September 17th, 2013 by seamus coffey today’s irish independent has an article that looks at some issues kevin denny found from an analysis of the 2012 higher level economics paper and the associated marking scheme.

kevin donoghue: september 17th, 2013 at 1 pm my personal opinion is that if the current trio of terrible syllabus, dumb questions and frequently wrong answers is to continue we would be far better off scrapping leaving certificate economics. Students who are interested can study it in any of our universities or those abroad. At that age, a student with an interest in economics would be far better off learning maths.

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Back in 1979 i heard a ucg economics lecturer warning the class that if they had done leaving cert economics they were actually at a disadvantage. September 17th, 2013 at 1 pm an important point which i think needs to be teased out is who, exactly, is setting the exam, and what quality control processes exist to make sure errors dont show up in front students. On the pedagogical front, i teach hundreds of undergrads per year, and from my direct experience, lc economics can be actively harmful.

Ger brady: september 17th, 2013 at 1 pm previous research on this in ireland found no signficant effect but a negative sign from having taken lc economics on grade among ucc undergrad students. New research presented at the isne conference but i cant remember off the top of my head if there was an effect. The correctors are slaves to the marking scheme so so all the students have to do to get a good grade is learn off a bunch of points.

I can recall at least a handful of outstanding students who performed poorly in the lc while rote learners got b1 or even an a. On the bright side, the existing course is short enough to allow time for analysis/discussion and heaven forbid free thinking in 5th year. John sheehan: september 17th, 2013 at pm the piece in the indo was comparatively restrained. The anodyne assurances given by the state examination commission that the academic integrity and structure of the paper are valid reminds me of utterances of the financial regulator in 2007 8. In the early 1990s, wearing my secretary of the irish economic association hat, i attended a meeting convened by the national council for curriculum and assessment where leaving cert economics was discussed. It was a totally demoralising experience: no one was willing to accept responsibility for putting right deficiencies in the course or for monitoring the quality of textbooks the latter being a real problem.

Before the meeting i had a look at the curriculum and examination guidelines for the northern ireland a level economics. My own experience with first year undergraduates is exactly the same as stephens: in lecture 1 they were warned not to presume that an a in the leaving cert meant that they could sit back and relax. Aedin doris: september 17th, 2013 at pm i too teach first year economics, and i too have had problems with leaving cert economics.

The first time i taught first years, in 2008, i had a problem on an assignment i set: a significant minority of the class discussed in detail why the demand for the good i had mentioned in the question i cant remember what it was any more could slope upwards, even though this was not something that i had discussed in class. Somewhat taken aback, i googled one of the phrases that id noticed coming up in these answers, and the first link that popped up was to the leaving cert exam marking scheme from that year. I clicked, and found that one of the questions asked for exceptions to the law of demand, with four suggested reasons. One of the reasons that it might be a giffen good was valid, but so unimportant in the real world that it surprised me that they bothered teaching it. The remaining two were just plain wrong both entailed shifts rather than movements in the downward sloping demand curve, the distinction between which is one of the things that we expend most effort on teaching in first year. So i wrote to the state examinations commission with an explanation of why these answers were wrong, and saying that id be happy to clarify if they wanted to get in touch.

I contented myself with including these wrong answers and explanations of why theyre wrong in my lectures on supply and demand in subsequent years. To my amazement, the same question about the exceptions to the law of demand was on the paper as the one i had complained about, and exactly the same four answers are in the marking scheme. What kevin has highlighted and what i had previously noted is not difficult things being simplified for second level students. I also completely concur with kevins points about important and unimportant points being given equal credit, and the exams not testing understanding effectively. I do hope, though, that the marking schemes containing incorrect material is not so widespread in other subjects.

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Kevin denny: september 17th, 2013 at pm joe: thats very interesting, teachers voices tend not to get heard in all this. I dont know if there is an association of economics teachers? john: i am not sure what academic integrity means in this case. Since there are unambiguous errors in the marking scheme that suggests that a some students will be marked right when they are in fact wrong and b some students will be marked wrong when they are in fact right. My guess and its only that is that the b may not less of a problem if the correctors use their initiative and reward students for answers that look right. But some correctors might hold more strictly to the marking scheme? a is still a possibilty. Perhaps i am naive but i thought either of these possibilities would spark concern. Errors like these strike me as more damaging then say the maths/triangle problem this year which was known immediately and sorted out quickly.

It also strikes me as unhelpful to teachers amp students that a marking scheme with errors is published since, as i understand it, they pay close attention to them. David jones: september 17th, 2013 at pm economics professor is shocked to find that his graduates students are not very good secondary school teachers and are even worse at setting exams.and to top it all off the syllabus is out of date unlike 1st year economics which is bang up to date obviously kevin o'rourke: september 17th, 2013 at pm kudos for raising the issue kevin. Students and teachers are busting a gut to try to study and teach this subject, trusting that it will be examined competently.

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The examiners are betraying this trust and even when it is pointed out to them in black and white are still screwing up. It may not be in the same scale of importance as other scandals like hep c or financial regulation, but in its own shabby way it is appalling. John sheehan: september 17th, 2013 at pm @ david jones the acute problems identified by aedin and and others refer to things which are plain wrong: whether the syllabus is up to date is another matter. I suspect that the up to date problems are mainly in the macro area, where in some respects time seems to have stood still since the 60s.