Teaching Tips ( Illustrations That Work ) for Sexton 6e
General Introductory comments:
It is not the purpose of this section to tell professors how to teach economics. You do not need to be
told to be sure to use Figure X to illustrate concept Y, or to remember to develop some implications of
Chapter 1: The Role and Method of Economics
1. The connection between economics and other social sciences can be illustrated by behavior
modification in psychology. Behavior modification can be shown to be an application of the rule of
2. A useful illustration of self-interest is to ask what kind of nails a steel maker would likely make if it was
rewarded on the basis of the weight of nails produced (railroad spikes, as it is less costly to produce a
3. Students sometimes struggle with economics self-interest assumption because they often consider
themselves to be acting altruistically. Point out to students that the belief that they are more altruistic than
4. The text emphasizes economics as a disciplined way of thinking, not the source of clear-cut answers
and expected marginal costs of choices depend on so many factors).
5. It is worth emphasizing that that economic principles allow economists to know better what not to do
know what course of action will be the best possible in a complex world of uncertainty.
6. As an example of the approach used in economic theorizing and modeling, ask students whether an
airplane model needs to have wings and seats. Typically some will say both and others will say only
7. A useful illustration of how models come to be accepted in science is the replacement of the Ptolemaic
geocentric model of the solar system (everything revolves around the earth at the center) with the
8. The text s emphasis on empirical testing of theories can be reinforced by getting students to see that a
major part of economic research is the search to design tests that will discriminate among different
9. I find rain dancing to be a good illustration of confusing correlation with causation. If a group of people
decides that a deity that brings them rain needs its anger appeased by rain dancing at the beginning of
10. Weather can be used to illustrate problems of establishing causation. Since heaters come on in the
winter and air conditioners in the summer, one could conclude that heaters cause the house to be colder
11. In addition to the fallacy of composition illustrations in the text, you could add leaving early to beat the
traffic (similar to arriving early to beat the crowd) and cutting your price to take sales from rivals (which
doesn t work if all rivals lower their prices).
12. Emphasize that disagreements about economic policy can occur even when people agree on the list
of benefits and costs of an action or policy (positive statements), as long as they disagree about the