Teaching and Learning Community of Practice (CoP)
Department of Economics
2025
Our Teaching and Learning Community of Practice (CoP) is our chance to talk teaching experiences and strategies with our colleagues over lunch.
The sessions are open to Economics department faculty members on either the UTM or downtown campus and sessional instructors on either campus. If you want to get on the mailing list please email Kripa Freitas (k.freitas@utoronto.ca).
Other CoP’s on campus: Arts & Science.
We meet in-person on the dates below.
The sessions are 100% in-person, no recordings or virtual attendance options.
More events to be added over time. Check back for the latest schedule. If you have ideas or suggestions or want to colunteer to lead a session, send Kripa an email (k.freitas@utoronto.ca).
Friday, September 5, 12:30-2pm, GE100
AI and the future of work for economists: rethinking economics education
Discussion Leader: Christian Spielmann (Bristol)
Abstract:Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming labor markets, including the professions pursued by economics graduates. This paper investigates the evolving impacts of AI, particularly generative AI, on occupations commonly entered by U.S. economics graduates and examines the implications for economics education at the university level. Using Lightcast data on job profiles and postings from 2015 to 2023, we identify how occupational patterns and skill profiles for economics graduates have changed and analyze the likely impact of AI on the economists’ job market. Economics graduates enter roles with higher-than-average AI exposure and varying degrees of task complementarity, suggesting that AI is likely to have substantive impacts on these jobs, with some effects already evident. We argue that university curricula must adapt to these changes to better prepare graduates for the AI-augmented workplace.
Tuesday October 28, 12:30-2pm, GE100
Data on Our Data Focus: The Empirical Bridging Module (EBM)
Discussion Leaders: Jennifer Murdock and Courtney Ward
Abstract: With grant support from our department, we launched the Empirical Bridging Module (EBM) in Fall 2025 to measure and strengthen students’ empirical economics skills as they transition from second-year prerequisites to advanced empirical coursework. Ten third- and fourth-year ECO courses, with 638 unique students, joined the EBM. 96% of students participated by spending between 1.5 to 3 hours in the Exam Centre giving over 80 short answers (multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blanks) about data structures, descriptive statistics, probability, distributions, inference, regression, and interpreting results. All questions are embedded in economic data, research, and contexts. The 25th percentile score is 35%, the median 48%, and the 75th percentile 59%. Overall, one quarter of students did their methods prerequisites outside of our ECO220Y or ECO227Y courses – primarily via statistics (STA), which exclude regression and economic applications – and they scored about 10 percentage points lower on average. Students responded enthusiastically to the EBM and valued it as a formative learning tool to review data/metrics skills and identify gaps. Hence, the EBM functions both as a pedagogical intervention and as a benchmark for curricular alignment, which is timely as we undergo a UTQAP review of our programs. Join us to learn about these data and some of our results.
Thursday October 30, 11-12:30pm, GE106
The Effects of Fixed vs Growth Mindset on Student Mental Health
Discussion Leader: Karen Ugarte Bravo, joint work with Annabel Thornton
Abstract: This study investigates whether a brief online growth mindset intervention can improve mental health outcomes among undergraduate economics students. A randomized controlled trial was conducted during the 2024–2025 academic year in ECO220Y1Y: Introduction to Data Analysis and Applied Econometrics at the University of Toronto, a large, required second-year course enrolling over 1,000 students annually. Participants (N=450) were randomly assigned to either a treatment group that completed a 30-minute PERTS growth mindset module mid-year or a control group that did not. All students completed four online surveys linked to course performance data, providing repeated measures of mindset, academic expectations, performance attributions, and self-reported mental health across the academic year. Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey data confirms that University of Toronto undergraduates exhibit higher levels of anxiety and depression than peers at comparable research institutions. Results indicate that the mindset intervention did not improve course performance but did buffer against declines in growth mindset beliefs over time. Students in the treatment group were significantly less likely to exhibit declining growth mindset responses on two of three standard measures. Moreover, while no academic performance effects ere detected, treatment participants were substantially less likely to report deteriorating mental health over the academic year (a 16-percentage-point reduction relative to control) and more likely to report improvements (an 11-percentage-point increase). Taken together, the findings suggest that brief, scalable mindset interventions may foster resilience and well-being among students in quantitatively intensive economics courses, even when measurable academic performance gains are not observed. The results highlight the potential role of psychological supports in improving student experience and retention within quantitative economics education.