Terry College of Business Department of Economics

TO:

REVIEW COMMITTEE, GRADUATE SCHOOL PORTFOLIO CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

FROM:

DR. KATHERINE MCCLAIN, GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANT COORDINATOR

SUBJECT:

GRADUATE TEACHING PORTFOLIO NOMINATION FOR THOMAS LEBESMUEHLBACHER

DATE:

08/26/2015

Thomas Lebesmeuhlbacher has been the instructor of record for an economics course on two separate occasions and is very well received by our students. Teaching principles of economics courses presents two separate challenges. First, most students take the course as a requirement rather than out of desire and second, the material is different from what they have taken for four years in high school. Thomas does a great job meeting both of these obstacles. The Department of Economics heartily supports his participation in the Graduate School Teaching Portfolio Program. Most students taking an introductory economics course do so to fulfill a requirement for their major (e.g. journalism) or as pre-requisite for admission to the business school. Few have ever taken economics before or even thought about situations from an economic point of view. This means we must not only introduce key precepts and methods of economics, but also motivate to a wide range of students why economics is relevant to their chosen course of study and to their life in general. Thomas achieves this admirably, using current events, homework and test questions which weave together economics and other disciplines. Comments from his students reveal this: “The concepts that we learned are vital to what is actually going on in the world around us.” “The course was very interesting to have because I was able to learn about businesses and how they work in real life. The class was extremely engaging and very easy to follow.” “The in-class examples and graphs as well as real life examples were the most helpful in learning the material. The practice problems Thomas drew on the whiteboard were always the most helpful for me, and they were always good examples of test questions.”

Thomas’ teaching portfolio demonstrates his passion for the subject and his commitment to students and their learning process. His teaching philosophy statement shows he understands the unique challenges of teaching introductory economics and specifically designs his class around this challenge. One student says: “Despite the fact that many of us were not economics majors, he really tried the best he could to make the material appealing to everyone.” “My instructor was fabulous, easy to work with, caring, and knowledgeable on the topic. He encouraged participation and helped out whenever he could. He even tried to make the mundane topic interesting by bringing in examples that related to the students and further helped them understand the material.” His sample teaching materials and teaching roles and projects show that Thomas looks for innovative ways to engage students in economics and to provide for individual learning styles. His economic essay assignment is a great tool for having students put into practice the economics tools they are learning on a topic of specific interest to them. Thomas has a real passion and grasp of the subject which students immediately recognize and respond to. He has a natural presence in the classroom, a firm grasp of the material, and a deep desire to help students understand economics. “Thomas is always very enthusiastic about the material and teaching in general. He really understands what he’s teaching and explains it well. He also really cares about the students, thoroughly answering every question and following it up with an email after class if he feels he can explain it better.” Thomas’ teaching evaluations confirm his teaching effectiveness and the success of his course. Students indicate they like both the structure of the course and Thomas as an instructor. He has worked hard to design a course that is appealing and engaging without sacrificing content or rigor. The Economics department is very pleased with Thomas’ teaching. We see in him great potential as a teacher and mentor and appreciate his commitment to teaching economics well, making students a priority, and always striving for excellence. His portfolio amply demonstrates these qualities.

Teaching Portfolio Thomas Lebesmuehlbacher Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Economics Farmer School of Business Miami University [email protected]

Contents 1

Teaching Philosophy

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2

Description of Courses Taught

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3

Teaching Interests

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Sample of Student Work

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5

Innovative Teaching Roles and Projects 5.1 Economics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Economic Essays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 Interactive Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6 6 6 7

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List of Professional Activities related to teaching at UGA

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Special Training and Teaching Related Experiences 7.1 GRSC 7770 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 Professional Development Teaching Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8 8 8

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Summary of Teaching Evaluations 8.1 Quantitative Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2 Qualitative Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8 8 9

