Students often indicate that economics is a difficult subject to learn. Below is a list of some common student learning challenges in economics and how JiTT can be used to address them.

Improve Teaching Efficiency

• For same teaching effort, more learning...
• JiTT focus classroom time on learning gaps...
• Allows you to cover as much content or more...
  

Help Students Prepare for Class

• Get students to read the text before class. A persistent issue...
  
• Difficulty with reading and using economics textbooks. Students often read textbook chapters from start to finish, not connecting ideas or seeing the "big picture." JiTT exercises can help students understand how to read for meaning and understanding by focusing student attention on important or difficult concepts.

Address Common Learning Challenges in Economics

• Relevance. Students often think of economics concepts as disconnected from their lives. JiTT exercises can help students understand how economic ideas affect their lives and are used in everyday decision-making.
• Understanding/using economic terminology. Commonly used terms often have a different meaning in economics, which can trip up students: investment, inflation, income vs. wages, elasticity OR are unique to economics: marginal cost, sunk cost, full employment, asymmetric information
• Uncover misconceptions. Don't really know what misconceptions students have in economics - often remain hidden. Other disciplines been shown to retard learning. One possibility: Role of government in economy (e.g. % of GDP, ability to regulate markets, etc.) Also: gains from trade, inflation
• Understanding/using graphs. Explaining graphical data, drawing implications, extrapolating,...
  
• Getting the Big Picture. Students often have difficulty connecting new economic ideas to economic concepts presented previously in the course. JiTT exercises can help students connect ideas through models, causal connections...

Extend Analytical Ability

• Transferring knowledge to new situations. This is one of the most difficult challenges in learning. See it all the time when we change examples slightly on exams and students cannot answer the question - do not understand underlying concepts. But by then it is too late. Economic policy, shifts in demand/supply, recessionary/inflationary gaps, marginal analysis
  
• Dealing with unstructured knowledge/problems. Many real-world problems are not structured as neatly as those at the end of the textbook chapter. Help students separate relevant/irrelevant information/facts/data. Using theory to help filter information.
  
• Ability to self-monitor learning. Building metacognitive/reflective thinking. This is a lifelong learning skill that we often try to assist students with implicitly. JiTT can help make this explicit.
• Providing multiple perspectives. Economic policies with different viewpoints and different consequences. Ex. free trade, efficiency vs. equity, market and non-market solutions

For more information about the benefits of Just-in-Time Teaching, see Why Use Just-in-Time Teaching?

For more information about Just-in-Time Teaching, see All About Just-in-Time Teaching

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JiTT Works in Economics

Simkins and Maier (2004) have demonstrated JiTT's successful adaptation to college-level economic education and JiTT's ability to change students' study habits and improve learning outcomes. .... Pedagogical innovations like JiTT, which were first developed in other fields, in particular science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines, have been shown to be effective at promoting student learning.

Students as Collaborators in the Learning Process

Overall, JiTT techniques combine the use of Web-based exercises with learning-centered in-class activities to provide a dynamic learning environment that makes students active collaborators in the learning process. Intentionally-developed JiTT exercises grounded in learning sciences research can be used to promote effective student learning. Student responses to JiTT exercises inform and direct classroom discussions, promote active and cooperative learning in and outside the classroom, and generate quick feedback on student learning to instructors and students while there is time to address any deficiencies.

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Chalk and Talk Still Dominates

National surveys conducted in economics over the past decade show that economists continue to rely heavily on lecture-style teaching practices, findings that have remained remarkably consistent, both across institutions and over time [see Becker and Watts (1996, 1998a, 1998b, 2001a, 2001b), Watts and Becker, 2008), Siegfried, et. al., (1996), and Benzing and Christ (1997)].

What's Special about JiTT? (in table of contents page)

For students:

• They come to class prepared.
• They receive immediate feedback through in-class activities.

For Instructors:

Students' JiTT responses...

• Provide a window on students' thinking processes.
• Help instructors develop in-class activities that intentionally address student learning gaps.