As this year draws to an end, we look back at all the wonderful classes, events and projects that have taken place in 2018-2019 Term 1. A few CTaLE members reflected on this time and some notable moments.
Highlights for Dr. Cloda Jenkins included Alice Li, a 2nd year UCL Economics student, winning the Royal Economic Society video competition building on her work from the First Year Challenge (FYC) that we facilitate. There were also successful alumni evenings for MSc and BSc students with many thanks to the alumni who joined us and to UCL’s The Economist’s Society for organising the BSc one. Alumni provide such an invaluable source of information and experience for our current students and it’s always great to see everyone together. To top it all off, it was particularly good to see large numbers of staff and students attend talks given by Nobel laureates Jean Tirole and Robert J. Shiller.
Dr. Parama Chaudhury has had a very busy Term 1 culminating in a trip to Madrid with a talk at the Spanish Economic Association’s inaugural Economics Education Committee invited session. Here is a little snippet of her experience:
The chair of the Committee, Pedro Rey Biel, and Committee member, Nagore Iriberri, invited several speakers to this session to give attendees an idea of the different issues confronting those looking to improve economics education. These included a presentation by Cristina Lopez-Mayan on how students’ misperceptions about economic concepts changes (or not!) with a course in economics, and Carlos Cortinhas, an old friend of CTaLE’s, talking about his work on how lecture recording affects students’ academic outcomes. My presentation focused on introducing lecturers to the FYC, but also showing them how they could adapt it to their own contexts, including to field courses and to different locales. The interesting discussions generated amongst everyone from senior economists to post-docs was the highlight of my first ever, but sadly just 2-day trip to the beautiful city of Madrid!
Dr. Silvia Dal Bianco remarked that a lot happened in Term 1 that made her very happy and enthusiastic about being a CTaLE member. Through her role as a personal tutor, she has enjoyed being part of the human face of the department. It’s also been great to see our own Dr. Frank Witte at work as departmental tutor. Teaching and working with the students this term has been a fulfilling experience alongside bonding more with fellow CTaLE members at our annual Christmas dinner!
Stay tuned for our blog post on what we’re looking forward to in the new year!
Centre for Teaching and Learning Economics 
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