1

Teaching Philosophy

Despite being regarded as the “dismal science,” economics addresses and explains many of society’s problems. As an economics teacher, my goal is to present topics in such a way that students from all majors can relate, I develop creative teaching strategies that hold students to high academic standards, and I integrate research into my teaching. By combining these elements, I construct a stimulating environment for my students that both spurs and satisfies their curiosity. Winston Churchill once said, "Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught." Many economics teachers face the challenge of teaching students taking their courses because it is required rather than desired. My biggest challenge is to motivate students across academic disciplines to learn economic concepts and to understand the value added to their degree and daily life. I plan my course material to incorporate examples from different fields, such as business, public policy and every day life. For example, students sometimes struggle to grasp the concept of price elasticities, despite them being part of their daily life. Before teaching technicalities, I let students guess signs and magnitudes of price elasticities, cross-price elasticities, and income elasticities of different goods. This helps them understand that an elasticity is merely a description of how consumption behavior changes if either prices or income changes. After pinning down the intuition and walking through the analytical aspects of elasticities, I like to illustrate the concept with an example. In the case of elasticities, I discuss studies regarding the effects of slave redemption. While earlier studies have found that Human Rights Organizations’ efforts of buying freedom for slaves in Sudan significantly reduced slave trade, more recent studies show how slave redemption can potentially be harmful. The different results are due to different assumptions about the elasticity of the supply curve. While earlier studies assume that the supply of slaves is perfectly inelastic (vertical supply curve), more recent studies assume an upward sloping supply curve. We analyzed both scenarios graphically and illustrated how assumptions about elasticities can lead to completely different outcomes. I try to teach each concept similar to the way I teach elasticities: first, I introduce intuition, then provide students with the technical tools to solve problems, and finally work through an example. As Steven Greenlaw puts it, “The best way to learn economics is not to hear about it, or to read about it, but to do it.” In addition to examples, I provide my students with practice problems and discuss them in the classroom. I assign weekly homework that focuses less on recollection but rather on problem solving. In my course evaluations, my students gave me positive feedback about the assignments and practice exams and how they helped them understand the material and keep their studies on pace during the semester. Technology has an important place in my teaching. While I mostly lecture using “board talk,”

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I also incorporate video clips, Classroom Response Systems, and online newspapers into my presentations. One semester, I taught Game Theory after Super Bowl XLIX between the Patriots and Seahawks. The game was won by the Patriots after what the Seattle Times titled “The worst call in Super Bowl History.” I started the class by watching the final call of the play. Next, I had students vote via a Classroom Response System if they would have made the same call (Pass the Ball), or a different one (Run). A large majority agreed with the Seattle Times and would have chosen a different play. After the ballot, we looked at an article in The Economist: Defending the Indefensible.1 This article provides statistics and explains from a Game Theory perspective, why the final call by the Seahawks was actually the statistically favorable play. After we discussed mixed strategies, students voted again: even though the majority still picked “Run”, the result was much closer to 50:50. While Mixed Strategy Nash Equilibria are typically considered too advanced for a Principles class, I hold my students to high standards. When an instructor communicates high and clear expectations, students will respond accordingly and push themselves to achieve more than they may have previously believed possible. Often seen as a tradeoff, teaching and research can complement each other. Good teaching and discussions with students can stimulate research and vice versa. For instance, when discussing externalities, I use examples from my research, such as spillovers from migration and their consequences for both the home and host country. Since migration is continuously debated in the media, this example provides students with an opportunity to think outside the box. In contrast, my research benefits from discussions with students regarding their experience with migration and how it has affected their families. I am excited to teach economics and help to shape the mind of young students. I hope to stimulate an enthusiasm for the discipline in my students by using examples from real social issues, and to help my students meet high expectations. The skills from my courses will help them to be better practitioners in any given field and hopefully enrich the next generation.

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Description of Courses Taught

Principles of Microeconomics Semesters Taught: Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2016 Enrollment and Student Profile: 30-40 Undergraduate students Course Description: Microeconomics is the study of how firms, governments, and individuals make decisions given the constraints they face. This course explains the basic principles of markets and under what assumptions these markets can achieve the greatest efficiency. We also discuss how markets behave when these assumptions do not hold and the perplexing problems that arise in 1 http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2015/02/game-theory-american-football

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business and public policy. We study market failure and discuss topics such as externalities, asymmetric information, and moral hazard. We then discuss the theory of the firm and use examples to show how economic thinking can help companies become more profitable. This course also covers basic principles of game theory and its applications. The principles learned in this course can be applied to education, finance, health care, business strategy, politics, and governance. Teaching Responsibilities: As the instructor of record for this course, I am responsible for designing the syllabus, all teaching, writing/grading tests, and assigning grades. The final grade is determined according to weekly homework assignments (25%), 2 midterm exams (25% each) and a final exam (25%). I incorporate various types of instructional formats including “board talk”, video, and online data sources.

