Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovative Research in Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Productive Failure in a Level 5 Microeconomics Course
Thanos Athanasopoulos
ABSTRACT:
Is traditional Instruction followed by Problem-Solving or Problem-Solving followed by Instruction preferable when students learn a new concept? This paper is the first to investigate the efficacy of Productive Failure–where students’ failure to get it right when attempting a problem related to a new concept might enhance their future ability to learn–in Economics and in particular, in a second-year undergraduate Microeconomics module. In this experiment, students were allocated in two classrooms and the efficacy of the two pedagogical approaches was tested with three interventions followed by an end-of-session formative assessment and end-of-term assessments in the form of an individual report and an in-class exam. Our findings support the use of Productive Failure in Economics and other related disciplines–i.e., Marketing–as students did better (on average) in all module assessments with clear benefits regarding students’ short-run and deep-learning effects.
keywords: Deep Learning, Economics, Pedagogy, Problem-Solving Followed by Instruction, Undergraduate