Posts filed under ‘Teaching’
Another Great Higher Education Quote
| Peter Klein |
From Jacques Pépin’s delightful memoir The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen (Houghton Mifflin, 2003):
By the time I had completed all but one of the required courses for my Ph.D. [in literature at Columbia, around 1972], I was thinking about quitting the kitchen and becoming a university professor. . . . [I] proposed a doctoral thesis dealing with the history of French food presented in the context of French literature. There were plenty of literary references for me to explore, from Ronsard’s “Apology to a Field Salad,” to the wedding feast in Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, to Proust’s well-known madeleine.
But when I proposed the idea, my adviser, a Frenchman, shook his head. “The reason not much has been written on the topic, Mr. Pépin,” he intoned, “is that cuisine is not a serious art form. It’s far too trivial for academic study. Not intellectual enough to form the basis of a Ph.D. thesis.” My proposal was turned down.
Perhaps I could have argued my point, but my adviser’s curt dismissal of a field so important to me, to which I had dedicated my life, helped crystallize some doubts I was having about a career in academia. Though I enjoyed research, the last time I had participated in anything resembling a stimulating intellectual discussion with fellow students was back at [Columbia’s] School of General Studies, when we met after class for drinks and conversation — people of many nationalities and all ages, a mini-United Nation. Now my associates were suddenly twenty-one- or twenty-two-year-olds whose only interest seemed to be grades. Far from being noble and high-minded, many of my professors were petty, focused on trivial departmental squabbles. When two or more of them gathere socially, the conversation was limited to university politics and junior-high-school-level gossip about other professors.
As much as anything, getting an education cured me of my complex about not having an education.
Visual Presentation Tips
| Peter Klein |
Funny examples from an anonymous comedian (via Cliff). (Warning: some coarse language.) Not as clever as the Gettysburg Address in PowerPoint but amusing nonetheless. Cliff and I both liked the pie chart on procrastination. I also liked the chart on states with squiggly borders, which relates to a serious point discussed here.
Education Quote of the Day
| Peter Klein |
F. A. Hayek, writing in The Counter-Revolution of Science (pp. 195-96 of the Liberty Fund edition) on one consequence of the French Revolution:
The Revolution had swept away the old system of colleges and universities, which system was based largely on classical education, and replaced them in 1795 with the new écoles centrales, which became the sole centers of secondary education. In conformity with the ruling spirit and by an overviolent reaction against the older schools, the teaching in the new institutions was for some years confined almost exclusively to the scientific subjects. Not only the ancient languages were reduced to a minimum and in practice almost entirely neglected, even the instruction in literature, grammar, and history was very inferior, and moral and religious instruction, of course, completely absent. . . .
Thus, a whole generation grew up to whom that great storehouse of social wisdom, the only form indeed in which an understanding of the social processes achieved by the greatest minds is transmitted, the great literature of all ages, was a closed book. For the first time in history that new type appeared which as the the product of the German Reaschule and of similar institutions was to become so important and influential in the later nineteenth and the twentieth century: the technical specialist who was regarded as educated because he had passed through difficult schools but who had little or no knowledge of society, its life, growth , problems and values, which only the study of history, literature and languages can give.
In economics especially but also in sociology, political science, psychology, and other social sciences we have trained many generations of such “technical specialists.” Is this wise? Put differently, would a typical PhD student in one of these fields benefit more, on the margin, from taking a course in history or literature or philosophy instead of one more course in quantitative methods?
Richard Vedder Is Getting More Radical
| Peter Klein |
Murray Rothbard delighted in describing Lord Acton as “one of the few figures in the history of thought who, charmingly, grew more radical as he grew older.” Richard Vedder, researching the US higher education system, is experiencing a similar transformation:
Usually, the more you study something, the more moderate you become. The simple radical solutions prove to be impractical, infeasible, or not so simple as originally thought. My evolution, however, has been rather different — I have become more, not less, radicalized in my view that fundamental reform is needed in higher education. This viewed has evolved not because of some sort of ideological change of life, or a quasi-religious conversion of some sort. It has come from running regression models — studying the evidence. The more evidence that I see that I believe is creditable and meaningful, the more I am convinced of the following:
* Too many students, not too few, are going to college;
* College and universities are extremely inefficient, and at the margin public spending on them more likely lowers rather than raises economic growth; (more…)
PhD Candidate Shortage in Accounting
| Peter Klein |
Gary Peters sent me some data about the excess demand for PhD Candidates in accounting at US business schools. A large cohort of senior faculty is due to retire soon and there are too few new PhDs to replace them. The shortage is particularly acute at Tier I universities and within sub-disciplines like tax and auditing. Fewer students appear to be enrolling in PhD programs in accounting and fewer PhD graduates are opting for academic careers (as opposed to careers in consulting).
I’m not aware of a similar deficit in economics (historically there has been a substantial excess supply of PhD candidates) though I haven’t seen any data recently. This paper in the current issue of the Academy of Management Learning and Education (via Brayden) describes a shortage of qualified faculty in other business disciplines.
