if you exude a love for the material, many students will begin to appreciate it as well.
Tip 3: Do what you do best. I have been teaching for 19 years. Very recently, a vice-principal observed me in my classroom. In our postobservation conference, she said I needed to vary my teaching style. She felt that my preferred method of instruction -- a lecture -- was limiting the number of students I could reach. At first I was offended; upon reflection, I knew she was wrong.
Teachers need to use the method of teaching that they are most comfortable with in order to be effective. I am an effective lecturer. I use a Socratic method in my approach and have wonderful discussions in my classes. I have tried other ways of teaching, but they didn't work for me. Did they work for the students? Well, I believe if teachers are unhappy with how they are presenting the material, then the students are not benefiting as they could. I have learned that I am adaptable enough to change my approach based on needs of my students. To suggest that we must use a variety of methods in each class pays lip service to what we were taught in our education classes. Students gain the most when teachers are able to teach in a way they are most comfortable with. (In my discussions with the vice-principal, I defended my teaching style by noting that my students have a 98 percent pass rate on the AP Economics Exams. I told her that if changing my teaching style would raise my scores even a half percentage point, then I would make the necessary changes. I remain a lecturer.)
Tip 4: Technology is a tool, not a panacea. Until last year, I used chalk on a blackboard. I would bring in colored chalk to better show shifts of curves. Now I have moved on to whiteboards and dry markers. I don't use overheads much because I think students tune out when the lights go down. I don't use PowerPoint presentations because I fear my students will not pay attention or be actively engaged. I try to actively engage my students during each moment of class time. I talk as I shift a demand or supply curve. I talk as I shift marginal cost, AVC, and ATC curves. Technology is useful when it is used to reinforce ideas, but I do not think it can replace human interaction. My experience suggests that students learn best when they see the teacher looking at them and when they are forced to be active listeners. The most important thing in running a successful class is for teachers to be comfortable with the material, for this allows them to communicate ideas and concepts effectively. An artificial medium can't teach ideas.
Tip 5: Practice graphing. Many social studies teachers cringe at the thought of teaching economics because of our use of graphs. Well, I tell them, graphs are merely shorthand for the many words seen on a page. A picture can indeed be worth a thousand words, if used correctly. And that is my point. Teachers do a real disservice to students if they do not teach them how to graph and graph well. AP Economics students need to know how to draw market structures, AD/AS models, money markets, loanable funds markets, and currency exchanges. Students need to practice these graphs -- and their explanations of the material contained in the graphs -- over and over again.
Tip 6: Our models are not cast in stone. Alan Krueger from Princeton wrote, "An important lesson that students should learn from introductory economics is that economics is a growing body of knowledge that changes and adapts when new information becomes available and is analyzed." Economics is not a fixed set of ideas. What we as teachers are doing is offering models from which our students can form new hypotheses. We may be teaching students to think like economists, but we should also be teaching them "to design credible empirical tests of economic hypotheses -- or at least to assess others' empirical tests." Our subject is not set in stone. It is always changing, which makes it exciting and useful.
Tip 7: Closely follow the AP Course Description. I spent six years on the AP Economics Development Committee. During those years, I wrote many multiple-choice questions and even more Part II constructed-response questions. A teacher needs to be sure that the material covered in class includes the topics covered in the course outline found in the Course Description. Not covering all the topics leaves the students unprepared to respond to questions on the AP Exams.
Tip 8: Challenge yourself. After you have begun to master the basic concepts of AP Economics, challenge yourself. Take an econ course at a community college, a university, or online. Read journals on economics education. Attend a seminar or a colloquium on economics. Be an active learner.
Jim Spellicy teaches AP Economics at Lowell High School in San Francisco, California, and serves as an AP Reader and Table Leader. He was a member of the AP Economics Development Committee for six years and is currently working as a consultant on a high school economics textbook.
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