Bringing the real world in: using current affairs to shape A Level Economics.

Stack of newspapers

This article focusses on how we incorporate current affairs into our teaching of A Level Economics. It is written by Richard Finch – Head of Economics at Wimbledon High School.

One great aspect of teaching Economics at A Level is that we can relate the topics on the specification to real world events. We run weekly news article review sessions with all our classes to build their understanding of contemporary issues in Economics and strengthen their ability to apply fundamental concepts and theories to these real-world events. For many pupils, beyond improving their chance of achieving a top grade and boosting their ability to critically analyse articles, this process builds their confidence to engage in debate and can be very empowering.

However, it often it is a challenge to stimulate that initial interest in current affairs, particularly stories related to the Economy.  However, in recent years we have made significant progress on this issue.

At the start of the course, each week, we ask our Year 12 students to find two articles, one related to microeconomics (individual industries and business) and one to macroeconomics (the entire economy). These articles can be from any publication and on any subject that interests them.

The pupils post a brief summary of the article on our OneNote system along with their general reflections. We keep the brief very flexible at this stage and the emphasis is very much on exploring what interests them. We as teachers then review the articles and post some leading questions for each. This encourages the pupils to reflect on what they’ve read and think about where their research might lead them.

The pupils have time to prepare their response to these questions prior to the lesson. During the lesson the teacher will project the summary on the screen and the pupil then presents to the class. The teacher chooses three pupils from the class who have demonstrated clear analysis or whose topic area was addressed by many students in the class. We have found that celebrating work in this way creates an element of friendly competition and encourages others to engage.

Interestingly, although we do not limit the topics at this stage, the pupils tend to gravitate towards similar articles and as they source their information from different publications these presentations often lead to enthusiastic class debate. This also serves as a great way to break the ice with a new Year 12 class.  

Through our questioning we encourage pupils to pursue additional articles on the same topic. Over weeks the pupils start to develop expertise in certain topic areas and having that deeper understanding builds their confidence. As they become more familiar with the jargon used in Economics they start to source articles from more challenging publications.   

As the course progresses we start to encourage the pupils to apply the fundamental concepts and theories we cover in class to these real-world examples. We want our pupils to use this “Economics Toolkit” to deepen their analysis and understanding.

For example, here a pupil has applied their knowledge of Income Elasticity of Demand (the responsiveness of demand to a change in income) to the demand for Fortnum & Mason products to assess the extent to which these products can be described as luxury items and the implications of a change in national income on this particular organisation and the wider economy.

The term “luxury good” is used commonly in society but Economics pupils develop an understanding of what this term actually means and how it can be calibrated. This gives them a clearer understanding of the likely implications of a national rise in income on this market. They begin to make links at this stage between different concepts and ask broader questions, beyond the focus of that article. We continue to encourage them to explore and connect topic areas through our questioning and through class debate.

The pupils start to develop real expertise at this stage and we find ourselves referring to our “in-house retail expert” for example during class discussion. Being the authority on an issue is incredibly empowering for the pupils and builds their engagement and enthusiasm for the subject. The ultimate aim of this initiative is to encourage our pupils to use their voices and speak with authority on this traditionally male dominated subject.

Friday Gem #2 – “Categorise in any way you find interesting”

This idea comes from Claire Baty, who I saw use it in her Year 10 French lesson. However, I think it can be easily adapted to suit lots of different subjects.

 

What did she do?

  • For each pair of pupils, she set up a collaboration page on OneNote full of adjectives. Some adjectives were familiar, and some were new.
  • The instruction was for pupils to drag the words around the collaboration space and to group them “in any way they find interesting’.
  • She didn’t define what she meant by ‘interesting’, giving pairs the freedom to think independently, creatively and logically.
  • Pairs were immediately deep in debate as to first, what categories to use, and then how to categorise the individual words…some were not easily categorised!
  • There were lots of different interpretations of ‘interesting’: some pupils took a grammatical approach (grouping words by how they are used in a sentence); some a semantic approach (grouping words by their meaning); some a metacognitive approach (grouping words with whether they were new or difficult)…and some did something more personal and quirky! (see a couple of screenshots of this below)
  • She then showed the collaboration spaces to the class, with pairs explaining their approach.

 

Of course, you don’t have to be grouping adjectives. You could ask pupils to group anything, BUT it works best where there can be debate and flexibility about how and what to group.

 

This is effective because…

  • The task allowed for natural differentiation, with pairs choosing to group words in more complex or simpler ways (for a great article about differentiation by task rather than activity, read this https://learningspy.co.uk/english-gcse/building-challenge-differentiation-thats-quick-and-works/ )
  • It opened up rigorous, independent debate between pupils as they weighed up why words should be grouped in a certain way.
  • It recapped prior learning and allowed for independent exploration of new words (and the way they work within sentences).
  • It modelled a way to revise vocabulary – by grouping vocab in different ways to make networks/schemas of words and ideas. This is great for memory recall.

