Meeting 01

Plan for today

Try to learn bits and pieces of economics in the process of going through:

1. Introductions
2. Workload and engagement
3. Syllabus items
4. Getting acquainted with the “classroom response system”

About the instructor

• First time teaching COBECON
• Mostly taught majors
• Mostly taught what students perceive to be “math” subjects
• Public opinion about me is polarized

About the instructor: attitudes

• I take the time to figure things out, and I do expect students to do the same.
• I answer questions of students (proof).
• If you have a question, feel free to ask your classmates but it is better to ask me.
• I can sometimes forget things, so please remind me.

About the instructor: long, long time ago

• Since high school until 4th year at DLSU: tutoring elementary and high school students
• ECM-BSA, ECONORG tutor, walked away from the board exam, solid 2.0 accounting student
• Sat in without getting credit for math courses while taking accounting

About the instructor: long time ago

• Part-time instructor at DLSU Economics, full-time instructor at DLSU Financial Management, adjunct at DLSU Economics
• Master’s degree in mathematics for teachers
• Studied in France, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands (Master’s and PhD)
• Taught in China, “Italy” (online), The Netherlands, and Germany

About the instructor: teaching style and implications

From a student: “I know you may have had higher expectations for us but, honestly, our educational system (at least mine) did not encourage us to study and learn theoretically or the reasoning behind each topic. Most were just demonstrating a method of solving and that method will be used for most questions, most teachers don’t explain much the reason behind it, and that’s what I realized I appreciate about your class!”

From the same student: “I understand you may have a teaching style more accustomed to foreign students as it is quite different indeed. You want to inspire students to learn independently to find passion in the topic itself and to learn by themselves and I think the first step to that is to inspire them, best I think would be a topic that relates to and intrigues them. … Make it relate and interest students more I would say but that is not your obligation ngl as we are in college already.”

Getting to know you: index cards

• Surname, first names and middle initial

• What name you want to be called

• Your major

• Have you taken an economics course? YES/NO response

  • If YES: Summarize in one sentence the insight which stuck most with you.
  • If NO: In one sentence, what do you think is economics about?

Getting to know you: What to submit on 2025-01-13

• Bring any spare, clear, recent photo you have.
• 1x1, 2x2, passport size (up to you)
• No submission means a contribution of 0 when assessing your score for Activities.
• Submission means a contribution of 100 when assessing your score for Activities.

About the course

• Somewhat similar to ECONONE in the past, but offered to both majors and non-majors!
• Sometimes called principles of microeconomics
• Has some overlap with managerial economics
• You will learn more about what the course is about as we go through the slides today.

About the course: from the department

• Students must be able to develop an “economic” mindset that connects basic theories and concepts in economics to their application on current national and international economic concerns.
• The course focuses on the economic activities of individual decision-making units in society, specifically on households and firms.

• Consumer choice is examined using demand and consumer theories, and an evaluation of the economic behavior of firms is conducted using the theory of production and cost.
• A general understanding of how firms behave under different market structures caps off the course.
• Overall, the course outline simplifies the study of consumer and firm behavior into a comprehensive framework that begins from the choice and decision-making behavior of consumers and firms and ends at the application of firm market structures.
• Link to Tropico 1 youtube video

Workload

University guidelines state that

The student workload in a three (3) unit lecture course is 7.5 hours a week, for a total of 105 hours in a trimester. The total workload includes the time for classes, alternative activities, exams, projects, homework, reading assignments, and other class activities. It would be useful to present in the syllabus the estimated workload allocation for the students.

BUT …

Workload: index cards again

• What is your current schedule?

• How would you arrange the “workload”?

• Discussion

  • What is not explicitly in your schedule but takes up your time is perhaps important to notice!

Wrap up and what’s next

1. Introduce a bit of economics while introducing myself and yourselves
2. Two activities so far: index card for your profile, index card for designing your weekly schedule
3. 2025-01-13: continue discussing syllabus and continue discussing bits and pieces of economic thinking
4. 2025-01-13: Prepare by reading Chapters 1 to 3 of main textbook.
5. 2025-01-13: Don’t forget assigned task.