A High School Economics Course

The book so far has mainly focused on how economists should be prepared for their future roles in society. Economists are, however, not the only ones who receive an economics education. In fact, the majority of people who are taught economics will never become an economist or even take a specialisation in the topic. While these students will never call themselves economists, they do take in economic ideas and will apply these in their later work and personal life. Thus, economics education to non-economists still has a large impact on the world.

Example Courses for Non-Economists:

Required background knowledge:

None

Nominal workload:

1-2 years of economics classes in high school education

Course goals:

This course enables students to better understand the economic world they are part of, to understand political debates about it, to envision their own roles in it and to be practically able to play those roles.

Course outline:

The course is divided into the following three parts:

The first part of the course focuses on giving students a basic understanding of what the economy is and why it is relevant. This is done through a combination of explanations of relatively abstract concepts and explorations of the real-world economy the students live in. The purpose here is helping students realise that their personal lives and experiences are connected to a larger economic world.

Besides teaching basic conceptual and real-world knowledge about the economy, students learn practical skills needed for their current and future roles in the economy as consumers, citizens, household members, students and (future) workers. Financial literacy is a part of this, but it is broader than that. It also relates to life choices about choosing what to study and what kind of career to pursue, as well as practical skills related to, for example, finding a job or negotiating.

The course focuses not only on instrumental knowledge that can help students themselves, but also enables them to reflect on the broader implications of their economic decisions, for example when it comes to their personal consumption.

For more details, teaching materials and practical advice on teaching these topics, see the following building blocks:

The second part of the course focuses on the current big societal challenges, such as climate change, economic instability, aging populations, and growing economic inequality. The first step is always to explain to students what the challenge is and providing them some basic factual knowledge about the current state of the issue. Creating such factsheets could also be an assignment for students.

To help students grasp the relevance of these issues, a couple of things can help. Firstly, to connect the material to the personal lives of students. How are, or will, they and the people around them be influenced by these big societal problems? Secondly, to make use of more engaging material, such as documentaries, music, poems, and news articles, next to the more dry (written or academic) material on the issues.

Once students have acquired a basic understanding of the issue, the focus is on the main different perspectives on the issue, its causes, mechanisms, consequences and potential solutions. The chapter Tools: Pragmatic Pluralism can be helpful in determining which perspectives are most relevant for the issue at hand.

Having learned different ways of thinking about the problem, students are given the assignment to write an essay in which they have to advocate a solution of their choosing and present this to the class. Following this, they are matched with another student who advocated a different solution and are given the assignment to reach a compromise together.

For more details, teaching materials and practical advice on teaching these topics, see the following building blocks:

The last part of the course centres on making students familiar with the different ways of organising an economy and arguments for and against them. The focus is first on economic organisations and mechanisms.

This is mainly to prepare students for their personal future lives both at work and outside of it, as they will participate in organisations for their career but also through their community and civic life, as well as their hobbies and sports. Besides explaining the different organisational forms and mechanisms as abstract concepts, students will also visit actual organisations and be required to analyse them.

After this the focus shifts towards macro political-economic systems. The goal here is to enable students to more critically and confidently follow and participate in (future) political debates about how the economy should be organised or reformed. To help them do so, the different political-economic systems and their varieties are discussed, giving most attention to the current domestic one (most likely, a particular variety of capitalism) and prominent proposed alternatives to it. As an assignment, students are tasked to analyse and reflect on recent developments and changes in the domestic political-economic system, enabling them to get a better and more nuanced understanding.

For more details, teaching materials and practical advice on teaching these topics, see the following building blocks: