Economic Instruction
In this section, the Journal of Economic Education publishes articles, notes, and communications describing innovations in pedagogy, hardware, materials, and methods for treating traditional subject matter. Issues involving the way economics is taught are emphasized. M I C H A E L WAT T S, Section Editor
Role Playing in the History of Economic Thought
Tom Oberhofer
Active learning has been widely recognized as central in a student’s mastery of a subject (Angelo and Cross 1993; Pascarella and Terenzini 1991). One type of active learning is role playing, which has been used effectively in a variety of fields. For example, Bhawuk (1990) discusses it as a technique to foster cross-cultural awareness; Smokowski (1992) describes its use in psychodrama; and McCaughey (1991) describes its role in exploring acute psychological distress. Role playing is also widely used in studying economics and evaluating social policy options (Williams 1992; Hester 1991; and King and LaRoe 1991). It has also been part of a number of experiments reported in this journal (Leuthold 1993; DeYoung 1993; Bell 1993; Fels 1993). Most closely related to the topic of this article is the example used by Brooks (1985) in a history of psychology course. In each case, role playing is a part of the course experience for students, usually intertwined with other, more traditional academic experiences. In no case was it the exclusive technique used in the delivery of course material. In this article, I describe a history of economic thought (HET) course built entirely on a role-playing model. This course places unusual demands on students and faculty but has led to a remarkable student engagement with the subject matter. ROLE PLAYING For the past eight years, the HET course at Eckerd College, offered to junior and senior students in economics, has been structured entirely in a role-playing mode. Although the course includes a variety of traditional writing assignments
Tom Oberhofer is a professor of economics at Eckerd College (e-mail: oberhot@eckerd.edu). The author thanks the anonymous referees for their comments.
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and testing experiences, it is lecture free. The instructor assumes the role of facilitator, increasingly playing a smaller and smaller part as students assume the responsibility for the course. Each student assumes the role of a major figure in the history of economic thought for the entire semester. Traditionally, with enrollments between 8–15 students, this allows coverage of each of the major schools of thought, from the mercantilists (17th century) through the neoclassical (early 20th century) and institutionalist (early 20th century) schools of thought.1 The course does not push further into the 20th century because these figures tend to show up in other economics classes, including the two intermediate courses. The reader might recognize this as an economic version of Steve Allen’s television series Meeting of the Minds. A number of important prerequisites must exist before undertaking such a course. This is not a risk-free strategy. If the role-playing experience fails, causing the course to revert part way through to a more traditional format, student engagement is likely to suffer. The foremost requirement is an instructor’s confidence with the skill level of the potential students. The instructor, either by his or her own experience or that of colleagues, has to believe that the potential course members have the ability and willingness to assume the major responsibility for the delivery of the course. Second, the students should have developed a sense of mutual trust during their courses together. They must be willing to talk openly with each other, listen to each other, and work together on a variety of assignments. Third, students should know before the course starts what they are getting into, see the challenge of the format, accept the responsibility they have to each other, and express a willingness to engage in the enterprise. Faculty Role The faculty role is very different from that of more traditional teaching. This is a lecture-free format. In fact, the instructor’s goal is to withdraw gradually from the class activities, yet always be present, so that students assume the responsibilities for all discussions. This role requires that the instructor be a very good listener, because the conversations take unexpected turns. It takes a willingness to be a light-handed discussion moderator and conversational gatekeeper. At times, the discussions get remarkably heated, and the instructor must be able to separate the passion of the conversation from the content. Students get amazingly involved with their character over the semester, often carrying the role to other classes. The facilitator must be comfortable relinquishing control over the class environment, be open to letting the discussion pursue avenues the students find provocative, and be willing to accept the occasional silences that occur. Much of the faculty work occurs outside of class, guiding students to resources, helping them to evaluate those resources, and working with them as they strive to understand their character’s positions. In class, student errors are more commonly of omission than commission, and the instructor’s role is to pose the questions a student will have to answer in order to represent fully a particular point of view.
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Student Role Students and teacher meet once before the start of the semester, usually at the end of the previous semester. This meeting is important because the overall structure of the course is explained, students are invited to choose roles (done by lottery), and they are asked to start preparing for the course by doing background reading on their character. Student reading starts with biographical background, moves to a HET textbook for an overview of the relevant school of thought and general nature of a person’s contributions, and then to primary sources, which are the student’s major texts during the term. Students assume their roles from the start of the term. The initial sessions give students a chance to introduce themselves (in character) to the class. They discuss their character’s family background, education,career, and travel; attempt to set themselves in a historical context (what is going on in the world around them); and might share what they consider to be a major contribution to economic thought. They question and welcome each other and begin the process of establishing their interactive patterns. HOW IT WORKS The balance of the course is structured as a series of conversations, addressing one topic important to the development of economic thought per week.2 Each topic is a question addressed by many figures in economic thought, but instead of working through the figures chronologically, as is done by just about all textbooks, the material is arranged thematically. The advantage is that each major character’s ideas are presented in every class and expressed in conversation with other major figures. This not only engages students with the material but makes it easier for them to understand the nature of the intellectual alliances and conflicts that characterize economic thought. (See Appendix A for the list of topics covered, by week.) In preparation for a discussion of the topic, students become familiar with their economist’s point of view but are unaware of what others say on the issue. They seek out the instructor, as necessary, to clarify their understanding of the appropriate background for the upcoming conversation. To help anticipate the conversation, students post brief statements of their positions on the class newsgroup. This helps identify the range of issues likely to emerge in the discussion and allows for better preparation. Each student also posts concluding comments at the end of the week, clarifying points and making comments that might not have occurred to the person in class. Example Topics Consider a discussion about the distribution of output. Adam Smith might start out with a review of the nature of the general returns to land, labor, and capital. He would address factors that contributed to variation in wages and note some of the long-run implications of his analysis. Smith would be criticized by Ricardo,
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who would argue the implications of the diminishing returns to land, the tendency for wages to gravitate to a subsistence level, profits to stagnate, and the society to move to a long-term subsistence economy. When Marx entered the conversation, he would focus on the instabilities of capitalism, the existence of subsistence wages resulting from the reserve army of the unemployed, the increasing concentration of capital, and changes in the organic composition of capital, with implications for surplus value. Marx would explain exploitation and the basis for his criticism of capitalism. Marshall would be critical of many of his predecessors and would address the role of marginal productivities in determining factor shares. In each case, students not only present their own character’s ideas but react to those of others. Students question each other to gain clarity and defend their own character’s perspectives. Student involvement is high as they internalize their positions and react to those of others. The unfolding of changing perspectives on trade theory offers another good example of the types of conversations that occur. Adam Smith might start with an explanation of absolute advantage, to be criticized by Ricardo, who would introduce the role of comparative advantage. Mill would build on this with the idea of reciprocal demand, and Marshall would introduce the idea of offer curves. Other figures, such as Malthus, would enter as general proponents of free trade whereas List would take a counter point of view. Marx would add the role of trade as exporting the capitalist crisis. The variety of points of view on the issue makes for good teaching opportunities and sharp exchanges. Each of these ideas is introduced by the student in the role-playing persona. In addition to a fairly traditional set of mainstream HET questions, students read and react to the Constitution of the United States from the perspective of their economic persona and engage in conversations about current events, ranging from the collapse of the Soviet empire to health care reform, again in character. Writing Assignments and Textbook The writing assignments are also an integral part of the experience, aimed at both helping with the mastery of economic thought and of working with student colleagues on collaborative projects. The first assignment asks students to identify and assess the significant contribution their character made to economic thought. This helps them get an overview of an economist’s ideas, at a time in the class when they are working with only a smaller subset of these ideas. It helps students place particular conversations in context within a broader intellectual framework. The second assignment is a paper written with another student. They are directed to place themselves anywhere in space and time and structure a conversation about what is going on around them. Students have been remarkably creative in these assignments. For example, Adam Smith and Karl Marx might put themselves in Russia during the collapse of the Soviet empire and discuss the role of the state, property rights, and economic decisionmaking. Or Thorstein Veblen and Max Weber might put themselves in a New York City jail and discuss class structure in America, engage in institutional assessment and criticism, and
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discuss the role of the bureaucracy. Pairings, places, and topics are limited only by the student’s imagination. A traditional textbook is used, with assigned readings throughout the semester, but the assignment rarely relates to the discussion of the day. The advantage of the textbook is that it gives students an introduction to the economists that are not represented in the class. Exams are based heavily on the textbook. CONCLUSION This approach works with my students. At the end of the course, they not only understand their own figure but have an understanding of the alliances and intellectual conflicts that bind their figure to other economists represented in the course. Students view this approach positively, report it challenges them intellectually, is more difficult than the typical course, and requires more time than other courses. (Summary course evaluations are presented in Appendix B.) For the instructor who is not willing to make a total commitment to this format, a number of intermediate role-playing steps can be taken without having to meet the role-playing requirements set out earlier. These suggestions refer to the end of the course after students have been together for the term or to small units spread throughout the course. One would be to use the role-playing approach as a summary activity at the end of the course, asking students to highlight the views of particular economists and draw similarities and differences with other figures in the course. Another would be to test an understanding of the philosophical approach of different economists by placing students in a role of an economist’s persona wherein they would react to a current event or document, such as the U.S. Constitution. A third possibility would be occasionally to use teams of students who are assigned different roles to meet in small groups, come to positions, and then debate/discuss pre-assigned questions. For example, the pros and cons of NAFTA lend themselves to debate from the perspective of Smith, Ricardo, Marx, and List. It often takes students some time to become comfortable with the role-playing approach, so patience is important. The literature shows that student learning is most effective where students are actively engaged in their classes. Role playing offers an engaging opportunity for students. They realize that they are able to assume the major responsibility for their learning, that they can make a contribution to class and help their student colleagues master a subject.
