Basic nature of teaching economics
Answers
The Nature of Economic Literacy: ERIC
According to Alfred Marshall, the famous British economist, "Economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life." Indeed, we encounter economics as workers, consumers, savers, and citizens, and we make countless personal and societal decisions of great practical importance every day. Educators generally agree about the basic ideas in economics that every high school graduate should know, and they tend to agree that the discipline of economics is dynamic; the economy and our knowledge of it continue to evolve. Thus, educators must continually assess the economics curriculum in terms of the current status of the academic discipline in order to provide students with the latest and soundest view of economic life in the United States and the world.n response to various kinds of economic issues and problems. This digest treats the nature of economic literacy through discussion of (1) basic ideas in economics that every culturally literate person should know, (2) economics as a way of thinking, and (3) likely outcomes of education for economic literacy.
WHAT ARE THE FUNDAMENTAL THEMES OF ECONOMICS?
The general themes of economics are presented below in a very introductory manner. For a more detailed description, see TEACHING ECONOMICS: CONTENT AND STRATEGIES (Banaszak and Brennen, 1982) or MASTER CURRICULUM GUIDE IN ECONOMICS: A FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHINScarcity requires the making of choices between alternate uses of productive resources. When making choices, it is important to consider all alternative uses of the resources. The choice ultimately is made between the most desirable and the next most desirable alternative, which can be considered the value of the decision measured in lost opportunity (the opportunity cost).
--Productive resources, also called factors of production, include everything used to create products and services. The three types are human (labor), natural (land), and capital. Human resources are all the workers and their abilities. Efficient use requires workers to specialize in what they do best. Entrepreneurs, people who take risks associated with starting a new business or producing a new product or service, are an important type of human resource. Natural resources are all the basic gifts of nature whether above, on, or below the surface of the earth. They are either renewable, such as trees, or nonrenewable, like petroleum. Capital resources are the resources that have been created by human effort and savings, to be used to produce products or services. Capital resources include tools, machines, and factories. The creation of capital resources requires deferring to the future the consumption of some desired products or services.
--Economic systems are the organized ways by which people determine how to allocate scarce productive resources. Traditional, command, and market are the three basic types of economic systems. Each economic system answers at least three basic questions: (1) What to produce?, (2) How to produce?, and (3) How to distribute output? In the traditional system, economic decisions are formulated by the customs of the society. Economic decisions in the command system, are made by decision-makers, usually government employees. In the market system, economic decisions are made by individuals and institutions, guided by their own self-interest, in a free market process with a minimum of government intervention. The market economy also requires competition among producers, awareness of product availability and alternatives, private ownership, and a limited role for government in the economy. In the real world, all economic systems are mixtures of the three.