The Role of Relevance in Economics Education: A Survey

Using Squid Game to Teach Game Theory

“…The economics profession has been notorious for its continued reliance on 'chalk and talk' lectures, but a significant amount of recent work focuses on innovative ways to teach economics concepts (Wooten et al 2021a). A subset of these resources often includes specific examples of ways to teach game theory in a more innovative manner.…”

Economics in a Crisis: A Cautious Approach to Being Relevant

“…There is a plethora of new resources to connect student experiences to economic concepts. Music, television shows, podcasts, news articles, short stories, and many other media sources have been proposed as tools to connect students to the content (Hoyt and McGoldrick, 2019;Picault, 2019;Wooten et al, 2020). In addition to increasing learning opportunities, these efforts serve as an opportunity to increase interest from a wider range of students.…”

“…3 While some application is unavoidable, particularly when discussing data-driven topics, the use of COVID-19 to infuse relevant examples may be unsettling for students. Some educators may see this moment as an opportunity to make their material appear more relevant, but we believe there are methods to instill relevant material that can be used for a longer period of time (Wooten, Al-Bahrani, Holder, and Patel, 2020) or that can allow students to engage with the material on their own terms (Al-Bahrani, Holder, Patel, and Wooten, 2016). Both authors have observed colleagues considering the use of Covid-related examples when teaching the negative externalities of infections, shortages of toilet paper, and the increased demand for hand sanitizer.…”

Using K-Pop to Teach Indifference Curve Analysis, Behavioral Economics and Game Theory

“…Over the past twenty years, a number of economic educators have developed resources for other educators to use in their classroom. These resources were most often developed to improve student engagement with the material so that learning the material would become easier (Wooten et al 2021a;Picault 2019;Stevenson 2022). While not specifically mentioned in the majority of the papers, most educators appear to focus on overcoming particular cognitive challenges present in the classroom (Chew and Cerbin 2021).…”

“…Integrating media into the curriculum shows students that the material can be applied in a variety of ways and understood in a variety of contexts. Media-focused resources have been developed using sources as varied as television shows to Broadway shows (Wooten et al 2021a). This variety of resources allows an instructor to find a pop culture reference that they believe would be appropriate for their classrooms, and that they themselves are comfortable using.…”