Griffith academic receives fellowship

A Gold-Coast based, Griffith University academic will work to improve the quality of economics teaching after being awarded an Associate Fellowship by the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education.

Griffith Business School Professor of Economics Ross Guest was awarded one of eight fellowships, and will spend close to 12 months promoting classroom experiments in undergraduate economics teaching across Australia.

Professor Guest said he’d always considered teaching to be just as important as research to academic life and was looking forward to making a further contribution to economics education.

“Declining economics enrolments in Australian universities over at least two decades indicate a need to improve the quality of the student learning experience,” Professor Guest said.

“Evidence indicates the best way to improve students’ learning experience is to engage students more actively.

“A practical way of achieving this is to promote the use of classroom ‘experiments’ or a range of active learning approaches which include games, simulations and role-plays.”

Through the project Professor Guest will development online resources for academics and professional development workshops so they appreciate the value of classroom experiments and willingly embed them into their teaching.

Carrick Institute Executive Director Professor Richard Johnstone said the Fellowship program aimed to promote excellence in learning and teaching in higher education by supporting leading educators to undertake strategic, high profile fellowship activities.

“Work undertaken by Fellows will further enhance the quality of tertiary teaching, and optimise the educational experience for all students,” Professor Johnstone said.

For further information visit www.carrickinstitute.edu.au