Learning study, economics and cognitive bias: what is the object of learning?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report how teachers have engaged in a Learning Study to develop, from the experience of their students, an object of learning which has important implications for pedagogy.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a Learning Study of the economic concept of price over three cycles with varying groups of high school students which explored the effect of context and cognitive bias on the learners’ understanding of the object.

Findings

The object of learning has the following critical aspects: the attributes of the commodity, the exchange mechanism (e.g. the market structure) and consumer rationality. This finding enriches the critical aspects – supply and demand – of the object of learning price found in the current Learning Study literature and current high school textbooks.

Originality/value

Making explicit the variation between mainstream and behavioural models of economic phenomena helps learners to see what is critical – to see the potential and the limitations of those models for understanding the world and acting within it. Without sight of an alternative model it is impossible for the learner to distinguish between the mainstream model of supply and demand and what it purports to describe. Without behavioural dimensions, economics may not appear relevant to consumer decision-making.

Citation

Wood, K., Lu, C. and Andrew, V. (2015), "Learning study, economics and cognitive bias: what is the object of learning?", International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 288-301. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLLS-12-2014-0048