By Gabriel Martinez, May 19, 2009 in Musings, Pedagogy and Teaching
The main purpose of the grammar stage is to discourage what Newman called "viewiness," the tendency of the marginally educated to expound, "at a moment's notice" (Idea, xliv-v) on any subject whatever, based on nothing but a few disconnected snatches gleaned from the periodical literature. Thus he held that
the first step in intellectual training is to impress upon a boy's mind the idea of science, method, order, principle, and system; of rule and exception, of richness and harmony. […] nor can too great accuracy, or minuteness and subtlety of teaching be used towards him, as his faculties expand, with this simple purpose […] to give him a conception of development and arrangement from and around a common centre. (Idea, xliv)
The traditional Principles of Economics sequence can be conceived of as the “grammar” stage. These courses typically aim at helping students to develop a basic understanding of the major economic features of the world, ordered around a common center, an interpretative key. A series of course-embedded projects on economics facts, reality, and structure can be combined with illustrating and contextualizing the theoretical concepts taught in lectures (for example, student might be asked to explain what the Federal Reserve has done recently and what is the economic context in which the action was taken).
But the focus of these courses is rather on the ordering, by means of reason, of the dense mass of facts: on how individuals respond to incentives, how markets mediate the competing interests of different individuals, and how policies can alter the outcomes of markets.
The grouping, therefore, which is best for the purposes of science proceeds on the principle of collecting all those facts and reasonings which are similar to one another in nature: so that the study of each may throw light on its neighbor. By working thus for a long time at one set of considerations, we get gradually nearer to those fundamental unities …: we trace their action first singly, and then in combination; and thus make progress slowly but surely. (Marshall 1890, 94-5)
To the disappointment of Everyday Man, the primary goal of the courses is not to offer conclusive answers to current economic questions but to introduce students to the definitions and syntax of economic reasoning. This is done by focusing on teaching the basic building blocks of economic language (and on their basic uses). Students do learn basic models (AS-AD, basic industrial organization, etc.), but they are so new to economic terminology that, if they fail to grasp it, they will inevitably make fools of themselves. Perhaps the only reason to learn the AS-AD model is so they know what the word "recession" means and how it is properly used in a sentence.
A statistics requirement should be conceived of as a grammatical course. By statistics, I mean a course that focuses on how to draw inferences about an entire population from a small subset of the population; and how to perform regression analysis. Statistics is not only its own language ("we fail to reject the null"): it requires much twisting of one's brain and much practice, much drill and much rote memorization. Because Economics relies on mathematics for its arguments, mathematical grammar (algebra, basic calculus) needs to be taught at some point. This can be done in many ways: through a strict prerequisite structure, through a separate "Math for Econ" course, or embedded within courses.
Some electives emphasize terminology or the basic facts of the particular subfield. Money and Banking courses, for example, are typically taught at the grammar stage.
Next posts: Economic Logic and Economic Rhetoric