Accountics
| Peter Klein |
Accounting research, like that in other social sciences, has become increasingly quantitative. Mainstream empirical research in accounting is mostly “accountics” — accounting plus econometrics. Not everyone is convinced this is a good idea:
In her Presidential Message to the American Accounting Association (AAA) in August, 2005, Judy Rayburn discussed the issue of the relatively low citation rate of accounting research compared to citation rates for research in finance, management, and marketing. Rayburn concluded that the low citation rate for accounting research was due to a lack of diversity in topics and research methods. In this paper, we provide a review of the AAA’s flagship journal, The Accounting Review (TAR), following its 80 years of publication and describe why some recent AAA leaders believe that significant changes should be made to the journal’s publication and editorial policies. At issue is whether scholarly accounting research is overly focused on mathematical analysis and empirical research, or “accountics” as it has sometimes been called, at the expense of research that benefits the general practice of accountancy and discovery research on more interesting topics. We conclude from our review of TAR that after mostly publishing research about accounting practices for the first 40 years, a sweeping change in editorial policy occurred in the 1960s and 1970s that narrowly defined scholarly research in accounting as that which employs accountics.
This is from a working paper by Jean Heck and Robert Jensen. One consequence of the focus on accountics, they argue, is that accounting researchers know less and less about accounting (e.g., accounting standards, practices, history, policy). Of course, the same criticism is often directed against contemporary research in business economics, management, and other disciplines. Scholars know much about formal modeling and quantitative methods, but little about the economy or the firm. (more…)
Would You Publish Your Dissertation Drafts on the Web?
| Peter Klein |
Academic researchers have long circulated unpublished working papers, first on paper (remember those little yellow NBER working papers?) and now on the web. Of course, opinions differ on when papers should be circulated. Some scholars share their early drafts, hoping to solicit constructive feedback; others prefer to wait for a more mature product, worrying about unpolished writings that live forever in the Google cache.
But would you circulate rough drafts of dissertation chapters online? Advisers, would you encourage your students to do this? (more…)
Color Me Beautiful
| Peter Klein |
The most popular colors on national flags are white and red, followed by blue, green, and black. Click here to see how the analysis was done, and to play a fun game of “identify the flag” (click on the pie charts to reveal the flags). (HT: SMCISS blog.)
I wonder how much of this clustering is explained by path dependence? The flags of many former European colonies are, of course, based on the mother country’s flag.
Here’s another interesting example of chromatic clustering: corporate logos. The graphic below (click to enlarge) ran in the June 2003 issue of Wired, in a feature called “The Battle for Blue.” This blurb accompanied the graphic:
Companies spend millions trying to differentiate from others. Yet a quick look at the logos of major corporations reveals that in color as in real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. The result is an ever more frantic competition for the best neighborhood.
I use this example in class to illustrate Hotelling’s law.
HBS Case on Wikipedia
| Peter Klein |
Karim Lakhani and Andrew Mcafee have written a Harvard Business School Case on Wikipedia. Unlike normal Harvard case, it’s available free online. (But you can’t edit it!)
Schumpeter the Teacher
| Peter Klein |
Robert Solow took Joseph Schumpeter’s courses on Advanced Economic Theory and the History of Economic Thought at Harvard in the late 1940s. Not surprisingly, Schumpeter dazzled, but mostly confused:
The theory lectures bordered on incoherent; they alluded to everything but analyzed nothing. He would say: “Of course you know about X or Y, so I do not have to go into detail.” But we didn’t know about X or Y, as he must have realized. The history lectures were also disappointing. I do not remember where they began, but at the end of the term they had barely reached Adam Smith. The course felt like a stage display of multilingual erudition.
This is from Solow’s review of Thomas McCraw’s new Schumpeter biography in the May 25 New Republic (gated, unfortunately). (NB: Schumpeter’s rehabilitation of economic thought before Adam Smith is perhaps disappointing only to those who believe economics was created in 1776.) Solow likes the book but thinks McCraw underappreciates Schumpeter’s Theory of Economic Development (1911), probably his most important work, and overemphasizes Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942), which Solow doesn’t care for. (more…)
e-Clips
| Peter Klein |
Check out e-Clips, a digital media archive provided by Cornell University’s Department of Applied Economics and Management. Lots of material for entrepreneurship and management courses. What professor can resist this pitch:
Wake up your students! Ever have a moment in class where it seems students are zoning out? Or feel like you are reading an assignment written by a zombie? Help is on the way. Welcome to e-Clips, the world’s largest collection of digital video clips on entrepreneurship, business and leadership.
Syllabus Exchange III
| Peter Klein |
Four syllabi for PhD courses on organization theory:
- Andrew Van de Ven’s Macro-Organization Behavior (Minnesota)
- Tim Pollock’s Organization Theory (Penn State)
- Mikko Ketokivi, Juha-Antti Lamberg, and Saku Mantere’s Advanced Organization Theory (Helsinki University of Technology)
- Teppo Felin’s Microfoundations of Strategic Organization (BYU and Helsinki University of Technology)
Thanks to Teppo for all four links.
HBR Freebies
| Peter Klein |
Harvard Business Review’s “Forethought” essays are now free, one month at a time, to non-subscribers. Here’s one on open-source R&D by Nicolai’s CBS colleague Lars Bo Jeppesen.
