Applying The Constructivist Theory To The Improvement Of Microeconomics And Macroeconomics Teaching

Constructivism(also called structuralism) is a branch of the cognitive psychology.The theoretical insights from constructivism are greatly abundant,but a general viewpoint can be drawn from it as follows:it emphasizes the importance of cultivating the students'initiative in the learning process and calls on the instructor to pay special attention to developing the students'cognitive abilities so as to help them become more effective in the construction of new knowledge and experience.The constructivist perspective provides a better explanation for our cognitive law in the learning process,which has gradually become widespread in many research fields.Microeconomics and macroeconomics has an essential role to play in the specialized courses of economics and management science.However,in the majority of universities and colleges, its teaching displays some typical problems such as the current teaching approaches and instruments are outdated and simplistic,the reciprocal effect between teachers and students is insufficient,and so on.In addition,its principles,patterns and other theoretical knowledge are very dull and abstract.If many students lack a certain understanding of the real economic activities,the teacher-oriented instruction won't be beneficial for arousing the students'interests in learning and promoting their innovative consciousness and abilities.Therefore,this thesis attempts to apply theoretical insights from constructivism to a study on how to improve the classroom teaching of microeconomics and macroeconomics.Firstly,it introduces some basic theories of constructivism,since they are a necessary prelude to what follows in the next chapters.Secondly,from the constructivist perspective,it is concerned with a reexamination of the current pedagogical conceptions of microeconomics and macroeconomics.Accordingly,it is based on the constructivism to propose a new instructional design of microeconomics and macroeconomics teaching.Finally,it builds on a new pedagogical model of this teaching with the help of constructivism.