To: Members of the American Economic Association
From: Peter L. Rousseau, Secretary-Treasurer

The American Economic Association Outreach Task Force and the Committee on Economic Education are pleased to announce the EDUCATE workshop to be held in conjunction with the AEA 2021 Continuing Education Program. The workshop will be conducted as a virtual, synchronous Zoom and Canvas supported course running January 5 – 7, 2021.

This workshop will provide opportunities for instructors of introductory courses to take part in course design activities and experience pedagogical strategies that will engage all of the students they teach (preference will be given to those less than 6 years since PhD).

Participants will engage with issues of diversity and inclusion throughout the workshop including opportunities to think critically about course goals and learning outcomes, their relationship to pedagogical choices and assessment, and how such decisions might have disparate effects on those of different races, genders, and ethnicities.

Research suggests that students have more interest in courses that address issues of importance to them and allow them to engage in their own economic analysis. The workshop will provide opportunities for attendees to identify learning objectives that focus on students' ability to "do economics" and to participate in pedagogical practices that enable students to be active participants in economic analysis. The workshop will begin with an exploration of how to construct learning objectives and utilize them in the backwards course design process. Participants will then be introduced to pedagogical practices that are collaborative and inclusive, including cooperative learning, engaging lectures, data integration and classroom experiments. By the end of the workshop, participants will draft a plan to integrate lessons learned into their own introductory courses. To further support development and implementation, participants will join a buddy pairing (overseen by a mentor) with the express goal of supporting the enhancement of teaching practices after the workshop has concluded. Participants will be provided opportunities to share their work at the 2022 ASSA and CTREE meetings.

More specifically, participants should expect to develop:

• The ability to apply the scientific process so as to choose between competing evidence-based teaching practices that might have disparate effects on those of different races, genders, and ethnicities.
• The ability to analyze and evaluate how classroom climate, pedagogy, and assessment impact student behaviors and outcomes, recognizing that these impacts are heterogeneous.
• The ability to teach students to learn economics using some of the quantitative approaches employed by economists.
• The ability to think critically about course goals and learning outcomes and their relationship to pedagogic choices and assessment, with special attention to enhancing diversity and inclusion.
• The ability to communicate motivations for, and outcomes of, teaching enhancement to diverse audiences.

The application is currently available and a rolling acceptance procedure will be used, starting on October 1, 2020 and continuing until all workshop slots have been filled.

Workshop details and application portal are available at https://www.aeaweb.org/go/educate-workshop.