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: ; ; ;

Abstract
Teaching Economics as a General Education:
Debates and Experiences from the United States of
America
Trin Aiyara2
The article reviews a set of articles that relates to
economics teaching as part of general education for higher
education in the United States of America. Economics has been
praised as one of the knowledge that crucial for nurturing ideal
citizen of democratic society because it could provide citizens
an understanding on economic phenomenon. Accordingly,
economics is usually included to liberal education modules.
Naturally, economics hardly to be incompatible with
general education since economics is hard to connect with
relate world, due to its nature that is abstract, highly specific,
and demanding advance technical mathematical and statistical
knowledge. It means that if economics is taught as a general
education subject, its contents and teaching methods will have
to be changed. The changes purposely provide more
opportunities for undergraduate students, particularly noneconomic major ones, to access economic knowledge.
Experiences of economic teaching in general education
modules in the United States of America showed that the
change in economic teaching had to conduct in contents,
teaching methods, as well as assessments. For contents, they
have to be adopt to be more compatible with real world and
knowledge in other disciplines. For teaching methods and
assessments, they have to redirected in the ways that student
are simultaneously able to possess skills, which are crucial for
2

Lecturer in Political Sciences program, School of Liberal Arts, Walailak

University

studying in university, and abilities to apply economic

knowledge to analyze economic phenomenon.
Keywords: economics; general education; contents; teaching
methods

(general education)
(
)





(specialized)
(general)

/







(economics)

(liberal
education)

 Martha Nussbawm
Not for Profit





3
Troelstrup4

(economic understanding)

20


(economic competency)
5

Troelstrup



(community)



6
3

Martha Nussbawm. Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the

Humanities (Princeton , NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010).
4
Troelstrup
(high-school)


5
Arch W. Troelstrup, Economic Education: A Requisite of Citizenship,
Economic
Digest
19
(April
1954):
237-238.
6
Ibid.,
pp.
238-240.

 Troestrup


Troestrup
20 (.. 1954)




Troestrup

(more
breadth and less depth)

McGoldrick and Colander7 Colandder and McGoldrick8

(economics) (economy)
Figart9




(highly technical abstract
approach)


10





11
(critical thinking)
(historical knowledge) (statistical skill)
(moral reasoning)
7

KimMarie McGoldrick and David Colander. The Economics Major and

a Liberal Education. Middlebury College Economic Discussion Paper
08-12 (Middlebury, VT: Department of Economics, Middlebury College,
2008).
8
David Colander and KimMarie McGoldrick, The Economics Major as
Part of a Liberal Education: The Teagle Report [with Comment], The
American Economic Review 99 (May, 2009): 611-623.
9
Deborah M. Figart, Teaching Non-Majors, in International
Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, eds. Gail M. Hoyt and
KimMarie McGoldrick (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2010), pp. 423432.
10
David Colander and KimMarie McGoldrick. Op. cit., p. 612.
11
David Colander and KimMarie McGoldrick. Op. cit.,p. 612.


12

13

Mcgoldrick and Colander







14
McGoldrick and Colander15 Colandder and
McGoldrick16

12
13
14
15
16

KimMarie McGoldrick and David Colander. Op. cit. pp. 12-13.

Ibid.,
pp.
12-13.
Ibid.,
p.
13.
Ibid.,
pp.
8-10.
David Colander and KimMarie McGoldrick. Op. cit., pp. 612-614.


17



(big
question) (superficial)

18

(practical)



(Teaching Assistance TA)
18
KimMarie McGoldrick and David Colander. Op. cit. pp. 2-4.
17


19

(liberal education)
(science)


Figart (2010)



(economic issue)


(
) 20



19
20

Deborah

Ibid..
M.

pp.
Figart,

Op.

cit.,

pp.

25-27.
424-426

 (interdisciplinary)




21

(economic
indicators)22

23




(economic literacy)
(statistical literacy)
24




(
)

21

Ibid.,
pp.
424-426.


(GDP Gross Domestic Product)

23
Deborah
M.
Figart,
Op.
cit.,
p.
426.
24
Ibid.,
p.
426.
22



25
Figart


Figart
(


Figart



26

McGoldrick and
Colander (2008) Colandder and McGoldrick (2009)
Figart (2010)


25
26

Ibid.,
Ibid.,

p.
p.

427.
430.



