An Illustrated Case for Active Learning

Abstract

Educational psychologists and instructional specialists agree that students should be actively involved in the educational process. Despite evidence that students learn better and are more committed to learning when they work with course material, chalk-and-talk remains the dominant pedagogy in economics instruction. This article provides a rationale for active learning in undergraduate economic courses based on the literature and on the author's experience. It provides examples of active learning exercises, explains why students and teachers benefit from active learning, and concludes that the benefits of active learning outweigh the costs. The exercises in this article focus on the concept of present value. A companion Web site provides exercises useful for teaching other financial market concepts.