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Teaching Interests

I am interested in teaching Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, Intermediate Microeconomics, Intermediate Macroeconomics, Econometrics, Mathematical Economics, Quantitative Methods, Development Economics, Economics of Growth, and International Economics at the Undergraduate Level. Further, I am interested in teaching Graduate Level Courses, especially in the field of Macroeconomics.

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Sample of Student Work

The purpose of teaching economics is to encourage students to think rationally about relevant issues on the national, state, and local levels. I try to achieve this along two dimensions. First, I confront students with current economic problems and ask them to apply concepts from class to either explain the problem or find a solution. For example, approximately half of my students at UGA received Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally). In the context of externalities we talk about the government’s incentive to provide funds for education. We discuss potential positive spillovers from education and their effect on society. Further we talk about how many of my students, or their friends, would not invest in an education if it was not for HOPE. After making sure students are familiar with the intuition behind a positive externality from education and the effect of subsidies, such as HOPE, I test their ability to solve the problem graphically and analytically:

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Besides testing their analytical capability to solve a problem, I encourage my students to think like an economist in their day-to-day lives. I ask my students to write a short essay explaining a scenario from their everyday life and how it ties in with the economic concepts learned in class. For example, one student pointed out the negative externalities arising from students wanting to take the latest bus that brings them to class just in time: “When I wake up in the morning, I have to make sure to leave the house an hour before hand to skip the bus traffic. Between 9:30 and 10:45, there is a sharp increase in bus traffic as people all leave for class at the same time and attempt to get on the same bus. The busses become hotter with body heat, people have to stand shoulder to shoulder and some times with their book bags in face. It’s awkward, uncomfortable, physically demanding at times, and mostly just annoying to be on such a bus around these times.” He discusses potential solutions and how they are most likely unsuccessful in a market with selfish individuals: “The number of busses increase due to rush hour traffic as students leave to class and come home all roughly around the same time. However, with students all wanting to get home first, the number of busses doesn’t really matter because the first bus in line is going to get as many students crammed in to the bus as possible.” Another student wrote about the high variance of gas prices within the same neighborhood. Since gas is a rather homogenous good, and gas stations are in direct competition with one another, he expected there to be less variance. He explained this phenomenon by thinking about consumer’s opportunity costs and a firm’s goal to maximize profit: “In a perfectly competitive market, consumers are well informed about prices, but with gas, consumers still purchase their gas at stations whose prices are not even the lowest in a mile radius. 5

Again this is for a number of factors. As mentioned before, location plays a huge role. It is more convenient for the consumer to get off the highway, fill up with gas, and get back on the road then it is for them to seek out the cheapest prices in the area. This is opportunity cost. They can save three cents per gallon but make the effort to look up the cheapest gas and spend the extra time to drive there, or they can save the time and effort and pay three more cents. [...] How can Sam’s Club and Kroger afford to charger lower prices? Well that’s fairly simple in the fact that their primary sources of revenue are NOT gasoline, and they can use the gas prices as a gimmick to get you through the door into their establishments to purchase more goods. Also, to get gasoline at Sam’s Club you also need a membership (which costs only $45 annually)...”

5 5.1

Innovative Teaching Roles and Projects Economics in the News

Economics Principles are filled with definitions and concepts that, often, do not relate directly to a student’s life or the real world. Hence, many students struggle wrapping their head around a certain concept. By relating each concept to an actual event students not only understand the relevance, but also the intuition behind the concept. For example, when we discussed oligopoly theory and cartels, we looked at surveillance videos published by the FBI regarding the investigation of the Lysine Cartel in the 1990s. These videos showed CEO’s of several Lysine companies get together, fix prices, allocate market shares, and establish an incentive scheme to stick to the agreement. Further we looked at production cost and price data, as well as fines and legal protection for the whistle-blower to understand the incentives for the formation and eventual breakdown of the cartel.

5.2

Economic Essays

I encourage students to look at certain aspects of their lives through the eyes of an economist. For example, each spring, the local Ben & Jerry’s gives away free ice cream. That day, the line in front of the store goes around the block. I ask my students how many of them waited in line, for how long they waited, or why they chose not to wait in line. This example provides a nice illustration of people’s preferences, opportunity costs, and tradeoffs. Similarly, I ask my students to write a short 1-2 page paper explaining a similar scenario from their everyday life, and how it ties in with the economic concepts learned in class. Paper topics range from a discussion of varying gas prices of stations that are only a few blocks apart, to contract/player specific incentive schemes in football to increase performance, or the negative externality students impose on others by all wanting to get on the same bus during peak times.

