Abstract: I have continued the work started earlier to identify open educational resources that can be used in the teaching of economic subjects in the classroom, dealing now with those related to the discipline of Economics. I discovered some different O.E.R., which use various educational applications for the lesson. Some of these resources propose to the teacher to integrate playful activities (e.g. games) in the activity of teaching, learning and assessment. On the other hand, the use of O.E.R. it allowed me to update the content ofsome lessons in some outdated textbooks, published many years ago. In the absence of digital textbooks for the subject of Economics, these resources represented "a breath of fresh air" to change something in the educational process and make the lessons more attractive for students.
Keywords: O.E.R., economics, educational applications, school textbooks, gamification, digital pedagogical competence
I. Introduction
The open educational resources analyzed in this paper were identified by the undersigned on the web page https://digitaledu.ro, which I described shortly in one of my previous works, regarding the open educational resources dedicated to entrepreneurship education (Curta, N.C., 2022). This web page, through its structure and the resources it houses, represents in miniature what the Virtual School Library, managed by the Romanian Ministry of Education, should be in large.
The educational resources posted there have been evaluated by specialists working on the digitaledu.ro platform according to the criteria presented in their own evaluation sheet (Istrate, O., and Ştefanescu, D., 2021). Some of these resources have been approved, being marked accordingly on the online platform. Engaging students in classroom activity has been a challenge for me, as well as for other teachers around the world, for the same reasons (Istrate, O, 2017):
* Lack of motivation for learning.
* Proposed exercises and problems that do not seem to have immediate applicability.
* The topics or assignments in the textbook do not correspond to the immediate needs of the students.
On the other hand, the rapid development of information and communication technology has offered the possibility of improving the educational process, including the textbooks used to teach the subject of Economics.
II. Some considerations about Economics textbooks
The officially approved Economics textbooks for the 11th grade of high school and presented in this paper are posted in pdf format on the web page dedicated to school textbooks, available at manuale.edu.ro. There are six economics textbooks published by publishing houses in the country, of which five textbooks belong to publishing houses in Bucharest, and one textbook was published by a publishing house in Deva. These publishing houses are the following: Niculescu ABC, Economica Preuniversitaria, Sigma, Corint and Humanitas Educational, all from Bucharest, respectively the Corvin publishing house from Deva. The oldest manuals were published in 2006, and the most recent was published in 2014 (see table 1).
Next, I will give a brief description of these manuals, based on the information obtained from the manuals downloaded in pdf format from the mentioned website. In the classroom activity, I used three of the textbooks presented in the table above, namely those from the publishers Humanitas Educaţional, Corint and Economica Preuniversitaria.
The manual from the Humanitas Educaţional Publishing House is distinguished by the fact that it uses the firm's level I exercise method, which runs through the manual like a red thread. Each of the lessons in the textbook has a conclusion, activity projects and an assessment page at the end. It comprises assessment tests with different types of items, plus three summary tests grouped by lesson, answers for the assessment pages and summary tests. The manual has two annexes, one of which refers to "Measuring the variation of economic quantities", and the other to "Macroeconomic indicators and variables".
The manual from the Corint Publishing House has a summary and an evaluation part for each chapter. Each lesson has at the end "key concepts of the lesson" and some tasks. They contain different types of questions and problems to solve, and at the bottom of the page are the answers to the problems. The assessment part contains requirements related to the definitions and formulas in the textbook, different types of questions and problems to be solved.
The textbook published by Editura Economica Preuniversitaria has the classic structure of a high school textbook. Each lesson has applications and learning activities, and the assessment part includes problems to solve and assessment tests with different types of questions. Answers to tests and problems are found at the end of the textbook.
The Economics textbook published by Corvin Publishing House has a special feature, being organized by learning units. In the textbook are inserted quotes and short biographical notes about the world's great economists. Each lesson has a section dedicated to further reading. To these is added an "applications/assessment" section, which includes questions, essays, problems to solve and text comments. At the end of the manual there is a selective bibliography and several appendices.
