My goals as a university educator are to facilitate student learning by (i) stimulating subject interest, relevance and applicability, (ii) encouraging critical thought, (iii) expanding on student’s knowledge- base and (iv) creating a classroom environment where ideas, thoughts and contributions are valued, welcomed and encouraged. My teaching skills, methodologies and techniques are tailored to create a synthesis of these objectives in the context of my courses (see Statement of Teaching Competence).

As an educator of economics at the university level a primary aim of every course is to “think like an economist” by developing and refining conceptual and analytical tools which shed light on outcomes in real world markets. A sub-component of this is the desire to have students conduct economic research consistent with the level of the course. For instance, as a way to illuminate macro concepts I ask my principles students to download economic data – such as interest rate and price level time series – and conduct preliminary analysis. Getting their hands dirty with actual economic data provides a sense of tractability to a discipline noted by undergraduates for its obscurity and opaqueness.

On an epistemological level, it is a central goal to bring the field of economics closer to the students. For introductory courses, I strive to welcome and engage students in the dynamism that characterizes the behavior of market participants and ultimately market outcomes. Through numerous approaches and delivery vehicles (see Statement of Teaching Competence) I aim to expose the connection we all share with economics and enlighten students with tools to gain a richer understanding of this interconnectedness. At the advanced levels, there is room to investigate more critically many of the regularities of market behavior with the aid of a more advanced statistical toolkit.

As an practitioner in higher education it is my job to instill the notion of inquiry into students’ thought process. Progress toward this aim has been supplemented by the courses within the Cognate in College Teaching at the University of New Hampshire. There, issues involving modern-day student culture, attention retainment, teaching with writing and effective classroom organization have been investigated and serve as a foundation for growth and progression as a facilitator of the learning process.  Since my formal training in the Cognate at the graduate level, I have attended several Teacher Training workshops and have a working paper on the epistemological benefits of a macroeconomics journal at the principles level.