Aims

The aim of the workshop is to make students work on precise topics, in order to teach them to develop a coherent economic argumentation, to read and summarise, to draw up an argument, to write and finally to present their argumentation. As student numbers will probably mean that group work is necessary, the workshop will also develop students' ability to work together.

Main themes

The topics selected have links with concepts already acquired by students in the previous Economics courses. Students will be motivated by tackling issues of obvious socio-economic relevance such as the causes of structural unemployment, active labour market policies, the causes of wage inequalities etc.

Content and teaching methods

A four-step workshop is organised:
a) Defining the parameters: two or three lectures are given at the beginning of term to specify the theme of the workshop and to provide students with information they need to structure their thinking (presentation of basic tools, etc).
b) Formulating the questions: at the end of the third session, a list of questions is put forward and those retained are distributed among participants. The workshop coordinators then give reading guidelines relating to each question.
c) Summary: students prepare replies to the questions assigned to them and produce a written summary (individually or in sub-groups) of these answers in a 5-10 page document. During the term, the workshop coordinators are available to give students' advice, should they need it, and one or two intermediate sessions are held to evaluate students' progress.
d) Discussions: at the end of the term, two with three sessions are organized, during which each student (or group of students) is invited to give an oral presentation of his results. These presentations are followed by discussions.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Evaluation: Students are evaluated on the basis of the quality of their contributions during class discussions and on the basis of their summary writing. When work is produced by a sub-group and not individually, further individual evaluation is needed. This can take the form of an individual questionnaire on the topic, relating to the material produced as a result of the work of all the sub-groups.