Recently, more interactive teaching methods have been integrated into the IB Economics classes to explore more innovative ways of teaching and learning.

Because Economics is a social science, the ability to think critically is regarded as an important skill that students should equip in the classroom. Rather than using the previous method of simply listing the pros and cons of one issue on the whiteboard, the teacher did not feed the answers to students. Instead, the teacher asked students to debate “whether implementing monetary policy or fiscal policy is more effective if a country is in a recession?” First, students were asked to rate their preference by sticking their name tags on the scale from ‘supporting fiscal policy’ to ‘supporting monetary policy.’ Then, students started debating. They stated their opinions and refuted the other side. After the debate, students were asked to re-examine their previous standpoint.

Debate itself brings out the ability to think critically and everyone is more inclined to participate and contribute their ideas. It involves engagement from every student and has a more captivating result than a blank whiteboard.

According to the students’ reflections, it seemed that it was quite a successful trial:

“I think this is more effective than plain lecturing because we are forming thoughts on our own rather than by reading a text. Also, the entertainment and lively mood from the debate is also a change from the typically drowsy and dormant classroom. I think that through unconventional teaching, we not only learned more about economics, but we also learned more about each other.”

“This debate made me view the policies in multiple perspectives; I was able to examine the polices more critically. Based on some critical points made on each policy, I was able to make my judgment by considering the original economic status of the nation and valid real-life examples of the policy.”

(Written by 11(1)B Tina Ellie, Chen Danqing         Pictures by Ye Zhen)