Designing and Evaluating Effectiveness of Research-Led Teaching Model for Graduate Microeconomics Course

Abstract

In order to establish a culture of inquiry and re-shape teaching from a product-based to a process-based approach, an advanced microeconomics course for post-graduate students in an Australian University was designed using a research-led teaching model. The expected outcomes from this model are three-fold: to relate the theoretical knowledge to application by teaching the content of research done in the field and to teach the internal and external processes of research. After implementing research-led teaching model into the course, formative evaluation of its effectiveness was conducted following The Kirkpatrick’s (1996) evaluation model. Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) survey, student verbal and written feedback in a focus group survey was used to measure students’ attitudes; Intrinsic Motivation Inventory was used to measure students’ motivation and students exam scores were used to measure achievement levels. Results indicate that students found the research-led teaching model motivating; they enjoyed the activities and found the incorporation of research related tasks as useful. These results show that application of a wide variety of teaching strategies to support the research-teaching link is a promising strategy to inspire the students about research and provide them with necessary skills.