EconomicsInternational®

Roosters to Robots

Lesson Plans from Writers around the World

As more countries converge towards market-oriented economies, the need for economic education has become increasingly apparent to elementary and secondary teachers in those nations. Publications of the Council for Economic Education have been well received by educators from a wide range of countries. The active-learning approach, emphasized by the Council for Economic Education network of state councils and centers for economic education, holds strong appeal for many educators.

Economic education that uses active learning has expanded from the United States to emerging economies in the former Soviet Union, eastern and central Europe, and the Baltic states. Educational materials created for schools in the United States, however, are not always appropriate for use in other countries because of language, economic, and cultural differences. Although economic educators in those countries have written textbooks, a need for relevant active-learning lesson plans was recognized.

In 1996, we had the pleasure to participate in the development of a Council for Economic Education publication to help teachers write better lessons, Connecting the Pieces: Building a Better Economics Lesson. The publication shows potential writers how to identify the economics appropriate for K-12 students; integrate economics into other subject matter; include thinking skills, active-learning instructional models, and assessment into a lesson; format lessons; and conduct pilot tests.

Grants from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, for the IEEP provided the funding for Connecting the Pieces as well as annual Training of Writers programs. As the faculty of this innovative program, we have had the privilege of working with many creative teachers from the United States and countries of the former Soviet Union, eastern and central Europe, and the Baltic states, who aspired to become better writers of economics lessons.

This publication includes six lesson plans developed by participants in the international Training of Writers program provided by EconomicsInternational through the OERI grants. International groups developed some lessons during the training seminars; individual writers developed other lessons after the seminars. Two lessons each are provided at the elementary, middle, and high school grade levels.

We hope that you and your fellow teachers will find these lesson plans useful and rewarding.

Sarapage McCorkle
University of Missouri-St. Louis
Bonnie T. Meszaros
University of Delaware
Mary C. Suiter
University of Missouri-St. Louis

Foreword

It is a great pleasure for me to introduce Roosters to Robots. This publication contains six lessons for elementary, middle, and high school classrooms developed by writers from Belarus, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and the United States. The authors of these lessons were participants in the Training of Writers program developed and conducted by the Council for Economic Education, as part of the International Education Exchange Program (IEEP). The Writers program, conducted annually since 1996, is designed to develop a pool of writers from both the U.S. and the emerging market democracies. Through intensive writing exercises, expert guidance, feedback from peers, and follow-up work by e-mail, teachers improve their skills in developing instructional materials.

The development of this publication was made possible through a grant to the National Council from the United States Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement under PR Grant #R304A970001-99. The Council for Economic Education extends its appreciation to the Department of Education for its support of the IEEP.

The Council for Economic Education is also grateful that the United States Congress had the foresight to realize the need for economic education in the emerging market economies and the vision to see how an international education exchange program such as the IEEP could benefit U.S. students and teachers.

Special thanks are extended to the editors, Sarapage McCorkle and Mary Suiter, Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Bonnie Meszaros, Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship, University of Delaware, for conceptualizing this publication and their perseverance and dedication in bringing it to press.

Patricia K. Elder
Vice President, EconomicsInternational and Government Relations

 


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