Introduction

A common theme in the many articles published by frequent contributors to the Journal of Economic Education is that economists undervalue teaching, place too much faith in traditional lecture-based teaching methods, and are generally apathetic to the problems that students face when learning economics. It is my belief that these inferences and conclusions are not representative of most economists. Rather, economists seem to adhere to many folk theories of what successful teaching looks like, and act on those folk theories. Until recently, due to the lack of a scientific framework for investigating learning processes, economists could be forgiven for viewing teaching as more art than science. It is the purpose of this book to show that a scientific investigation of learning processes—as opposed to an investigation of teaching methods or estimation of an input–output model of the education production function—is not only possible but also essential to improving economic and financial literacy. The first chapter is aimed at documenting the success, or lack thereof, of the economics profession in communicating its disciplinary knowledge to students of economics and to the general population.