New School Economic Review

Thesis Throes

by Benjamin on October 20, 2009

My posting has been a bit sporadic of late, as I am now in the last week of writing before submitting what is a first final draft of my thesis – it sounds paradoxical doesn’t it? The good thing is that I feel like the story is coming together, the bad news is that I worry constantly if the text on the page will reflect what I think. After staring at my notes and monitor for days on end, there are a couple of things I wish I’d done while working on the thesis, and a couple I am very grateful that I did. I thought I might share these, during my five minute sanity break, as they might be useful if you’re also getting to grips with having to do a thesis:

-I wish, that on every draft which people have commented on, I’d written the date it was returned, the draft number and the name of who commented. Now I have a pile of useful comments, but no idea when or why they were made on an ocean of paper instead.

-I am happy that I wrote out each of my references as I went along. Especially when I have single sheets of paper with notes, even there I pasted in any bibliographical detail at the end. It’s great! Because whenever I add new material this week I only need to copy-paste the reference off the note sheet into the bibliography.

-I wish I’d have some way of shuffling each chapter reference section into a aggregate reference section. This seems like a lose-lose situation though. Because if you work with a ‘thesis bibliography’ from the start, it becomes a pain putting out papers for conferences as the work is on-going, and if you don’t you get the pain in the last week.

-I wish I had asked more people to read my chapters, and to read them earlier. I’ve had lots of great feedback, and a lot of it from outside sources. But each draft seems to make the point clearer, and each comment tends to sharpen the mind. “If it’s unclear to the reader, then your writing is unclear” – regardless of who the reader is. Rough but true.

-I’m glad I went to conferences every year. Why didn’t someone tell me in my first year that going to conferences means you’ll meet people who are interested in what you do, have expert knowledge, and are generally willing to read your stuff (because they’re interested) and give you comments and feedback. Fantastic.

I’m sure more will come to me as I finish the thing up – and it has to be done – and once this week is over there will be more recurrent blog posts from my side. I already have two or three very exciting things lined up :)

Grad School vs. Unemployment Benefits

by Benjamin on August 24, 2009

Continuing the rational insanity that is graduate school choice and education over work, as discussed previously, PhDcomics.com offers a sobering comparison…

Educating educators

by Benjamin on May 11, 2009

A topic close to my heart is the quality of teaching in universities, or sometimes the lack of it. A good lecturer inspires us while a bad lecturer can truly kill the wish to study any subject. In this sense it baffles me that we do not teach ‘presentations & teaching’ to graduate students, or at least to Ph.D. Students. Even the undergraduates could benefit from such a subject.

Creating interesting and good presentations is a skill which people retain for life. The ability to pitch a project to investors, present a technical subject or convince 100 undergrads of a theoretical idea all fall under the same heading of ‘presentation’. So why don’t we focus on doing more about it in higher education?

I suspect part of the answer lies with the fact that the academics who actually put on a really good lecture, don’t know how to teach that skill to others. When I say “Really Good” I am talking about the stuff that Al Gore does in his environmental talks, I am talking about Steve Jobs MacWorld Keynote Speeches, I am thinking of documentaries like Planet Earth and adverts which resonate and stay with us, like this 2006 Argentinian election ad. They are all memorable, interesting and informs the audience, much like the “Lost Generation” clip below, inspired by the Election Advert:

As lecturers and Teachers we should be inspirational. So I think that we in academia can learn a lot from people who give good presentations, and we can use it to our benefit in lectures. I am not suggesting that technical subjects should become cartoonish or silly entertainment, what I am suggesting is that lectures can be delivered (regardless of the topic) in interesting ways which motivates students, and not as repetitions of the text-book, (which students will read without you anyway). Not every talk needs slides, and not every talk needs problem solving, the issue is to know when each tool is appropriate as an interested audience is always key.

Some of my best lectures were on Gerrard Debreu’s Theory of Value (free here), a book I would recommend to no-one, but which was taught in a manner that made the topic and its author come alive. For those in the know, Debreu’s book is anything but fun, so if there is hope for that, imagine what can be done with exciting subjects like the development of whole nations or the political intrigue of growth policies? 

So what can be done? Can we teach people to do good presentations, not meaning 1 slide, 7 bullet points, 7 words, but something you could get on a stage with (a lecture hall is a stage) and interest your students – or friends? – with for two hours. (I invited a friend of mine to a lecture I gave after having harped on about teaching at home, and must admit I was a lot more nervous about her [educated] reaction to my presentation than my undergrads’ – I recommend it, it’s a good experiment in self-improvement / flagelation). I think teaching ‘presentation skills’ can be done, but I do not think that we are properly equipped to address the issue as academics yet. Simply because we haven’t been taught anything about doing good presentations or good lectures ourselves. For us it was assumed that we would catch on to good practice (or more likely, avoid the worst practice) as we sat through conferences, lectures and seminar talks. Osmosis, however, can only do so much, and there’s a lot to do learn before we can teach the next generation how to take to the stage in the world around us. Personally I am reading much more, and have been contributing to the British Economics Networks series on their ‘New Lecturers Workshop’ where I’ve just finished a quick 2k article on undergrad teaching [yup, shameless self-promotion, you spotted it], with some videos and references to things which I feel have impacted my own teaching in the last six months, It’s a long road ahead, but hey, it’s been a lot of fun so far.