We envision a future where innovative and evidence-based teaching and assessment methods in undergraduate economics are universally adopted, fostering critical thinking and preparing students to become responsible, informed citizens. Through our work, we strive to elevate the quality and accessibility of economic education nationwide.
The "Chalk and Talk" survey was established by Becker and Watts in 1995 to examine the types of teaching and assessment methods used by college instructors of economics. Since then, the survey has been administered every five years to document and identify changes in economics instruction and assessment methods in undergraduate economics courses.
The results from these surveys reveal little change in college economics instruction in over 20 years. The predominant teaching method remains a combination of "chalk" (writing on a chalkboard or whiteboard) and "talk" (traditional lecture). Active-learning methods, such as cooperative learning and classroom experiments, are used less frequently.
We conduct research related to the use of teaching and assessment methods in four different types of undergraduate economics courses: Principles and Survey, Intermediate Theory, Statistics and Econometrics, and Other Upper-Division Field Courses. The results from the prior "Chalk and Talk" surveys have been published in national and international journals, including the American Economic Review, Southern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Journal, The Journal of Economic Education, International Review of Economics Education, Journal of Education for Business, and The American Economist.