Beginning in 2005 the Center initiated the Great Teachers in Economics program designed to recognize the achievements of truly outstanding teachers of economics and to elevate the importance of teaching within the profession. This program, partially funded with a grant from the Earhart Foundation, brings some of the nations best teachers to FSU to conduct workshops and share ideas about how to become a better teacher.
Interviews that highlight various aspects of their teaching success are conducted with these outstanding teachers. Click below for text of the interviews with recent recipients of this recognition.
Dirk Mateer
Dirk Mateer has been teaching college economics for more than 15 years and he is currently a Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of the Undergraduate Studies Program in Economics at Penn State University where he regularly teaches large principles sections. His most recent project is a workbook entitled Economics in the Movies (Thomson/South-Western, 2005). Read Interview »
Daniel Hamermesh
Daniel Hamermesh is the Edward Everett Hale Centennial Professor of Economics at the University of Texas -- Austin. The author of more than 70 scholarly articles, he is best known for his work in labor economics. His labor economics text, The Economics of Work and Pay, has been through various editions since 1984. His most recent book, Economics Is Everywhere (McGraw-Hill, 2nd edition, 2006), highlights the ubiquity of economics in everyday life and shows how the simple tools of a microeconomics principles class can be used to illustrate this point. Read Interview »
Ken Elzinga
Ken Elzinga is probably the nation’s most successful teacher of college-level economics. In addition to receiving numerous teaching awards, he has made introductory economics at the University of Virginia the most popular course sequence on campus. He is so highly respected that when the Southern Economic Association recently established a teaching award, they named it the Kenneth Elzinga Award. He is currently the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics and has previously taught at Pepperdine, Cambridge, Trinity, and Michigan State. Read Interview »
Gail Mitchell Hoyt
Gail Mitchell Hoyt is a Professor of Economics at the University of Kentucky. Gail has won various teaching awards including the University of Kentucky Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Teaching and the Alumni Association Great Teacher Award.Read Interview »
John Morton
John Morton has 40 years experience as a high school teacher and economic educator. A former Vice President for Program Development at the National Council on Economic Education, he is the author of more than 50 publications, including Advanced Placement Economics (NCEE).Read Interview »
Mark C. Schug
Mark C. Schug is Director of the Center for Economic Education and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. He is a Senior Fellow with the National Council on Economic Education and has written and edited over 180 articles and books.Read Interview »
William C. Wood
William C. Wood is currently professor of economics at James Madison University and the director of JMU’s Center for Economic Education. He was named in 2002 as an inaugural winner of the Southern Economic Association’s Kenneth G. Elzinga Distinguished Teaching Award.Read Interview »
