Looking forward to CTREE 2025
April 3, 2025
Once again, the Econ Ed Lab is headed to the Conference on Teaching and Research in Economic Education (CTREE) this May! The conference is in Denver, and we’ll be presenting several new papers and co-running a workshop on using AI in our teaching with Scott Simkins from NC A&T. And our Cornell travel team will be our biggest ever: Eight!
First, we’ll be presenting research from the Academic Mindset Study (AMS) with several EENE coauthors. In one paper (“How Does Academic Mindset Change During the Semester?”) we explore the mindset of students entering economics classes. Specifically, we pay attention to which demographic, institution, course, and instructor characteristics predict these changes. We find that underrepresented race and ethnic groups and students that do not identify as male start with less positive academic mindsets and are less likely to improve during the term. These problems seem to be exacerbated in introductory courses. We also find that having an instructor with more teaching experience lowers the chance of declines. Additionally, we find that students in courses that use a lot of active learning are more likely to improve their mindset during the term. In a second paper, we will look closely at data we’ve collected outside the US to see how mindset (and evolution of mindset) differ across countries. Vidya and Doug have done all the data collection and set up for these projects.
Second, we are super-excited to share what we’ve learned about the long-term educational effects on students who engaged in virtual and hybrid learning in high school during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our preliminary results show that these students start the term with significantly lower math scores and student learning at the end of the term is significantly lower for these students. We call this project Legacy of COVID, and we’ll be presenting with the two Nexus scholars who have been driving this work: Kayla and Joaquin.
Third, our Modern Macro Assessments paper describes the development and validation of two introductory and one intermediate macroeconomics assessments. Producing these assessments presented a unique challenge given the continuously evolving policy landscape and variation in what different instructors believe to be the most relevant models to teach. There are often significant differences in material taught by different instructors within the same institution and even larger differences across institutions. This paper details the iterative process of developing assessments given such difficulties. These new assessments should enable a whole new wave of empirical evaluation of teaching and learning in college macroeconomics courses. Annie, Max, Kevin, and George have been driving this project since last summer.
And last but not least, Scott Simkins and Doug are looking forward to sharing what they’ve learned about AI in the past year with CTREE attendees in an interactive workshop. They will explore how generative AI can enhance teaching and learning in economics courses, and participants will engage in hands-on group activities, share real-world applications, and discuss opportunities and challenges of AI in education. The session will also provide curated AI teaching resources and a community for ongoing collaboration.
