Teach me how to study: IEM held a seminar on Skills of Teaching Economic Disciplines

Today it is important not to control and not check the students but to understand how students have mastered economic skills that can support them in the economic process, business relationships, and when working in large companies. And how to teach students economics in an environment where basic information is accessible outside the walls of the university? What is the role of the teacher in this process? This was discussed at the All-Russian seminar Skills of Teaching Economic Disciplines under the 120^th anniversary of economic education in Siberia and the Far East.

Professor Vladimir Tsitlenok, one of the oldest teachers of the Department of Economics at the IEM, made a presentation on the principles of forming the concept of the knowledge economy. The topic is interesting to most teachers: the growing importance of knowledge, including digitized, in the country's economy, is obvious, knowledge is becoming the main resource for economic development.

“The only area that will soon become subject to man alone is the creation of new knowledge. Machines can handle the rest” - such an idea sounded during the discussion.

The big part of the seminar was devoted to the analysis of modern technologies and the practice of teaching economic disciplines in universities, in particular, at the TSU Institute of Economics and Management. Natalia Tyuleneva, a professor at the Department of Finance and Accounting, spoke about the transformation of universities and international experience in this area. Anna Lozhnikova, a professor at the Department of Economics, revealed the possibility of using the empirical data of companies in teaching economics. Marina Ryzhkova, a professor at the Department of Economics, has demonstrated the ability to conduct ongoing monitoring of students' knowledge using mobile devices. Elena Soboleva, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics, spoke about the use of the concept of blended learning.

Also, the results of testing non-economists students have revealed that despite the fact that a large number of hours in schools were allocated for the Economics (including under the Social Studies lessons), first-year students show an insufficiently deep understanding of economic terms, and there is a necessity to deepen their knowledge in economic disciplines.

At the end of the seminar, a whole team of teachers from the Institute of Economics and Management and students told about the experience of gaining competences and skills under the educational internship.

- In the modern conditions, not only the knowledge itself, but also the methods of their reporting to students and control methods are of great importance, concluded Dmitry Khloptsov, the moderator of the seminar, head of the IEM Department of Economics. - Today it is important not to control and check students but to understand whether economics students have acquired economics skills that can support them in the economic process, business relationships, and when working in large companies. The task of the teacher is not so much to force the student to learn concepts, sections, textbooks, but to learn to use the core knowledge in order to prove the economic efficiency, the correctness of the decisions made in specific practical circumstances. On the one hand, today it is declared that the students themselves must acquire new knowledge, and in this regard, the number of working hours for teachers is reduced. On the other hand, the experience of teachers shows that Russian students are not yet ready to go into independent study of subjects, they need to work with a teacher. And in this sense, the work of the teachers, on the contrary, doubles: they must give basic knowledge and show the methodology, the possibility of applying this knowledge, when previously it was thought that graduates have already reach this stage at the enterprise or in the organization.