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5.3

Interactive Learning

The biggest challenge of teaching an introductory class is to keep students interested in the subject, especially those who do not major in the field. Therefore, I try to create an interactive learning environment. For example, laptops and cell phones greatly facilitated the use of Classroom Response Systems (Clicker Questions). Before I started using Clicker Questions, it was always the same students providing the answers. However, this gave me no indication whether the rest of the class did not want to participate, or could not answer the question. Clicker Questions provide a great opportunity to get the entire class engaged. Students are happy to get a break from learning new material, and the system lets them answer anonymously. This reduces the pressure on students, increases their participation, and gives me a better feeling for the level of understanding in the class room. Moreover, I use classroom activities to illustrate various concepts. For example, when talking about production and diminishing returns I set up an assembly line, represented by two buckets set up about 20 feet apart. The goal is to transport items (e.g. tennis balls) from point A to point B within a certain time. The workforce is made up of students who hand off the items to the next student in line. The game starts out with enough students in the production line that they almost touch shoulders. After each round, the number of items that made it from Point A to B is recorded, and the non-participating students get to fire an employee. The game repeats until only one student is left who has to move the items from bucket A into bucket B by himself. After the game is over, I enter the data into an excel spreadsheet and plot a graph showing the relationship between number of workers (input) and output. This game provides an intuitive illustration of the relationship between inputs and output, and diminishing returns.2

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List of Professional Activities related to teaching at UGA

I have served as a Teaching Assistant for the Following Courses: • Undergraduate Courses: Principles of Microeconomics, Economics of Growth and Development, International Trade, Introduction to Econometrics, Principles of Microeconomics (Honors Class), Health Economics, Intermediate Macroeconomics • MBA: Business Microeconomics/Macroeconomics • Graduate Level Courses: Macroeconomic Theory III 2 See

http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/showcase/hedges_tennis for a more detailed description of the game.

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While working as a teaching assistant, my responsibilities included grading student work including exams and homework, helping design assessment material, holding office hours, and guest lecturing when the professor was unavailable. As a result of this experience, I am well prepared to teach any of the previously mentioned courses.

7 7.1

Special Training and Teaching Related Experiences GRSC 7770

All graduate students in the Terry College of Business are required to complete a teaching seminar before they can serve as an instructor. This class covered various subjects such as how to write a syllabus, teaching tips for effective communication, conflict resolution, and teaching policies for the Terry College and the University of Georgia. During the semester, we also completed several assignments related to teaching, created lessons plans, and taught in a simulated classroom environment. This class also focused on proper professional behavior as a future university faculty member and we discussed issues unique to teaching in a business school.

7.2

Professional Development Teaching Workshop

The workshop included presentations and active learning sessions about innovative teaching techniques that engage students. Among others, topics covered how to create a innovative classroom, how to communicate effectively with your students and how to incorporate active learning to your class. The workshop taught me how to use social media and technology to create a more efficient learning environment both inside and outside the classroom. Further, it provided great examples how to actively engage students in the learning process. For example, by creating a class Twitter account, I can assign extra credit to students posting news articles or pictures that illustrate an economic concept learned in class.

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Summary of Teaching Evaluations Quantitative Summary

Each question was rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being “strongly agree” and 1 being “strongly disagree”. Higher values denote more positive responses. Qualitative comments follow this table on the next page.

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Questions

Spring 2014

Spring 2015

The course was well organized

4.67

4.35

The course objectives were clearly stated

4.60

4.50

Overall, the course was excellent

4.37

4.00

The instructor was available outside of class

4.87

4.65

The instructor stimulated students interest

4.50

4.24

The instructor was enthusiastic about teaching

4.77

4.60

The instructor was well prepared

4.73

4.77

The instructor used class time effectively

4.70

4.58

The instructor encouraged student participation

4.47

4.52

The instructor presented ideas and concepts clearly

4.47

4.04

Overall, the instructor was effective at teaching

4.63

4.12

The textbook, readings and other materials were helpful

4.20

4.15

Assignments and activities were useful for helping me understand

4.30

4.40

Homework, paper and exams were returned in timely fashion

4.77

4.69

The exams were fair

4.47

4.31

Feedback on graded homework and exam was helpful

4.37

4.23

The course will be of value to me

4.27

4.15

I learned a lot in this course

4.40

4.19

The course challenged me to think and learn

4.40

4.38

I would take another course with this instructor

4.47

3.92

Overall Course Mean

4.52

4.34

76.92%

63.41%

Total Responses

8.2

Qualitative Responses

• Course Comments – The concepts that we learned are vital to what is actually going on in the world around us. The mathematical mechanics of this course are indeed a bit difficult at times whereas other areas are quite simple. – The book was very concise and easy to understand. The material is difficult, however, and without my instructor’s help, I would not understand the material as well. – I thought the entire course from beginning to end was well organized, clear, and quite engaging. Overall, I see little room for improvement.