The manual published by the Niculescu ABC Publishing House has several distinctive features compared to the previously presented manuals, namely:
* Selective Bibliography.
* Glossary of terms for each lesson.
* Fragments of articles published in the press on various economic topics.
* Short biographical notes of famous economists.
* A list of web pages (links).
Otherwise, the manual has the familiar classic structure. Each lesson has an assessment part, which includes quizzes, problems to solve, text analysis, case studies, but also solutions for the assessment part.
The textbook published by Sigma Publishing House is structured by topics, each topic having a certain number of lessons, an additional reading, and an evaluation test. Each topic is organized by learning units, having some distinct elements:
* Elements of synthesis.
* Key terms.
* Dictionary of terms for each lesson.
* Quotations from the works of famous economists.
Each chapter includes some recapitulatory topics. The assessment part is called "Questions, applications, exercises" and contains problems to be solved as well as questions of different types. At the end of the manual, you will find answers to the assessment tests, as well as the bibliography that is the basis for the creation of the manual.
Considering what was written above, we can formulate some conclusions about high school textbooks for the discipline of Economics, namely:
* The textbooks comply with the school curriculum approved by the ministry.
* Neither the school curriculum nor textbooks have not been updated recently.
* At least for now, there is no digital textbook for this discipline.
* Some textbooks, through their content and structure, show the authors' interest in producing a quality work.
* Certain textbooks aimed to contribute to the realization of an economic culture of high school students.
* The most innovative is the manual published by Humanitas Educational Publishing House, which uses the firm's level I exercise method, with concrete examples and activities in each chapter.
III. Open educational resources that can be used to teach Economics in the classroom
Open educational resources are a way to motivate students to actively participate in classes, regardless of whether the lesson is taught in a classical or e-learning style. The integration of playful elements (e.g. games, animated videos, etc.) within the lessons is necessary and contributes to increasing interest and motivation for learning (Istrate, O., 2017).
On the other hand, gamification (i.e. the use of didactic games) is one of the methods that allows students to actively participate in classes, to learn by "having fun" and playing with their peers, participating in a positive competition that makes learning to be more attractive (Aleksić-Maslać, К., Rašić, M., and Vranešić, P., 2018).
Among the open educational resources identified on the digitaledu.ro web page there are some that use didactic games either in their traditional form, such as the indoor game Monopoly, or in their virtual form (Cashflow and Kahoot). They are used to learn and practice the basics of certain lessons. The educational application Kahoot is a gamification tool used both to assess students' knowledge and to motivate them to be more active in the classroom (Aleksić-Maslać, К., Rašić, M., and Vranešić, P., 2018).
The table below shows the educational resources developed for the Economics discipline and their characteristics (see table 2). The resources are posted on the digitaledu.ro platform in two different sections: Open Educational Resources and Activity Ideas, but also in two different curricular areas: Man and Society (those posted in the Economics discipline) (M.S.) and Technologies (those posted in the Technical Disciplines) (T.).
If we make a comparison with the topics in the school curriculum, the resources presented in the previous table cover most of the topics, except for two chapters - "Introduction to Economics" and "Open Economy", for which I did not find any open educational resources. Also, I did not find any educational resource for some of the lessons in the manual, which are part of the chapter "The market - meeting place of economic agents", namely:
* "Demand-offer-price relationship in the market economy"
* "Money market and money"
* "World market. Currency market"
* "Economic balances and imbalances"
* "Economic growth and development. Fluctuations in economic activity".
The table shows that these resources were developed relatively recently, in the period 2018-2023. In the absence of a powerful search engine of the platform, the resources are quite difficult to find, because they have been posted in different curriculum areas and with different subject names - Economics or Technical Disciplines.
