Faculty often report limited student engagement in their economics courses. This deficiency makes it challenging for educators to excite students about our field, a situation that could have ripple effects in terms of the number of students who graduate as economics majors. For students, the lack of classroom engagement makes it unappealing to…

Used correctly, assessments play a vital role in the success of a course: they provide valuable feedback to students regarding their knowledge gaps, encourage deeper understanding of the material, help students to develop critical thinking, and guide students to accomplish a course's learning goals. They also provide a signal to future employers,…

Effective communication is at the heart of good teaching, and one of the central tenets of effective communication is to know your audience. What often gets less attention is the need for good teachers to know "themselves" and consider how they are the same, or different from, their students. To build supportive relationships with…

The authors of this article demonstrate best practices for creating belonging in economics, which allows diverse students to feel respected and accepted within the discipline. Opportunities to connect with economics allow students to understand and be empowered by the value they add to the classroom. The suggested practices thus include providing…

This article's authors use student transcript data to identify differences in the study of economics among Black students at HBCUs and PWIs. The data show that a higher fraction of Black students at HBCUs initially intend to study economics, relative to those at PWIs (4.0% vs. 1.3% of micro principles enrollees) and persist in the major (9.4% vs.…

The authors of this article introduce a database of scholarship among liberal arts college (LAC) economists. Capturing publications across the life cycle, the data speak to questions unexplored in existing work and point to answers often contrary to popular wisdom. First, limited evidence of a rising tenure bar is found. Moreover, while some claim…

New economics instructors face numerous challenges when selecting technology for their courses. Because economists teach at a variety of institutions with diverse student bodies and since technology continues to evolve, this article focuses on general principles that novice instructors should consider when selecting technology for their courses.…

Economics has a well-documented problem with diversity. Literacy-targeted (LT) courses designed for a broader spectrum of students have the potential to help address the underrepresentation of women and racial/ethnic minorities in the discipline. The authors of this article explore how, by using the LT approach, introductory economics instructors…

This article's authors describe both the advantages of a literacy-targeted introductory course and how it might be taught by employing evidence-based teaching practices developed by cognitive scientists to maximize learning. This pairing of literacy-focused content with evidence-based pedagogy is intended to enhance student learning while focusing…

The author of this article summarizes which, when, where, and how students take introductory economics. Among students who began college in 2012, 74 percent never took economics, up from 62 percent in 2004. Fifteen percent of beginning college students in 2012 took "some economics," and 12 percent were "one-and-done" students.…

The literacy-targeted (LT) introductory economics course seeks to reduce the quantity of economic concepts under study and increase students' ability to apply those concepts to improve their own decisions and to make sense of economic news. The assessment strategy of the course must target students' ability to transfer their conceptual knowledge…

Using the backward design model, the author of this article surveys and connects the economic competencies literature evolving from Hansen with the literature on literacy-targeted principles courses. He makes the case why departments should offer LT principles courses--which focus on higher-level mastery of a shorter list of concepts that students…

The authors of this article address the challenges faced in implementing a literacy-targeted (LT) approach in economic education. Despite research demonstrating the benefits of the LT approach, there is resistance to its adoption in classrooms and the publication of supporting textbooks and materials. They identify four key input areas that serve…

In this randomized controlled trial with controls for student characteristics, the authors used a loss-aversion strategy to test whether students achieve greater learning gains from combining research-based instructional strategies with loss aversion. Students in the control group began the class with no grades and built their course average by…

The authors of this study investigate the likely influence of required or voluntary financial education on the saving behaviors of U.S. adults. They compare the results for three groups defined by different life experiences with financial education (required, voluntary, and none). Probit models estimate the effects of financial education on four…