Enhancing Economic Literacy through Causal Diagrams

Abstract

A literacy-targeted approach to economic instruction draws on insights from cognitive science. It highlights that students process complex economic information by constructing and modifying schemas that represent economic material. Following this approach, we developed a set of instructional activities centered around causal diagrams that promote a deeper understanding of economic topics beyond the traditional lecture-based methods. Our results show that structural debriefing activities can be used effectively to introduce students to the causal diagrams that explain key economic relationships in the national income model, government-purchases multiplier and tax multiplier.