Econometrics diaries

• Students write a diary entry once every 2-3 weeks.
• Open way to communicate with instructor their difficulties
• Answering a prompt
• Encouraged to even try solving out or working out arguments for me to see
• No length restrictions
• Implemented Term 2, AY 2023-2024

Competencies?

• Perfect way to gauge “attitudes” and “values”
• Cognizant of one’s habits and biases
  
• Know when and how to take stock, step back, and challenge existing conditions and norms
• Early information for instructor and student
• Move away from low metacognition

Indirectly affect inherited CLOs

Directly affect one PLO

How to assess?

• 10% of final grade, but better than attendance grade
• No rubric – information device to adjust on-the-fly
• Current version: Completeness rather than correctness
• Future version: A chance to grade attitudes and behavior
• Buffer to reduce grade-bargaining
• High risk of perfunctory completion
• Does not scale well (10-15 hours of serious work with feedback for 25 students)

How to spend time in classroom

• Spend time addressing issues highlighted in diary entries

• Reconsider topic ordering and correct misunderstandings right away

• But no one mentioned the value of the diaries in the teaching evaluation

  • Reflection without action from the student side
  • The broken chain in the Lasallian Reflection Framework

Calculus in 6 weeks

• Teach the very first calculus course for any major, but focusing on economics as context

  • Assume the worst background
  • But start with minimal algebra skills – linear equations, quadratic equations, and graphs
  • Remove the unnecessary rigor (I will get letters!)
  • Directly relate to economics topics in a less perfunctory manner – take abstraction seriously

Calculus in 6 weeks

• Robust against “funwelcome” classroom disruptions and heterogeneous student preparation
• Submitted as an external grant for an online course (Term 1, AY 2024-2025)
• Never implemented in DLSU, but may be implemented as part of future leaner curriculum
• Video recordings and materials are available
• Realized after grant is completed that non-economics majors cannot handle graphs – Must adjust once again

Competencies?

• Create tractable models of the environment

• Make the price of forgetting algebra skills steep

  • Recurring ideas are exploited
  • How do you form a definition for a slope of a line?
  • How do you solve for \(x\)?
  • Early access to nontraditional topics

• Learn Python right away

Directly affect all inherited CLOs

Directly affect three PLOs

How to assess?

• Coursera style: Get assessed at your own pace

• Problem sets only

• But no online participant submitted problem sets

• What will happen in the DLSU version of this class?

  • Treatment vs control groups
  • Ethical clearances needed – think about least damage

How to spend time in classroom

• Sharp reduction in coverage allows more direct interaction with students and more time to repair and patch holes
• Will future retention become higher as a result?
• High risk of letting MathGPT deal with exercises
• High risk of students not caring enough no matter how large the demonstrated care by instructor
• Skipping skills to get to an advanced stage faster versus investing in skills to get to an advanced stage in a more informed way

Lecture and lab coordination

• CLTSOE has two courses called Mathematical Economics and Mathematical Economics Laboratory.
• Taken every Term 3 by freshmen economics majors
• Never coordinated in any meaningful way
• Took the task of coordination for my version on Term 3, AY 2023-2024

Lecture and lab coordination

• Wanted to write a paper on early exposure to symbolic computation in Python

• Wanted to rearrange content

  • Optimization first, then linear algebra?
  • Linear algebra first, then optimization?

• Wanted students to see even beyond their course – but materials may not even be used by instructors of courses following these prerequisites

Competencies?

• Retention and proficiency are key
• Connect economics ideas directly to mathematical language one last time before going into the majors
• Set things up for further processing
• Capacity for abstraction
• Learn an unfamiliar software Python right away
• Verification and validation when using AI

CLO-PLO mappings for lecture

CLO-PLO mappings for lab

How to assess?

• Bring book exercises and unanswered problems into the lab setting
• Lab notebooks – completeness only, iterative F2F corrections
• Open notes exams via Google Colab
• Evaluation form after every lab class
• High failure rate, even with repeated lab exercises – Students not proactive enough to want to verify their own answers, never mind discovery.

How to spend time in classroom

• Sharp reduction in coverage allows more direct interaction with students and more time to repair and patch holes
• Will future retention become higher as a result?
• High risk of letting MathGPT deal with exercises
• High risk of students not caring enough no matter how large the demonstrated care by instructor
• Skipping skills to get to an advanced stage faster versus investing in skills to get to an advanced stage in a more informed way

Hypothesis testing as first topic

• Economics majors take one statistics course in the current curriculum.
• Math is not the main skill in statistics – but it shares abstraction as an important device.
• We get a heterogeneous range: No exposure, some exposure, and mostly exposure to template-style statistics.
• Took the task of introducing it first for my version on Term 1, AY 2024-2025 – with some objection from PLC

Hypothesis testing as first topic

• Why should it be the first topic?

  • Researchers in the Philippines have disproportionately used hypothesis testing as a way to answer research questions.
  • The way it is taught is via a template which students cannot understand but can actually do.

• Opportunity to hear students ask the question “If statistics are numbers subject to variation, then why should we believe them?”

• Access to difficult topics, like the bootstrap

Competencies?

• Should you use hypothesis testing at all?
• Better appreciation of the need to quantify uncertainty
• Capacity for abstraction
• Use software in a less template-y fashion
• Verification and validation when using AI

Indirectly affect PLOs

CLO-PLO mappings

How to assess?

• Use vignettes and then determine if situation calls for hypothesis test
• Assess ability of student to change the relevant parts of R code to mirror other similar situations
• Find other similar examples in reality and in media
• Doing math without actually doing math – change the way math is perceived

How to spend time in classroom

• Focus on the topic which dominates choice of method in the Philippines
• Reduce template-y approach, reduce reliance on tables
• Provide more direct motivation than usual ways of motivating statistics – key is sampling variation and how to decide claims based on sampling variation
• Better clarifying questions from students
• High difficulties in exams: Defining what the parameter is, articulating the argument rather than the template

Four vignettes - Four Five targets

Are the innovations only for innovation’s sake?

• Will it reduce the invisible workload?
• Competencies? Should we think of the average rather than the ideal DLSU student?
• Contribution to CLOs and PLOs? Make students care about these. Think about indirect vs direct contributions.
• How to actually assess? Research ethics clearances for RCT and data collection
• How to spend time in the classroom? Document time use