I started a new topic today (production and costs) in my introductory micro course. For some years I’ve felt that this material was tedious and that I was spending too much time on it. (Think of all the permutations and combinations of the short and long run production and cost curves.) But I was never able to justify cutting it short.
Today as I was preparing to lecture, I realized that the experiment gives me that justification. The material is very well and completely explained in the text. It’s somewhat technical, but not abstract, rather only very detailed.
I can reduce it to 1.5 class sessions instead of about a week. What I need to do is focus on working through my examples and leave the concepts and mechanics for the students to learn from the book. In fact, that’s what I told the students. I spent half the class today introducing the topic; then told students they’d need to read to get the rest. Monday, we’ll work through the examples.
I like it.
