Keeping it real

Professor Cyrus (Abriel photo)

The Centre for Learning and Teaching welcomes you to the eighth in a series of conversations with Dalhousie faculty to profile a variety of approaches to learning and teaching across the disciplines. This month, we profile Teresa Cyrus, an associate professor of economics and recipient of the 2004 Award of Excellence in Teaching Economics.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?

Economics is a difficult and dull subject for a lot of students (I donÕt understand why!) and theyÕre nervous and afraid of the class.  So, for any economics teacher, the best part of teaching is seeing the student get it when they grasp something difficult. 

I like the extremes of teaching. On the one hand, for my large lecture sections of 300, I developed a joking, larger-than-life teaching persona to make economics accessible and fun for my students and to connect with them.  On the other hand, I enjoy working with students one-on-one where I can ask questions, have them work problems out for themselves, and show them itÕs ok to make mistakes.

What do you think students take away from your courses?

For the first year class, most of the students are commerce and management students and have no intention of becoming economics majors.  So my aim is that these students come out of the class with an understanding of basic economic issues. I download the latest statistics from Statistics Canada and we talk about what they mean.  We draw a lot of graphs in economics.  I love graphs but you canÕt just draw a graph and say thatÕs it.  You have to take it to the next step and show how theory works to help them read the paper and understand the concepts, or to become better informed voters and citizens.

We have an interesting group of graduate students in that we have two master programs. One is a traditional Master of Arts in Economics program (theory and math oriented) and the other is a Master of Development Economics program (mature students with interest in the development world). It is challenging to put them together. I teach these students international trade and international finance. These students take away from my courses the understanding that the theory has to match the real world: they need to understand how to use the math. International students often want to study something thatÕs very relevant to the country that they come from which is great! And I learn so much from teaching them.

Can you describe a unique technique or activity or assignment that has worked in your class?

One of the advantages of economics is that you should be able to explain something with words and explanations, or with numbers, or with a graph, and we usually like a student to use all of these approaches to show they really understand something. We try to have the questions relate to something thatÕs happening in the real world and have them apply it to the theory. The real world doesnÕt always work exactly with the theory.

The first year course, 700-800 students, is taught using four or five sections.  These classes are taught communally; we share the same course outline, textbook, assignments, and exam. The advantage of this approach is that the students are all on the same WebCT board so they can talk about the six assignments during the semester.  They can even work together in groups of three on assignments across the different sections, all members of a group receiving the same mark.

How do you integrate your scholarship into your teaching?

When it is relevant to what weÕre talking about in class, I always discuss my own research because it just makes it that much more interesting to them, even at the first year level.  When a really interested student said to me,  ÒWeÕre having this discussion on WebCT about whether trade is good for poor countries; can you talk about that in class?”, I did. The empirical questions that interest me like: ÒIs trade good for the poor?” could be addressed in a lot of different ways.  I want them to understand that we donÕt want to look at just one case, we want to look at the overall general relationship.

What is the most difficult challenge youÕve overcome as a teacher?

Many first year students are terrified of economics and tell me that they are just aiming for a D. So I have to try to get them interested and to get them to stop being afraid. If theyÕre afraid, they just shut down.   I like to find newspaper articles, or articles in the Economist magazine, and have the students discuss issues.

MBA students often want to be taught by people who have had experience in the business world, which is uncommon in economics.  In these courses, I constantly make references to the real world. I have a whole booklet of newspaper article readings that illustrate the concepts they need to learn. They are also required to bring in articles and discuss them just to see how everything is applied.

How do you use technology to enhance learning in your classroom?

When we moved to the McCain I used the visual presenter to write my notes like I was writing on the board. I quickly realized that this took too much time, so now I post my notes ahead of time.  I donÕt give them everything, but enough that when IÕm talking they can be listening and when IÕm drawing in the missing information they can follow along.

What advice about teaching would you give to new faculty or teaching assistants?

DonÕt be afraid to show your enthusiasm.  We have chosen our fields because we love them.  So show the students why!  My students think IÕm a little strange when I talk excitedly about graphs and statistics, but I donÕt mind.  They pay attention and they realize itÕs OK to love what they study.

What accomplishment are you most proud of as a teacher?

I love it when previous students contact me, even after many years, to tell me how they have used the knowledge they learned in my class.  Just recently I had a former honours students email me to tell me that she had an interview with the Ontario government and used the mnemonic device I taught her to remember how the capital account part of balance of payments accounting works.  She got the job!  I was proud of her, and pleased that I helped.

**If you would like to nominate an instructor to appear in this series, please contact:
Suzanne Le-May Sheffield at suzannes@dal.ca or call 494-1894.