How can we enable the quieter learners in the classroom?

Wayne Eaves, teacher of Geography and advocate of coaching, looks at the importance of recognising the significant value of the quieter learner and the opportunities they offer to the wider classroom. In a world of constant stimulation and talk, where verbal contribution is too often used as a means of assessing pupil progress, it is vital that teachers reflect on their own classroom practice and ensure that ‘quiet’ is a positive and valued attribute.

The Power of Introversion

Much debate among educationalists followed the publication of Susan Cain’s book ‘Quiet-The Power of Introversion in a World That Can’t Stop Talking’ and her call to move away from the cultural bias towards extroverts in schools by creating introvert-friendly learning environments and recognising the ‘invisible’ student. Counter arguments, championed by Jessica Lahey in Atlantic magazine, maintained that to achieve success in today’s world, it is imperative that students are coerced through grades, based on verbal participation and teacher expectations, to take an active and vocal part in class.

Western culture certainly appears to present and value extroversion as an asset while disparaging introversion as an affliction or flaw. However, in other cultures silence is a sign of deep respect and is more highly valued than talk/discussion. The stereotypical description of the extrovert as Act-Think-Act, and the introvert as Think-Act-Think is rarely helpful since in reality (especially the classroom) a whole spectrum of introversion and extroversion exists. The aim must surely be to incorporate and celebrate the approaches of all learners.

To me, Lahey’s advocacy for grading classroom participation ignores the ‘value of quiet’ and the myriad of other ways that students take part in lessons. These might include the silent assent they give to ideas in their body language and eye contact or the way they make thoughtful and insightful notes for a future essay. The absence of talk must not be assumed to indicate an absence of engagement with learning nor undervalue the student’s role in the classroom.

 

“The absence of talk must not be assumed to indicate an absence of engagement with learning”

The modern classroom with its focus on active and collaborative learning, exciting technology, group work and discussion can all too often ignore the needs of the quiet learner and indeed actively hinder their learning. As Cain points out, the extrovert draws energy from social interaction while the introvert draws energy from internal reflection and quiet time and may easily become drained by non-stop interaction with others.

The Inclusive Classroom

How can the classroom teacher adapt their teaching to meet the needs of all their learners? A variety of strategies can help the confidence of all students:

  • Offer the discussion questions in advance by pre-circulating the issues that you plan to talk about in the next lesson.
  • Ensure that sufficient waiting or thinking time is always given before an answer is expected, giving both the reflective student and the ‘instant responder’ time to think their answers through.
  • Think-Pair-Share – gives the quiet learner the chance to reflect on their answer, discuss it with one peer which may well then encourage them to share with the rest of the class.
  • Ensure that every lesson contains some time for deep thinking and quiet study. It has been noted that in US schools where verbal confidence is valued at least as highly as quiet work that achievement in many schools is falling behind their international peers. A short session of silent, meaningful work, also allows the extroverts in a class to develop and hone new and valuable skills.
  • Social media, used well by the teacher can give the quieter learner a boost. A discussion blog allows them to become involved in the conversation and get their ideas validated by others, thus building confidence.
  • Be creative with the classroom, if space allows have both group work zones and individual desks. At break time designate a semi-quiet space for the quiet learners where they can recharge after time spent with lots of other people.

Introverts Dilemma
Introverts Dilemma

Figure 1: ‘How to care for Introverts/Extroverts’– The Introvert’s Dilemma (blog)

Although quieter students may need some adjustments to be made in the learning environment, the benefits that they contribute to the classroom are considerable. They naturally bring an element of mindfulness to a lesson and, given the opportunity, present new ideas and perspectives which enrich the learning and experience of others. It is their fellow students and their teachers’ duty to listen to them. When she was asked what inspired her to write her book Cain likened introverts today to women at the dawn of the feminist movement—second-class citizens with gigantic amounts of untapped talent. As her book concludes, ‘our culture rightly admires risk-takers but in today’s world we need the heed-takers more than ever’.

Further reading

Cain, S. Quiet : The Power of Introversion in a World That Can’t Stop Talking’. Crown Publishing Group, 2012

Cain, S. The Power of Introverts, podcast, TED talks Feb 2012

https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts?language=en

Lahey J.  ‘Introverted Kids need to Learn to Speak up at School‘, The Atlantic, Feb 2013

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/02/introverted-kids-need-to-learn-to-speak-up-at-school/272960/

Schultz, K. Rethinking Classroom Participation: Listening to Silent Voices. Teachers College Press. 2009

Author- unattributed ‘Introverts – Extroverts: ‘It’s not about shyness, It’s about honouring and making ways to participate’ TILT, (web blog) 2012-13

https://uminntilt.com/2013/07/08/introverts-extroverts-change-takes-courage-2/