Week 11: Chapter 13: Making Economic Decisions!

4. Explain how to use the economic decision-making model with students.

It had been years since I have learned about economics. The first time I can remember learning about anything that was strictly called economics was when I was in 8th grade and learned about the stock market. My class did a yearlong program were we had to follow the stock market, buy and trade stocks and create a successful portfolio.  This program was for all 8th graders in Connecticut. They had prizes and awards for the top "earners". At the time I was not interested in doing this at all so I did the bare minimum to pass the assignment.  Some other students in my class actually took the project VERY serious and won 5th place  in the state ranks. I wish I paid more attention back then. Fast forward to my sophomore year in college (about 10 years ago) when I thought I wanted to be a business major. I was taking Intro to Business, Micro Economics, Macro Economics, Statistics, and English Literature. I LOVED everything economics! I did great in all my classes but I found that the economics classes were very easy to the point that they turned into my "easy A" classes. Ten years later, whiles learning how to teach economics to elementary students, I realized that I have forgotten everything I had ever learned (for the most part) about economics. I have been in the airline industry and had to worry about the economic climate of the time and other key economic concepts but nothing very in-depth.

When I read Chapter 13 in Social Studies for the Elementary and Middle Grades: A Constructivist Approach, by Cynthia Szymanski Sunal and Mary Elizabeth Haas,  I realized that before I could even think about teaching economics, I needed to brush up on what economics is all about.

During this reading, I picked the following objective to focus on "4. Explain how to use the economic decision-making model with students."

To start this response, one must know what economics is based on.

• "Economics is based on the realization that people want more than the resources available can provide" (Sunal & Haas, 2011, p.413).

"Economic Educators today recommend an in-depth understanding of scarcity and the influence of incentives and strategic thing about how scarcity applies to personal examples and to the more complex and morally difficult issues in the international realm" (Sunal & Haas, 2011, p. 413). This is important because people will have to make decisions on whether the product/good is worth it.

There are "four fundamental questions in economic decision making:

1. What should be produced?
2. How should the production be organized?
3. How will goods and services be distributed?
4. What are the most effective allocations for their land, labor, capital, and management?" (Sunal & Haas, 2011, p. 415).

In history, rulers, inventors, workers and governments have tried to answer these questions. Most times their decision making was only based on the good of their people or interests. In today's world, we must make these decisions on a global scale. Teachers must teach their students about the "interdependence of nations and the role of the United States in a global economy" (Sunal & Haas, 2011, p.415).

Scarcity is one of the major concepts when considering economic decision-making. Economists encourage people to "make rational decision that consider the economic long- and short-term consequences. The decision maker must weigh the alternatives and be aware of the opportunity cost of what is given up when one alternative is selected" (Sunal & Haas, 2011, p. 428). The selected choice must outweigh all of the opportunity costs.

The Key to teaching students economic decision-making skills is to teach them hot to "identify the alternatives, criteria, and the consequences and to select what they see as the best alternative" (Sunal & Haas, 2011, p. 428).

To start teaching students about Economic decision-making by using a couple different ways. One way is using the following chart. This is a great tool to help the children realize what goes into making informed decisions.

Another technique could be using the word PACED. "The PACED Decision-Making model provides for students to be actively involved in the decision-making process. It provides teachers and students with a straight-forward decision-making matrix that can help rational decision-making skills. 

1. Define the PROBLEM                                       P

2. List the ALTERNATIVES                                 A

3. Select CRITERIA                                              C

4. EVALUATE the alternatives                              E

5. Make a DECISION                                           D

Here is a good cite that list how to teach PACED!