I write this with some embarrassment, having just authored "Applied
Microeconomics: An Intermediate Text" (Irwin, 1993), which is
designed for a semester course and which, naturally enough, I used.
Yet, I was unable to cover more than 15 of the text's 20 chapters
(roughly 500 pages) this semester. Indeed, my general experience has
been that teaching consumer theory, theory of the firm, and market
structure exhausts the available time. Hence, I omit distribution and
virtually all special topics.
Part of my problem stems from the relatively little carryover from
the micro principles course. Despite the above-average abilities and
motivations of the enrolled students, who are primarily economic
majors and who have performed well in the two principles courses,
the majority need an inordinate amount of review. A second
cause stems from the analytic nature of the intermediate micro course
and textbooks. This makes me reluctant to assign the text as
required reading and delude myself into believing that the students
comprehend the material. Experience has taught me that students need
to hear lectures on the analytic parts of the chapters. Finally,
since most of our students will not become professional economists, I
devote some time to applying the concepts to issues. Students respond
well to this approach, by the way.
I believe that resolving the carryover problem will win me sufficient
time. Hence, I wonder whether anyone has successfully used
computer-assisted instruction at least to eliminate the principles
review? If so, what has worked? Has anyone found success in simply
assuming away the lack of student preparation, and has so motivated
students to review on their own?
Jonas Prager
New York University
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