Problem based learning
- A non-mainstream way to teach
economics
Eduard-Heimann-Colloquium
Universität Hamburg, 11th of May 2017
Mogens Ove Madsen
Aalborg University
1
Who am I?
Mogens Ove Madsen
Associate Professor
Department of Business
and Management
Aalborg University
MAMTEP-Group
Head of the Board of
Studies
Chairman, Council of the
Academy
2
Agenda
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Economics as Partioned Bureaucracy
Mainstream Macroeconomics
The Post-Keynesian approach
Strategies for teaching economics
The Aalborg Approach
Curriculum
PBL - Problem Based Learning
A summary
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Richard Whitley: Economics as Partioned Bureaucracy
Economics is extremely unusual in academia in that it combines the high
technical task uncertainty of the social sciences, with very low strategic
task uncertainty
Whitley states that this mix should be highly unstable unless the central core
of conceptual orthodoxy pure/abstract theorizing is partitioned away from
empirical sources of uncertainty (applied research) – and it normally is,
which is our challenge
Sociology and Management Studies (Polycentric adhocracy)
are more easy to handle from the point of view of PBL
(R. Whitley: The Intellectual and Social Organisation of the Sciences (Oxford
University Press 1984, 2000, p.181)
4
Colander (2009) The making of a European Economist, p. 48:
1)
… economists conduct research in a vacuum – either without reference
to real phenomena at all, or using som empirical regularity (at best) to
motivate research that extends our knowledge in a relatively small way
but can not be refuted/confirmed…
2)
The practical tools with which economiest can have a real effect are
somewhat limited and the relationsship between the tools and outcomes
is not clearly understood
5
Mainstream macroeconomics
A uniform approach:
With a theoretical understanding given by the New Neoclassical Synthesis you
have to use a DSGE approach
What a student meets with a mainstream and what our students don’t accept:
That there is no other game in town!
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International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics
Argentina - Australia - Austria - Belgium - Brazil - Canada - Chile - Colombia Czech Republic - Denmark - France - Germany - India - Israel - Italy Mexico - Netherlands - Nicaragua - Pakistan - Peru - Poland - Portugal Russia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland -Turkey -UK - UruguayUSA
Our mission is to diversify, demystify, and reinvigorate economics. We believe
strongly in a pluralist, open, interdisciplinary economics for the 21st
century. We organise as horizontal network and welcome new ideas and
new groups or individuals to join in the rethinking.
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Mainstream macroeconomics
With recent events in mind – the crisis from 2008 and onwards – critical
students of economics ask:
Has modern mainstream macroeconomic theory totally lost touch with
reality?
Do economics departments in general teach economics the right way?
What about non-mainstream economic arguments?
– in general, no room for such an understanding
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Mainstream macroeconomics
Could you rely on viewing macroeconomics as a mechanistic stable system
with a unique intertemporal equilibrium path?
What about endogenous disturbances and crises?
Would students of economics continue to accept such an uniform approach
to macroeconomic phenomena of modern society?
If things have to change, students have to demand changes in the curriculum – they
have to demand more pluralism when they study economics
9
Some of it could be a P-K approach
To a Post Keynesian, the macroeconomic system is one of openness
To study macroeconomics, you have to accept that the system is one of nonrepetitiveness
Macroeconomics can be characterised by path dependencies
You have to accept the crucial role of uncertainty – epistemologically as well
as ontologically
And then of course, money is never neutral – not in the short run nor in the
longer run
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The P-K approach
As such:
Doing macroeconomics, you always have to have an eye on the demand side
as well as on the supply side of the economy
From history we know with certainty, that the macroeconomic outcome is
not in general one of optimality
And economic theory, to gain relevance, should somehow always depict
phenomena of real life
To a Post Keynesian, the New Neoclassical Synthesis is too permeated with an
exclusive focus on equilibrium analysis
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What to do?
Three strategies for teaching heterodoxy:
1. Introduce elements of heterodoxy in orthodox modules or courses
2. Teaching orthodox and heterodox economics in parallel
3. Create an entire alternative course of heterodox therories
Mearman (2007), Lavoie (2013)
“Heterodox economists are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea”
(Lavoie, 2015: Should heterodox economics be taught in economics departments
or is there any room for backwater economics)
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What are we doing: The Aalborg approach
As such, in Aalborg we try to learn students more about macroeconomics
than just the story told by the mainstreamers. We have done it since 1974.
We also try to learn students to be critical – our aim is to develop reflective
students with an awareness of their methods, methodologies and the
economic environment within which they act a practitioners
In doing this we use a different teaching method than that used by more
mainstream-type economics departments:
We use the problem-based learning approach (the PBL approach)
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The PBL approach: key-elements
Problem orientation:
Problem-oriented education is based on working with unsolved, relevant and
current problems of modern society.
By analyzing the problems in depth the students learn and use the disciplines
and theories which are considered to be necessary to solve the problems
posed, i.e. the problem defines the subjects and not the reverse.
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The PBL approach: key-elements
As such:
In their daily study work, project groups themselves have to agree on and
choose to analyse a given problem within the subject area and decide how
to organize their work.
Besides this, the idea is that students should use their supervisors as a
resource together with other resources, such as libraries, internet,
courses, and so on.
In principle, the students are responsible for their own process of learning and
must negotiate with one other to identify what to learn and how to solve
problems that might arise during the process of work.
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The PBL approach: key-elements
In this way, the Aalborg approach to the PBL approach is primarily a
combination of a problem-based and a project-organized approach.
In problem-based projects, it is very important that the students themselves
generate new knowledge in the process of joint cooperation.
This manifests itself in the distribution of ECTS respectively between courses
and group work. Within a typical five year master's program, courses
generally contribute up to 63% of the total 300 ECTS points. However,
17% of these ECTS points may be acquired through the attendance of
another university or from an internship in a company, an institution or at
various ministerial departments. Project work (which is predominantly
group work) typically accounts for as much as 37% of the total ECTS
requirement.
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PBL – a different way learning
We have made a clear choice between to different ways of
learning:
+
Teacher centered exercises: demonstrate, practice and
correct
or
Problem-confrontation, - understanding and –solving: the
problem defines the subjects and not he reverse
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The PBL approach: key-elements
Project organization:
Organizing problem-oriented education as project work allows groups of
students to choose problems and work with them, learning from each
other. It is a team-based approach that ensures a great variety of
approaches and perspectives, which results in a sound and thoroughly
prepared project.
Group work means that students have to make compromises during the
process. As such, they learn a lot about how to cooperate in practice. This
also means that the students will be able to solve larger and more complex
problems than if they were studying on an individual basis.
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The PBL approach: key-elements
Integration of theory and practice:
Students are able to see how different theories and empirical/practical
knowledge interrelate - an aptitude which many European students strive
towards, see for instance Collander (2009:31).
This is facilitated by a thematic framework, a given curriculum and with the
use of supervisors.
The Curriculum:
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Curriculum for BA
Curriculum for bachelor
1st Semester
2nd Semester
3rd Semester
Macro I: Principles
Micro I: Principles
Danish economy in Europe descriptive economics
Mathematics I
PBL and project writing
Macro II
Mathematics II
International Economics
Philosophy of Science with project
writing
Macro III
Micro II
Statistics
Exam ECTS (1 ECST: 27
working hours for a student)
5
5
5
5
10
5
10
5
10
10
10
10
20
Curriculum for BA
Curriculum for bachelor
4th Semester
5th Semester
6th Semester
Macro IV
Micro III – Labor Markets
Econometrics I
Project in Macroeconomics
Econometrics II
Micro IV – Behavioral Economics
Micro V – Innovation Economics
Economic Methodology
Empirical project
Electives
Bachelor Thesis/Project
Exam ECTS (1 ECTS: 27
working hours for a student)
5
5
10
10
5
5
5
5
10
5 + 5 / 10
20
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The PBL approach: key-elements
The courses represent an introduction to the key elements of
macroeconomics, micro-economics, mathematics, econometrics, and
more.
It should be emphasized that elective subjects comprise 20% of the total
available working time, which allows students the opportunity to develop
cross-disciplinary knowledge and skills if they desire to. The supply of
these electives is partially determined through discussions with the
students, where students can request a class with a particular focus. Some
of this working time can also consist of additional project work.
