Professor Justin Wolfers: The Importance of Teaching Students to "Think Like an Economist"

David Autor, MIT's Daniel and Gail Rubinfeld professor of economics, is a leading thinker and researcher on how AI could reshape the labor market. While he says AI could revolutionize how we work, it won't replace human intuition. In this episode, Autor joins St. Louis Fed Economic Education Officer Scott Wolla and explains how he challenges students to use technology as a collaborator, not a crutch. He also discusses his approach for pushing students to focus on how economics can solve real-world problems. 

Could brain science help unlock students' understanding of complex economic topics?  In this episode, St. Louis Fed Economic Education Officer Scott Wolla explores that question with educator and author Patrice Bain. Bain spent years working with cognitive scientists to better understand how people learn and wrote about her findings in her book "Powerful Teaching." She shares her four "power tools" for learning and how they can be applied to economic education.

In this episode, University of Chicago professor John List shares his unique approach to teaching economics. Unlike traditional methods, List begins by exploring real-world questions that intrigue his students, using their interests to frame lessons on economic principles. He talks with St. Louis Fed Economic Education Officer Scott Wolla about how his own curiosity and experiences as a baseball card collector led him to economics. List also explains how he aims to inspire the same curiosity in his students, using field experiments and behavioral economics to help them better understand and apply complex economic concepts in their lives. His innovative teaching methods have made his course a hit at the University of Chicago, demonstrating the power of economic thinking in everyday life.

Tulane University professor Gary Hoover shares how his personal journey to the field of economics shaped his teaching philosophy. Hoover also reflects on the mentors who changed his life, the importance of making economics real and relevant, and the responsibility educators have to meet students where they are. "Hoov," as he's known, talks with St. Louis Fed Economic Education Officer Scott Wolla about how economics isn't just about markets—it's about people—and how great teaching means equipping students with tools to answer their own questions.

Wendy Stock, a professor of economics at Montana State University, doesn't begin the first day of the semester reviewing a syllabus with her students. Rather, she asks them what topics in the world are the most important to them. Stock then uses their answers to frame lessons about how economics can help them better understand what they feel most affects their lives.   In this episode, Stock talks with St. Louis Fed Economic Education Officer Scott Wolla about how her own curiosity led her to economics and how she hopes harnessing her students' curiosity will help them better grasp complicated topics. 

Let's say you're writing a syllabus for the only economics class a student might ever take. What would you teach? That's the question on the mind of Avi Cohen, a professor of economics at York University in Toronto, Canada. For Cohen, the answer lies in the literacy-targeted approach to teaching, which argues that it is more valuable for students to be able to apply core economic concepts well than to be exposed to a wide range of concepts they may soon forget.  In this episode, Cohen explains to St. Louis Fed Economic Education Officer Scott Wolla how this approach can help all students, even those who go on to pursue a career in economics.

In the latest episode of our Teach Economics podcast,  Annamaria Lusardi, faculty director of the Initiative for Financial Decision-Making at Stanford University, talks about her career journey and passion for teaching personal finance education. "When the tooth fairy comes is the time to talk about money," she says. "Give a piggy bank to a child and you will instantly turn (the child) into a clever banker. I enjoy empowering people with the knowledge and skills that are so important today. I really do think I am empowering the student to be able to navigate the world around them."

When introducing economics to students, Harvard University economics professor Greg Mankiw says it helps to keep it simple. "Maybe they will only take one course in economics," Mankiw says. "So the question is, for that student, what can you leave them with?" With that in mind, Mankiw wrote the hugely influential Principles of Economics more like a magazine than a traditional textbook. In this episode, Mankiw discusses his journey to the field and how down-to-earth language can unlock students' understanding of complex economic concepts.

Would bringing brain science into your classroom help you teach economics? In this episode, Scott Wolla, economic education officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, explores that question. He's joined by Bill Goffe, an economics teaching professor at Penn State University, and Andrew Butler, an associate professor of psychology and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Both educators say that applying even a little brain science to economics lessons can help unlock students' learning potential.

In this episode of Teach Economics, Justin Wolfers, professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, talks to Scott Wolla, economic education officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, about how he found economics, why he loves teaching economics, and why it's important to help students "think like an economist."