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4)Strategies for teaching freshmen in a seminar setting: 
 
I'd like to throw in my two cents on this, a strategy that works pretty 
well across a wide range of student abilities, proclivities for speaking 
out. 
 
For many of the reading assignments I produce a sheet with the author, 
title, etc. information on it that I call "questions to guide your reading 
and our class discussion." 
 
Sometimes I post these to BB before the class in which we discuss the text, 
sometimes I hand out in class. It depends on my mood, and the complexity of 
the reading. 
 
Here are examples of the sorts of things I include on the sheet, taken from 
a variety of different courses.  You will see that this is very text based: 
 page X, paragraph 3, line Y.  I am trying to get the students to practice 
backing up what they say about the readings by referring to the readings.  
Since I require this is all the papers. 
 
Once you generate these sorts of questions, then you can have students work 
in pairs to produce responses, one or two responses per pair or threesome 
of students, then after they've spent 15 minutes or so working that out, 
then they can present their responses to the class, with you filling in 
detail as needed.  Working in this focused way before opening up to 
unguided class discussion tends to keep the bs level down. 
 
Anyway, to the examples from two different texts that I use in the 300 
level Political Economy class I teach (enrollments vary from about 15 to 
25, and the course is an Eco requirement). 
 
These refer to Chapter 4, "Planning and the Industrial System" in JK  
Galbraith's The New Industrial State. (I don't use page numbers here b/c 
the students in the class are using a wide variety of editions with 
different page numbers, but the chapters are broken in to lots of 
subsections.) 
 
In section 2.  "Poor societies in the past have had a considerable capacity 
to save as their surviving monuments attest." Explain and discuss. Identify 
modern parallels. 
In section 3.  Explain and discuss the similarities and differences between 
voluntary and involuntary savings. Give examples. 
In section 4.  As large industrial concerns bring the supply of capital 
under internal control they do not have to rely on markets as much for 
funds for new investment.  What, if anything, does this imply about the 
interest elasticity of investment? Why might this elasticity vary over the 
business cycle? As firms gain control over the supply of capital, does this 
affect their relation to labor? Why? 
In section 6.  "If one of the motives for developing internal sources of 
savings is to free the firm from the uncertainties in the rate of interest, 
it is evident that the decision on this saving will not be affected by the 
rate of interest." What are the key logical steps leading to this 
conclusion? What are the implications for monetary policy? 
In section 7. Why does JKG say, "To prevent depression is to make the 
supply of savings even more ample?" And then at the end of the section he 
says, "Not a shortage of saving but a recession resulting from the failure 
to use all available savings is the specter that haunts all policy makers." 
 What is the paradox here?  
 
Questions to Guide our Discussion. 
From, Kuttner, "The Imperial Market," Chapter 2, Everything for Sale. 
 
1. Page 39, para.2, lines 8 and 9. Give examples of the "uglier face of the 
market" and explain the term "social income as a right of citizenship." 
2. Page 40. List some "extra-market motivations" at work in social 
relations. Assess the importance of these motivations for the quality of 
life. 
3. Page 41. Explain Kuttner's claim that the economist's use of the term 
rationality is tautological (i.e., it is a truism; it is true by 
definition). Give examples. How does this internal logical problem 
challenge the conclusions put forward by pro-market economists? 
4. Page 42. Discuss the relationship between the campaign against smoking 
cigarettes and the position taken by those who believe that market 
solutions cannot be improved upon? 
5. Page 43. Explain the concept of "revealed preferences." 
6. Page 47, paragraph 2. Discuss the differences in motivation and behavior 
in citizens and consumers. What, if anything, does this suggest about 
public policy?  
 
 
Last point, then I will go back to grading papers. 
 
If this is about the only class these students have where there really 
aren't right/wrong answers, where what you are looking for is development 
of interpretive skills in a particular context, then it really does help if 
you clue them into that.  Especially if this is a public college that is 
not overly selective, students will be confused since they have been 
trained to think of education as getting the right answer by following the 
right steps.  You may want to assign a reading about "higher order 
thinking" and give them class time to discuss it.  My favorite,  "A Nudge 
Is Best Helping Students through the Perry Scheme of Intellectual 
Development," Robert J. Kloss.  
 
 
http://www.btinternet.com/~pae_news/Kloss.htm 
 
This article compares three different models of student cognitive 
development. 
 
http://www.isd.uga.edu/faculty/tuga/fall00/fall00.html 
 
This is THE article on how students are socialized to different learning 
styles.  It connects issues of class to pedagogic strategies and 
epistemology.  A wonderful read. And students find it very helpful too. 
 
http://www.pipeline.com/~rgibson/hiddencurriculum.htm 
 
If you are interested I can send you my questions to guide class discussion 
for Kloss. 
 
Susan F. Feiner 
 
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