Students can also influence the construction of courses indirectly through a
lack of interest, as elective courses will not continue in the absence of
active student participation.
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The PBL approach: key-elements
Participant direction:
The Aalborg Model is a learning system which has collaborative democratic
elements built into the model.
Participant direction means, that it is the participant that directs their own
learning. This takes place within a framework; is directed by a given
curriculum, which is determined by a study board.
All tertiary educations in economics in Denmark are governed by the same
decree, but the study boards of the individual universities have a certain
degree of autonomy when they decide on the contents of the various
programs that will be implemented in practice. That the decree provides
some autonomy is particularly favourable for the implementation of, and
opportunity to practice the PBL approach.
Exposed to the same censors and accreditation institution
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The PBL approach: key-elements
Basically, there is freedom of choice when it comes to choosing project
topics, which of course places extra demands on teachers as supervisors.
Overall, this means that the students have extensive influence over the actual
content of their education – in a way, Humboldtian at its best.
This also means that students in the course of the total study can, to a large
degree, tailor their study strategy towards specific themes that culminate
in a final thesis (BA as well as MA theses).
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The PBL approach: key-elements
The project work has its strength in that students are jointly problemoriented and thus formulate relatively precise problem statements.
It also involves the question of inter-disciplinarity. The university’s PBL
approach has developed a separate cross-disciplinary approach (Politics,
sociology etc. )
Interdisciplinarity occurs because many problems from reality can best be
captured by an inter-disciplinary approach, e.g. matters of economic policy.
Therefore, a number of subjects and courses are presented as vital tools
and as possible bids towards solving problems. In parallel, this can be
supplemented by a doctrine focused historical presentation of basic
theories.
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The PBL approach: key-elements
It is indisputable that project work has laid much emphasis on the integration
of theory and empirical work.
Problem orientation is the key that gives rise to this reunification.
Furthermore, problem-orientation ensures that students contextualise various
theories within current reality.
This ensures that students are critically aware when covering existing
theories, and that they are focused on problems that exist in reality.
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The PBL approach: key-elements
A discussion of methods and science is important for the students, and the
learning process is far more extensive since students learn much from one
another.
This is because students engaged in PBL training have to be able to discuss,
evaluate and select theories and methods relevant to their research
question. Theories are important, or even indispensable, but theories and
methods are tools for problem solving and thus the means to achieve a
goal which is to make a complete analysis of a given issue.
Traditional teaching is primarily tailored to the learning of a broad scope of
knowledge in one or more subject areas. Project work differs in that it is
rather characterized by a more in-depth and detailed knowledge of a
specific problem area, along with an understanding or insight into the
underlying contexts of problems.
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Methodology
A discussion of methods and science is important for the students from the
first day, and the learning process is far more extensive since students
learn much from one another.
An important matter is to distinguish between a written project method and
methodology in general.
All this means that we have pluralism in methods, schools of thought and
different disciplines
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Supervisors
The role of the supervisor is one most often held by a faculty member
serving as a resource for groups of students engaged in project
work.
Each student group has one or more supervisors for a project.
Supervisor-group relationships do not extend beyond the duration of the
project. That is, a student (or group of students) does not have a
formal multi-term or multi-year relationship with one particular
supervisor.
To be supervisor is an extremely demanding job
29
The PBL approach
and Aalborg
University
Among the Danish
universities, Aalborg
University performs
the best in terms of
the proportion of
students to successfully
complete their degrees
within the stipulated
time frames.
30
The PBL approach
and Aalborg
University
This performance can
directly be
attributed to the
extremely effective
study method of the
PBL approach.
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The PBL approach and Aalborg University
To sum up:
We try to teach in such a way that makes our students become young
economists who are able to do relevant economic analyses of real life
problems, often with an eye on the necessity for an interdisciplinary
approach.
At the same time, we always encourage students to reflect critically on the
results of their economic analyses – this is also included as a ‘must’ in the
PBL approach.
Fortunately, our graduates generally have no problem in finding a job when
they leave the university – it seems as though the demand for hiring welleducated, critically minded young economists is presently adequate in real
life.
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The PBL approach and Aalborg University
We hope that the way we teach economics at Aalborg University could be an
inspiration for others
[email protected]
Thanks very much for your attention
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