Wagner27

(Republic) Plato

(division of labor)
(intrinsic)
(extrinsic)

Troelstrup

28
27

Jeffrey Wagner, Platos Republic and Liberal Economic Education for

the Twenty-First Century, Economics Bulletin 1 (December, 2007): 1-5.
28
Arch
W.
Troelstrup,
Op
cit.,
p.
240

 Wagner

29





McGoldrick and Colander30
Colandder and McGoldrick31

32

29
30
31
32

Jeffrey
Wagner,
Op
cit.,
pp.
1-5.
KimMarie McGoldrick and David Colander. Op. cit. pp. 24-30.
David Colander and KimMarie McGoldrick. Op. cit., pp. 616-617.
KimMarie McGoldrick and David Colander. Op. cit. p. 28.

(teaching commons)


33

34 (bottom-up)
(top-down)

Figart (2010)

Figart


35

Figart

(story-telling)
(journalism)


33

KimMarie McGoldrick and David Colander. Op. cit, pp. 28-30.

David Colander and KimMarie McGoldrick. Op. cit., p. 616.
35
Deborah
M.
Figart,
Op.
cit.,
pp.
426-428.
34


36

Greenlaw37 ONeill38

Greenlaw
(principle of economics)
Mary Washington College ONeill
(Principles of Macroeconomics)

Greenlaw
(course syllabi)



36

Deborah
M.
Figart,
Op.
cit.,pp.
428-429.
Steven A. Greenlaw. Lessons From a General Education Oriented
Principles
of
Economic
Course.
[Online].
Available:
http://128.118.178.162/eps/get/papers/9808/9808001.pdf. 1994.
38
Patrick B.ONeill. Taking General Education Seriously: Expanding the
Boundary of a Principles of Macroeconomics Course. Journal of
College Teaching and Learning. 3 (February 2006): 75-84.
37


39

Greenlaw





(reading list)

40

Greenlaw

(reflexive essays)




41
Greenlaw (in-class
assignments)
(discussions)

Greenlaw (experiment)
(simulation)
39

Steven
A.
Greenlaw.
Op
Cit.
[Online].
Available:
http://128.118.178.162/eps/get/papers/9808/9808001.pdf. 1994.
40
Ibid.
41
Ibid.

 (Keynesian expenditure multiplier)42

(diminishing
marginal returns)43 44
Greenlaw
(
)

45

43



44
Steven
A.
Greenlaw.
Op
Cit.
[Online].
Available:
http://128.118.178.162/eps/get/papers/9808/9808001.pdf. 1994.
45
Ibid.
42

 ONeill
University of North
Dakota ONeill

(Spring Semester) ..2003

(two sections)






( 3-4
) (
)
(chapter) 2-3

2


46
ONeill
.. 2004
.. 2003

Oneill

(liberal education)

46

Patrick

B.ONeill.

Op

cit.:

76.


47

48

ONeill

Greenlaw ONeill

47
48

Ibid.:

77-78.
Ibid.:

79.

Colander, D; and McGoldrick, K. The Economics Major as Part

of a Liberal Education: The
Teagle Report [with Comment],
The American Economic Review 99 (May, 2009): 611- 623.
Figart, D.M. Teaching Non-Majors. In Gail M. Hoyt and
KimMarie McGoldrick (eds.) International
Handbook
on
Teaching and Learning Economics, pp. 423-432. Northampton,
MA: Edward
Elgar,
2010.
Greenlaw. S.A. Lessons From a General Education Oriented
Principles of Economic Course. [Online].
Available:
http://128.118.178.162/eps/get/papers/9808/9808001.pdf.
1994. McGoldrick, K.; and Colander, D. The Economics Major
and a Liberal Education. Middlebury College
Economic
Discussion Paper 08-12. Middlebury, VT: Department of
Economics,
Middlebury
College,
2008.

Nussbawm, M. Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the

Humanities. Princeton , NJ: Princeton
University Press,
2010.
ONeill, P.B. Taking General Education Seriously: Expanding
the Boundary of a Principles of
Macroeconomics Course.
Journal of College Teaching and Learning 3 (February 2006):
75-84.
Troelstrup, A.W. Economic Education: A Requisite of
Citizenship. Economic Digest 19 (April
1954): 237-238.
Wagner, J. Platos Republic and Liberal Economic Education
for the Twenty-First Century.
Economics Bulletin 1
(December,
2007):
1-5.