Murder Versus Music: Giving Students A Choice In Introductory Economics

Abstract

This paper describes a writing assignment used in introductory economics where students chose to write one longer essay based on an economics murder mystery or four shorter essays based on popular music, and they chose whether or not to work with a partner.  Students also answered a survey constructed to identify whether their preferred learning styles were visual, auditory, or kinetic.  Cross tabulations were computed between the choice of assignment variables and learning styles, student gender, and course grade in order to identify which variables were related.  The results suggest that learning styles and performance in the course are not strongly related to the choice of assignment, but gender is.  This finding supports earlier findings that females learn and understand economics differently than males.  Anecdotal evidence is also provided to support the use of these types of writing assignments to promote interest and, possibly, long-term learning in economics.