Tips for Academic Presentations
| Peter Klein |
Good tips from Jonathan Shewchuk (via Craig Newmark). Written for computer scientists but mostly applies across the board. Highlights:
A talk of 30 minutes or less should be an advertisement for the paper, not a replacement.
It is disturbing that so many presentations have large wasted bands of space on the border of every slide, as if to taunt the audience — “I could have used a readable font, but it’s just you.”
You communicate most powerfully when your every movement, facial expression, and utterance is in the service of the words you are saying right now, and no unproductive movement takes place.
Good speaking is about rhythm. The most common type of bad speaker delivers one talk-length paragraph at a uniform speed, never slowing for emphasis.
Most everything else, especially aesthetics, is learned through practice and feedback.
Includes great cartoons, like the one above.
Teaching Management through Demotivators
| Peter Klein |
Like many of you, I’ve considered using teaching my managerial economics course using a Dilbert collection as a secondary, or even primary, text. There are so many good ones! One could also use the wickedly funny Demotivators to illustrate key managerial and organizational theories and concepts. For example:
- Gains from trade: Consulting
- Agency costs: Get to Work, Indifference, Mediocrity
- Human capital: Incompetence, Potential
- Time preference, discounting: Procrastination
- Risk aversion: Risks
- Relative performance evaluation, internal labor markets, tournaments: Blame, Delusions, Elitism, Success
- Organizational innovation, strategic change management: Change
- Free riding, teams: Irresponsibility
- Hierarchy: Power
- Role of the institutional environment: Effort, Underachievement
The Excuse Doctrine in Contract Law: Country and Western Edition
| Peter Klein |
Tom Bell entertains his contract law class with a country-and-western song illustrating the excuse doctrine. Tom says he performs the song every year wearing cowboy boots and a bolo tie, then makes the students take a not-so-fun quiz to make sure they got the point. Not at the level of the Glenn Hubbard music video, but still pretty good for a stodgy law professor.
Promises, promises, I made to you,
And you, Darlin’, promised right back at me, too.
But my commitment is over. I’m cuttin’ you loose.
I owe you nothin’! Here’s my excuse:(refrain 1:)
Mistake, frustration, impratiCAbility:
Thanks to these reasons, I am now are free.
Mistake, frustration, impratiCAbility!
The whole deal is OFF, between you and me.
Interview with Bill Starbuck
| Peter Klein |
The March 2007 Academy of Management Learning & Education features Michael Barnett’s interview with William H. Starbuck, recently retired as ITT Professor of Creative Management at NYU. (SSRN version of the interview here.) Topics: statistical significance versus “substantive importance” (à la McCloskey — but see Siegler and Hoover 2005); complex versus simple forecasting techniques; keys to organizational learning (and “unlearning”); organizational design as process, not outcome; the relationship between management research and social issues more broadly; and more. A good read.
Managerial Economics: A Problem-Solving Approach
| Peter Klein |
I just received a copy of Luke Froeb and Brian McCann’s new MBA textbook, Managerial Economics: A Problem-Solving Approach (South-Western, 2007). I’m impressed. It looks and feels very different from the established managerial economics texts. First, it’s slim — 400 pages of decent-sized type (the latest edition of the Brickley, Smith, and Zimmerman text I’ve been using weighs in at 752 pages). Second, like Lee and McKenzie’s Microeconomics for MBAs, it’s light on graphs and equations. “Theory based but not theory emphasized,” says an editorial blurb. The book “includes less math and technical models, as well as fewer graphs and figures, than traditional managerial economics books. It teaches students to solve problems rather than learn models.” Third, it comes with endorsements from Bob Litan and P. J. O’Rourke. Any text approved by O’Rourke is certainly worth a serious look.
Perhaps most impressive, the authors are readers of O&M, which shows they have discriminating tastes.
Life After Death By PowerPoint
| Peter Klein |
Comedian Don McMillan demonstrates how not to use PowerPoint (via Volokh).
Resources For Economics Teachers
| Peter Klein |
Old fogies like myself who teach economics to undergraduates need help to make the subject come alive to Generation Z (or whatever we’re up to now). Here are links to multimedia, popular song lyrics, in-class exercises, and other useful resources.
1. Common Sense Economics — accompanies the text by the same name by Jim Gwartney, Rick Stroup, and Dwight Lee. Look under “Really Cool Stuff” for some, well, really cool stuff.
2. AmosWeb — lots of of electronic resources for economics courses. Say the producers: “we take economics seriously, but with a touch of whimsy.” Much like our attitude here at O&M, but with more substance. (HT: Jan Dauve)
3. From ABBA to Zeppelin, Led: using music to teach economics — excerpts from popular song lyrics along with economic interpretations and classroom exercises. I’ve actually heard of some of the groups! (HT: Marginal Revolution)
4. Mises.org fun page — Austrian economics cartoons, crossword puzzles, and more. Be sure to scroll down for the Monty Python money song and Roderick Long’s Kant song.
Also, remember, lecturing is out, “learner-centered instruction” is in. You’re supposed to be the guide on the side, not the sage on the stage.
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