Abstract

The article’s authors report on a comprehensive curricular reform aimed at communicating the broad range of social issues that economists study while engaging students in active learning strategies. The reform increased interest in taking additional economics courses and majoring in economics, broadened students’ views of what economists do, and imparted more content to students. Female students earn higher grades under the revised curriculum, but no differential impact on interest in majoring in economics for female students, students of color, or first generation college students is found. Engaging students with empirical work on important social issues appeals to all students, resulting in more majors from both under- and overrepresented groups, but generates little impact on the percentage of students majoring in economics from underrepresented groups.

摘要

该文章的作者报告了一项全面的课程改革，旨在交流经济学家研究的广泛社会问题，同时让学生参与主动学习策略。改革增加了对增修经济学课程和主修经济学的兴趣，拓宽了学生对经济学家工作的看法，并向学生传授了更多的内容。女学生在修订后的课程中获得更高的成绩，但没有发现对女学生、有色人种学生或第一代大学生的经济学专业兴趣的影响不同。让学生参与重要社会问题的实证工作对所有学生都有吸引力，从而导致更多来自代表性不足和代表性过高的群体的专业，