APPENDIX A Weekly Discussion Outline of History of Economic Thought Week 1: Week 2: Week 3: Week 4: Week 5: Week 6: Week 7: Introduction to the course. Introduction to the cast of characters. What is the source of wealth in a society, or what contributes to the wealth of nations? What determines value and price? What is the role of money in society, and how does it influence price? What determines the distribution of output? What role does trade play in economic relationships?
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Week 8: Week 9: Week 10: Week 11: Week 12: Week 13: Week 14: Week 15:
How do we learn about economic affairs (methodological discussion)? What is the source of change in society (emphasis on Marx)? Critically evaluate the idea of harmony of interests. What is the relationship between institutional and economic forces? What causes the rise and fall of schools of thought? What is your reaction to the Constitution of the U.S.? Changing current events issues: health care, collapse of the Soviet empire, a presidential election. How would you like to be remembered? Final presentations of projects, assessments.
APPENDIX B Selected Course Evaluation Data Economics program 1.55 1.45 3.64 2.82 Entire school 1.73 1.61 3.40 2.74
Evaluation 1. Rating for the course a 2. Challenged my ability a 3. Level of difficultyb 4. Total hours spent c
HET 1.02 1.09 3.60 2.85
a Lower numbers indicate more positive responses on a scale of 1 to 5. b Higher numbers indicate higher difficulty on a scale of 1 to 5. c
Note: The data are composite results from four classes,1993–96, n = 41.
On the same scale of 1 to 5,higher numbers indicate more time spent on the class.
NOTES 1. Figures always represented in the class include Adam Smith, Karl Marx,David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, Alfred Marshall, John Stewart Mill, Carl Menger/William Stanley Jevons, Thorstein Veblen,and Max Weber. Occasional represented figures include Frederick List, Jeremy Bentham, William Petty, Robert Owen, and Thomas Mun. 2. The complete syllabus for the course is available at http://www.eckerd.edu/academics/bes/ ecn/het.html REFERENCES Angelo, T.,and P. Cross. 1993. Classroom teaching techniques:A handbook for college teachers. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Bell, C. 1993. A noncomputerized version of the Williams and Walker stock market experiment in a finance course. Journal of Economic Education 24 (Fall): 317–24. Bhawuk, D. 1990. Cross-cultural orientation programs. In Applied Cross-Cultural Psycholo gy, ed. Richard W. Brislin. Newbury, Calif.: Sage. Brooks, C. I. 1985. A role-playing exercise for the history of psychology course. Teaching of Psy chology 12 (April): 84–85. DeYoung, R. 1993. Market experiments: The laboratory versus the classroom. Journal of Economic Education 24 (Fall):335-52. Fels,R. 1993. This is what I do, and I like it. Journal of Economic Education 24 (Fall): 365–70. Hester, D. 1991. Instructional simulation of a commercial banking system. Journal of Economic Edu cation 22 (Spring): 111–43. King, P., and R. LaRoe. 1991. The labor atory-based economics curriculum. Journal of Economic Education 22 (Summer): 285–92. Leuthold, J. 1993. A free rider experiment for the large class. Journal of Economic Education 24 (Fall):353–64. McCaughey, B. 1991. Role players:A brief, intensive training program to portray acute psychological stress. Journal of Traumatic Stress 4 (October):595–99.
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Pascarella,E.,and P. Terenzini. 1991. How college affects students: Findings and insights from twen ty years of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Smokowski, P. 1992. The anatomy of a psychodrama class:A student’s perspective. Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Psychodrama and Sociometry 45 (Fall): 112–21. Williams, P. 1992. Design your own budget:A case study based on the 1988 budget. Economics 28 (Fall):122–23.
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