On the other hand, their integration in the lesson requires knowledge of many educational applications, both by the teacher and by the students. The tasks included in the content of these resources depend on the educational application used to achieve them, such as: virtual notice board, concept map, avatar, collaborative document, etc. From the crowd of these open educational resources, two resources that use didactic games stand out - one virtual (Cashflow) and one social (Monopoly), which represents an element of novelty in the creation of these resources.
IV. Conclusions
The integration of open educational resources in the teaching of Economics at the high school (the 11th grade) involves the transition from traditional pedagogical competence to digital pedagogical competence. In relation to these two notions, there is a wide discussion in the specialized literature (Apostolache, 2022).
In the traditional sense, pedagogical competence means knowledge related to scientific content, didactic competences, and managerial competences of teachers. In turn, digital pedagogical competence represents a higher level of pedagogical competence, related to the digitization of the educational process. In this context, the teacher will have to have the ability to improve the classroom activity using information and communication technology. In other words, we will move from teaching in the classic style, to the digitized teaching of lessons.
Note on the author:
Nora Codruţa CURTA
"Alexandru Borza" Technological High School Cluj-Napoca
Graduate of the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, "Babeş-Bolyai" University, Cluj-Napoca.
Graduate of the Faculty of Economics, "Babeş-Bolyai" University, Cluj-Napoca.
Ph. D. in Management and Industrial Engineering.
Teacher teaching degree I.
She teaches specialized economic disciplines.
She is interested in strategic management, pedagogy and methodology of teaching economic subjects.
She published works in the field of strategic management for tourism businesses, dictionnaries, case studies and supported communications at scientific symposia and conferences.
E-mail: [email protected]
V. Bibliography
1. Aleksić-Maslać, К.; Rašić, M. and Vranešić, P.- "Influence of gamification on student motivation in the education process in courses of different fields", academia.edu, 2018
2. Apostolache, R. - "Competenţa pedagogică digitală", Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2022
3. Curta, N.C. - "How to Teach Economic Subjects during the Pandemic? A Short Overview", Timişoara, Quaestus Multidisciplinary Research Journal, no.21/June 2022, pag. 225-240, available at http://www.quaestus.ro
4. Istrate, O. - "Integration of Ludic Educational Activities into Classroom Teaching. Gamification", available at academia.edu, 2017
5. Istrate, O., and Ştefănescu, D. - "Resurse educaţionale deschise: o posibilă grilă de evaluare", 1st of March 2021, available at https://iteach.ro/experientedidactice/ resurse-educationale-deschise-o-posibila-grila-de-evaluare accessed 15.10.2021
6. https://digitaledu.ro/resurse-educationale-deschise/ accessed 15.09.2023
7. https://digitaledu.ro/activitati-de-invatare-digitala/ accessed 15.09.2023
8. manuale.edu.ro accessed 20.01.2024
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Abstract
I have continued the work started earlier to identify open educational resources that can be used in the teaching of economic subjects in the classroom, dealing now with those related to the discipline of Economics. I discovered some different O.E.R., which use various educational applications for the lesson. Some of these resources propose to the teacher to integrate playful activities (e.g. games) in the activity of teaching, learning and assessment. On the other hand, the use of O.E.R. it allowed me to update the content ofsome lessons in some outdated textbooks, published many years ago. In the absence of digital textbooks for the subject of Economics, these resources represented "a breath of fresh air" to change something in the educational process and make the lessons more attractive for students.
You have requested "on-the-fly" machine translation of selected content from our databases. This functionality is provided solely for your convenience and is in no way intended to replace human translation. Show full disclaimer
Neither ProQuest nor its licensors make any representations or warranties with respect to the translations. The translations are automatically generated "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" and are not retained in our systems. PROQUEST AND ITS LICENSORS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES FOR AVAILABILITY, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS, NON-INFRINGMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Your use of the translations is subject to all use restrictions contained in your Electronic Products License Agreement and by using the translation functionality you agree to forgo any and all claims against ProQuest or its licensors for your use of the translation functionality and any output derived there from. Hide full disclaimer