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– I liked this class a lot and i hate econ. way better then the class I had to drop last semester. – This course was very interesting to have because I was able to learn about businesses and how they work in real life. The class was extremely engaging and very easy to follow. I think that the information was presented in a good way because not only could we follow along with the PowerPoint but there was also drawings up on the board and easy explanations with them. – The in-class examples and graphs as well as real life examples were the most helpful in learning the material. The practice problems Thomas drew on the whiteboard were always the most helpful for me, and they were always good examples of test questions. – Overall this class was very enjoyable. I thought there was a natural progression with the topics we learned. They built off of each other, which made it easier to understand. • Instructor Comments – Thomas was a great teacher! While I have not taken many Economics courses so far, I can honestly say that he is the best Economics teacher I have ever had. Despite the fact that many of us were not Economics majors, he really tried (the best he could) to make the material appealing to everyone. He was very timely with grades which was a big plus, and was open to answering any questions that the class had. Overall, it was a great experience. Thanks Thomas! – Thomas is always very enthusiastic about the material and teaching in general. He really understands what he’s teaching and explains it well. He also really cares about the students, thoroughly answering every question and following it up with an email after class if he feels he can explain it better. He also goes out of his way to schedule review sessions before the tests, which is very appreciated. – Thomas genuinely wanted his students to do well. He went the extra step to ask questions amongst the students. Although class participation level was low (no one would say anything when he asked questions), he kept making an extra effort to ensure that students firmly understood the material. He was always available during office hours and even created an extra study session to pinpoint exactly what each student had trouble with. Overall, I was very impressed with Thomas and I love his style of teaching. If I could take him for Macro or for any other subject for that matter, I most certainly would. I wish him all the best in his future as he is especially passionate about economics and it is easy to pick up on this as a student.

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– Pronounces scarce wrong. I’m just joking; instructor tries really hard to give good examples & keep class engaged. One of the best instructors I’ve had. – My instructor was fabulous, easy to work with, caring, and knowledgeable on the topic. He encouraged participation and helped out whenever he could. He even tried to make the mundane topic interesting by bringing in examples that related to the students and further helped them understand the material. I really cannot think of anything else he could do to improve, I loved having him and learned more from him than I could from anyone else teaching the subject. – I think Thomas was a great teacher! He is young and understood what it is like to be in college nowadays. He was not one of those teachers who overloaded us with work! He wants us to succeed in the class and as long as we put forth an effort he is willing to help us succeed in any way that he could and this was so great to find in a teacher! That being said he did make us work for our grade, but his willingness to help and knowing that he wasn’t trying to make us fail made is easy to work hard in this class! I would choose him as a professor again in a second if I had the chance! – Thomas is very understanding and helpful. He knows the subject matter is challenging for many students and does his best to explain things clearly. He grades fairly and genuinely cares about his students. We started doing clicker-style questions about halfway into the semester, and I think it really helped the more quiet students get involved and participate. – The instructor was awesome. He would always work over problems until everyone understood which I appreciated. We moved at a reasonable pace. He always asked us if we had questions about the homework, and tried to bring up interesting and relevant examples during class. Overall the class was great and I would definitely recommend it. The only thing I would suggest is to maybe spend more time reviewing multiple choice problems before a test instead of just short answer, but that is a minor detail. – Mr. Thomas was an awesome teacher. He was always very helpful if I had questions after class and you could tell he really enjoyed helping you understand. He also always tried to engage the students by having a video or online questions that you had to answer. It also really helps that it is a small class, because Mr. Thomas makes an effort to learn your name and try to build that teacher student relationship. I would definitely take his class again if I could. – I absolutely loved my teacher. He was funny and kept the class interesting. He also was very helpful in making sure we understood the material, and always gave extra examples and real life examples of what we were learning at the time. 11