Jakob Søgaard
Abstract
Unstructured Assignments in Economics
The assignments that we put our students through in Economics are often very structured, in particular on the BA level. While structured assignments may be good at hammering in basic tools and understandings, they create a gap between our teaching and what we expect students to do in their BA and MA theses. In addition, the structured assignments may be one reason why many graduates from economics report insufficient skills in writing, collaboration, and working with real world problems. In trying to address these deficiencies, I implement two unstructured assignments in my third year Public Finance course. The assignments asked students to combine theory and empirical methods from the lectures to solve a problem framed as a real-life task in e.g. the Ministry of Finance. Students were overall happy with the assignments and their learning outcomes, but felt frustrated by the lack of clear expectations about what they should deliver.