TEACHING

I believe that Economics provides a highly useful framework for examining important societal questions and a toolbox to analyze real-world problems. The purpose of economics education is to train and inspire students with different backgrounds to be able to apply the very spirit of Economics in their analysis of the world. To achieve this purpose, I always try to do the following things:

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1. I remind students that Economics is much more than just concepts and models. Economics is a very flexible way of thinking. I suggest to my students that models introduced in the class are not precise in a way like Newtonian mechanics. Models can become outdated or even proven wrong, but the way of thinking is timeless. I design quizzes and exams emphasizing connections and logic, to make sure that my students understand the reasoning behind models, rather than just memorizing them.
   
   

2. I encourage students to combine Economics with their real-world experiences and use it to analyze events around them and on the news. I structure my courses so that units of lecture culminate with a hands-on learning activity like a case study. When U.S elections were going on, I held discussions on each candidate’s proposed economic policy. I encouraged my students to break each candidate’s policies into different categories and analyze their possible positive and negative consequences. I also asked my students to investigate past and ongoing events abroad, such as the crisis in Greece, “Abenomics” in Japan and recent economic growth in China. Their performance in these discussions is inspiring. To elaborate upon one particularly illustrative example from the spring 2017 semester, after lecturing the theory behind fiscal policy and monetary policy, I held group discussions for students to analyze “Abenomics”, or the economic policies advocated by Shinzō Abe of Japan. Students collected data, studied the economic background of Japan, and applied a variety of models to analyze different policy elements in “Abenomics”. They successfully identified key factors that likely contributed to the less than ideal results of “Abenomics”: lack of confidence in the federal government, the Japanese government’s budget constraint, and limitations on immigrantion. Case studies like this not only allowed students to demonstrate their ability to apply theories to real-world events, but they also strengthened their understanding of models and economic logic.
   
   

3. I make myself very accessible to my students and open to new ideas. Over time, I have found that students become very comfortable talking to me about materials I teach, as well as on extended topics. The original theories that students often propose to me during our informal conversation impress and challenge me. One student with a political science major proposed how economic growth impacted the power structure in different countries. Another student proposed a theory that explained the convergence between developed and developing countries with “space to improve education”. I always discuss such ideas in depth and encourage them to do more.
   
   

4. Finally, I try to monitor the performance of my students and help those in need. I have found that many students whose performance is relatively weak at the beginning of the class can significantly improve if I can talk to them, identify the problems they are facing, and provide advice. Last semester, I had a student who was very frustrated by her low performance in my class. I worked with her to analyze her performance in previous quizzes. I showed her that she still has a chance, encouraged her to use knowledge graphs to study more efficiently, and asked her to seek my help whenever she cannot understand something in the class. Her performance greatly improved. The success of students like her gives me such great joy and encouragement.

Overall I find teaching to be a fruitful and enjoyable aspect of my work.  Working with students, while often time-consuming and challenging, can be very rewarding.  I endeavor to continue to grow as an instructor, build upon the themes mentioned before and build a career as a trusted, devoted educator.