Business, College of
Date of this Version
May 1996
Abstract
There has been, of late, renewed interest in and criticism of the quality of undergraduate instruction (Lewis B. Mayhew et al., 1990). Colleges and universities have responded by placing more emphasis on teaching, and faculty are under increasing pressure to improve their teaching performance. Economics departments are particularly concerned about enrollment trends and recognize that effective teaching stimulates student interest and willingness to major in a subject (John J. Siegfried et al., 1991).
It is not surprising that there is room for improvement in college teaching. Graduate programs emphasize development of advanced knowledge and research skills. Few provide teacher education. Because teaching is a basic responsibility of most economics faculty, the Committee on Economic Education (CEE) of the American Economic Association and the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) created the Teacher Training Program (TTP) for college and university economics faculty. The most recent phase of the TTP has been a series of six workshops offered between 1992 and 1994. This paper puts these workshops in historical context, describes their content, reports on the results of workshop evaluations, and makes recommendations for the future.
Comments
Published by American Economic Review 86:2 (May 1996), pp. 460-464. Copyright © 1996 American Economic Association. Used by permission.