Bringing Adam Smith’s pin factory to life: Field trips and discussions as forms of experiential learning
Educators are often aware of the need to implement a variety of teaching techniques to reach out to students with different learning styles. I describe an attempt to target multimodal learners by bringing classical economic texts and concepts to life through discussions, field visits and role playin...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Indiana University Office of Scholarly Publishing
2014-11-01
|
| Series: | Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl/article/view/12938 |
| _version_ | 1829497619395641344 |
|---|---|
| author | Monica Galizzi |
| author_facet | Monica Galizzi |
| author_sort | Monica Galizzi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Educators are often aware of the need to implement a variety of teaching techniques to reach out to students with different learning styles. I describe an attempt to target multimodal learners by bringing classical economic texts and concepts to life through discussions, field visits and role playing exercises.
In my Labor Economics class I analyze the relationship existing between demand for labor, technological advances, and trade. As a foundation for such analysis, I assign the reading of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations chapters regarding the division of labor. To increase students’ interest toward the topics, I precede the text discussion with a field visit to a museum of industrial revolution. Here students are asked to participate also as “factory workers” to an assembly line exercise that brings Smith’s description of a pin factory to life. They are then asked to reflect on this experience and to use it as a foundation to inform the following class discussions about Smith’s chapters.
In this paper I describe the main learning and retention objectives of this exercise, its implementation, challenges, and students’ learning outcomes and feedback about enjoyment and recollection. Field trip participants performed significantly better when tested on the relevant concepts. I also discuss the rewards and institutional challenges associated with making use of community resources to increase the understanding of the concrete applications of the economics concept we teach. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T07:55:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e0c797883ef04509ac1c77e7a0601361 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1527-9316 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T07:55:12Z |
| publishDate | 2014-11-01 |
| publisher | Indiana University Office of Scholarly Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning |
| spelling | doaj.art-e0c797883ef04509ac1c77e7a06013612022-12-21T22:38:45ZengIndiana University Office of Scholarly PublishingJournal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning1527-93162014-11-0114510.14434/josotlv14i5.12938Bringing Adam Smith’s pin factory to life: Field trips and discussions as forms of experiential learningMonica Galizzi0University of Massachusetts LowellEducators are often aware of the need to implement a variety of teaching techniques to reach out to students with different learning styles. I describe an attempt to target multimodal learners by bringing classical economic texts and concepts to life through discussions, field visits and role playing exercises. In my Labor Economics class I analyze the relationship existing between demand for labor, technological advances, and trade. As a foundation for such analysis, I assign the reading of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations chapters regarding the division of labor. To increase students’ interest toward the topics, I precede the text discussion with a field visit to a museum of industrial revolution. Here students are asked to participate also as “factory workers” to an assembly line exercise that brings Smith’s description of a pin factory to life. They are then asked to reflect on this experience and to use it as a foundation to inform the following class discussions about Smith’s chapters. In this paper I describe the main learning and retention objectives of this exercise, its implementation, challenges, and students’ learning outcomes and feedback about enjoyment and recollection. Field trip participants performed significantly better when tested on the relevant concepts. I also discuss the rewards and institutional challenges associated with making use of community resources to increase the understanding of the concrete applications of the economics concept we teach.https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl/article/view/12938experiential learningfield visitsdiscussionslearning stylesVARK |
| spellingShingle | Monica Galizzi Bringing Adam Smith’s pin factory to life: Field trips and discussions as forms of experiential learning Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning experiential learning field visits discussions learning styles VARK |
| title | Bringing Adam Smith’s pin factory to life: Field trips and discussions as forms of experiential learning |
| title_full | Bringing Adam Smith’s pin factory to life: Field trips and discussions as forms of experiential learning |
| title_fullStr | Bringing Adam Smith’s pin factory to life: Field trips and discussions as forms of experiential learning |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bringing Adam Smith’s pin factory to life: Field trips and discussions as forms of experiential learning |
| title_short | Bringing Adam Smith’s pin factory to life: Field trips and discussions as forms of experiential learning |
| title_sort | bringing adam smith s pin factory to life field trips and discussions as forms of experiential learning |
| topic | experiential learning field visits discussions learning styles VARK |
| url | https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl/article/view/12938 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT monicagalizzi bringingadamsmithspinfactorytolifefieldtripsanddiscussionsasformsofexperientiallearning |