I was so proud of our students who all achieved either an A or higher in last year’s IGCSE, AS and A Level Economics exams. I give all the credit to their hard studying and dedication to the subject. We set them up for success, but they were the ones who wrote the exams and achieved their excellent marks. Here are some strategies we used to set up our students for success:

1. Pedagogy of Co-teaching
Economics has many new terminologies, not only for non-native speakers, but also for native speakers as well. In our classes, one teacher scaffolded new terminologies so students understood what the important words were before the concepts were taught by the “concept” teacher. This allowed for understanding of the material, before moving up Bloom’s Taxonomy in the higher-level skills of usage, analysis and evaluation.

2. Examples, examples and more examples
Economics sounds bland. But with examples, it can lighten up the topic and let the students understand how concepts work. For example, the factors of production are land, labour, capital and enterprise. By itself, this sounds quite bland. But with an example that the students can relate to, it becomes alive. For example, let’s use Starbucks as an example.

Starbuck’s land is the shopping mall of Taikoo Hui. Anyone be there? Yes. Labour includes the barista who makes the coffee, and the staff who serve the customers at the register. Capital is the coffee machine that processes the coffee, the equipment used in the production. The enterprise is the ideas that convince the customers to buy the product. For example, using a mermaid as the symbol and having “fair-trade” coffee give the product extra value so customers will buy it.

3. Set up enough time for revision and review
It is important to give enough time for students to practise writing mock-exams, mark other student’s marks, look at marking schemes, practise multiple-choice questions and keep writing many essays. Answers keep on improving with more practice and feedback.

4. Passion
Last, but certainly not least is passion from our Economics teachers. Our passion and love for economics does rebound onto our students, and this helps them fall in love with the subject.

Here are some of the reasons why I think we achieved high-marks in Economics last year. But, our students took all the credit, because they were the ones who wanted to do well and wrote fantastic exams.

Gary Dixon
Co-Head of Secondary
Economics Teacher