Introducing Feedback Thinking and System Dynamics Modeling in Economics Education
Oleg V. Pavlov, Robert Y. Cavana, I. David Wheat, Khalid Saeed, Michael J. Radzicki + 1 more
TLDR
This paper explores integrating feedback thinking and System Dynamics modeling into economics education, discussing opportunities, barriers, and teaching approaches.
Key contributions
- Explores opportunities and barriers for integrating System Dynamics and feedback thinking into economics education.
- Illustrates benefits with a pricing feedback model, enhancing understanding of complex economic systems.
- Summarizes diverse teaching experiences and proposes a four-level course hierarchy for System Dynamics.
- Outlines pedagogical tradeoffs for instructors adopting new teaching methods in economics.
Why it matters
Economics education often lacks tools for complex causality. This paper introduces System Dynamics and feedback thinking, offering practical models and a teaching framework to better explain economic systems. It provides valuable guidance for instructors seeking to enhance their curriculum.
Original Abstract
System dynamics is a methodology that is widely used in many academic fields. It explains the behavior of social and economic systems with models that capture complex causality and feedback effects. This 'practice paper' discusses the opportunities and barriers for introducing feedback thinking and system dynamics models in the economics curriculum. We start by providing a pricing feedback model that illustrates some of the benefits that system dynamics can provide in enhancing economics education. Then we summarize the experiences of each of the authors in teaching system dynamics on economics educational programs. This includes different approaches to teaching economics with system dynamics that depend on the learning objectives, the preparation of students, and the background of the instructor. We also develop a four-level course hierarchy for using system dynamics in economics teaching. We then point out the tradeoffs that instructors must consider as they introduce new pedagogies for delivering economics material. Finally, we provide some concluding comments with some suggestions for future work. The expected audiences for this paper are instructors as well as graduate students who are considering academia as a profession.
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