Department Representative: Economics
This year Teddies launched the Department Representatives Project as part of Pupil Voice and Action, to celebrate the work and activities of our many subject areas by nominating pupil representatives for each subject. The Department Representative for Economics, Shun Wang, tells us about how the subject is taught at Teddies.
Economics is a fascinating subject to study at Sixth Form as it is a subject birthed out of the intersection of science, humanities and world knowledge. Economics provides pupils in Teddies with a solid basis of understanding for the real world. Pupils are encouraged to follow current affairs and news in order to excel in the subject as well as to fuel their curiosity about how our world operates.
The department puts great emphasis on pupil support with the clinics and one to one supervision sessions available to book, but also with wider reading and wider knowledge with Economics Society and the ‘Saturday biscuits’ meetings. These extra-curricular activities allow pupils to extend their learning outside of the classroom by interacting with the real-world applications of the subject. The Economics Society has consisted of a series of engaging lectures, ranging from topics such as ‘The Monetary Policy of Japan’ to Ben Bernanke’s Nobel Prize lecture on ‘Banking, Credit and Economic Fluctuations’. At Saturday break time, pupils can choose to drop into the Economics classrooms to chat about news or concepts that they have picked up on over the week. The pupil-led discourse aids us in gaining different perspectives on a particular issue and engaging with new knowledge more effectively. The fact that Economics is studied only at Sixth Form means that all meetings in society or Saturday meetings go into great depth as everyone studying the subject has a specialist interest in it and studies it at a high level.
Key topics studied in the Lower Sixth include market failure and policy making and in the Upper Sixth we study the theory of firms and international trade. Studying market failure and how markets function helps us to understand how different institutions operate on a micro level, looking at their behaviours and how firms respond to this. By using macroeconomic models and theories, we can understand the behaviour of individuals, firms, and governments in the economy, and how they interact with each other. It allows pupils to gain a better understanding of the UK’s fiscal and monetary system, as well as how welfare benefits work. In the second year, the study of international trade provides pupils with a deep understanding of the complex interactions between countries in the global economy and prepares them for further study in economics or related fields, or for careers in international business, finance, or policy.
The key skills developed by the Economics Department include critical thinking, evaluation and data analysis. These skills are very diverse – they can be applied to all other subjects and further our intellectual development. In today’s world where we are constantly bombarded with information and data these skills that pupils pick up in lessons teach them how to sieve out and decipher this information, thus preparing pupils for their future careers in any number of disciplines.