Arthur J Raymond Professor, Economics & Finance |
Education
Teaching Interests
The learning of economics and finance requires understanding theory and its application to real events. It is this doing of economics and finance whereby students come to comprehend the world and the social and political implications of the economic way of thinking. After each class in all of my courses, students are offered the opportunity to apply what is presented and discussed in class to hypothetical and real problems that provide ways to understand world events, ranging from how individuals make decisions to how nations form economic policy. An important part of my teaching is modeling the application of the logic of economics to social and political issues and to questions about our world.
Research, Scholarship or Creative/Artistic Interests
In the early part of my Muhlenberg career, I pursued traditional research on international finance and international monetary systems and published a number of articles in that area. More recently I have focused on the education of economics and the assessment of learning in economics. For many years, I served the Educational Testing Service as the chief reader of economics, both microeconomics and macroeconomics, for the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program. The chief reader provides significant input in the construction of the yearly AP exams, establishes the criteria by which the essay part of the AP exam is assessed, selects readers to assess student exams and teaches the application of assessment criteria to the readers that score the AP exam. The chief reader also presents at a number of workshops and assessment forums each year. After retiring from the chief reader position I served as the higher education chair of the macroeconomics test development committee. In addition to serving Educational Testing Service and the College Board, I have written study guides for an introductory text in international economics and an advanced text in international economics.