Rod Odonnell

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Learning and Teaching in Economics: Proceedings of the 13th Australasian Teaching Economics Conference, September 2008 Rod Odonnell

A number of the articles in this book deal with different learning styles, on-line activities, information technology and innovative approaches to learning (experiments, simulation games and peer- assisted support schemes)in the discipline of economics. Yet rather than simply describing these new approaches, most of the papers try to evaluate their effectiveness in a rigorous way. The volume is centred on how student learning strategies had changed in an e-world and what educators needed to do to catch students? attention more effectively ? hence a major focus was on innovative alternatives to ?chalk and talk?. It is also noted that the broadening of the student body now admitted to universities, and the increased number of institutions granted university status, raised serious challenges to providing effective learning to a student cohort from very different socio- economic and ethnic backgrounds.