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The Rice Thresher
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by Rachel Rustin Thresher Editorial Staff A list of potential changes to the Economics Department - including adjusting the way Economics 211 and 212 are taught - has emerged from discussion about teaching problems among faculty and undergraduate students. Economics 211 and 212 are the introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics courses, respectively. The ideas being debated were developed this year after the economics faculty, through the department's undergraduate committee, and the Student Association decided to look into the issue. "I think part of the motivation for that was this sort of the general background knowledge that students were unhappy with some aspects of some courses," Economics Professor Jim Brown, chair of the economics undergraduate committee, said. After the committee's first meeting last semester, members were approached by students from the SA who were forming a similar committee. The two groups decided to work together to gather student opinion and brainstorm ways to improve the department. Since the fall, SA Senators Ricky Kalra, Maryann Bylander and Jamie Story have met with Brown almost every week. Over the course of the year, the faculty committee has come up with several potential changes to economics classes. Some undergraduate students are concerned about graduate students teaching introductory economics classes, but the department is not sure how to fix the situation. Department of Economics Chair Peter Hartley said problems with graduate students teaching are somewhat new. In years past, graduate students had received positive evaluations from students. Hartley attributes undergraduate students' dissatisfaction with graduate students teaching Economics 211 partially to the lack of a reliable way to get feedback on their teaching abilities before they begin teaching these classes. Previously, graduate students led study sessions, which were well-attended, before they taught undergraduate courses. Brown said one possibility is reducing graduate student involvement by having faculty teach Economics 211. "But the problem is that the faculty that seems appropriate to that would have to be drawn out of other courses, and then we don't know how to staff those other courses," Brown said. "There are these budget constraints, both in terms of money, but really in terms of available faculty that are limiting what we can do, at least in the short run." In addition, Hartley feels there may have been problems teaching introductory classes simply because those classes are difficult to teach. "A very difficult thing in teaching an introductory course is to try to remember what you didn't know," Hartley said. Hartley emphasized that although introductory classes taught by graduate students have enrollment limits, the section taught by a full professor does not have a limit. Additionally, graduate students will undergo teaching training before next fall. The department is also open to changing other economics classes. "We also had a more general interest in trying to see whether or not we could do something to improve the way that 211 fits in with courses that come later on in the micro sequence," Brown said. Another concern is the overlap between beginning and intermediate courses such as 212 and 375. The department is considering adding material to 212 and giving students a choice of intermediate macroeconomics courses. Before these changes are put into place, however, the department is soliciting students' opinions. Hartley hopes that students will fill out the survey in time for some of the changes to be made for next fall. The survey, which can be found at http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~seti/survey2.html, will remain online permanently, so students have a way to express concerns about any economics course. "That way, there would be a better avenue for students to make it known when something is happening in a course that they don't think is right or when something good is happening, too," Brown said. However, many departmental changes, even if they are supported by survey results, may have to wait until the department has the resources to make them, Brown said. "As we get new faculty and as the composition of the faculty changes, things like that become possible," Brown said. "Those kind of possibilities are among the considerations that are on our mind when we hire new faculty."
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