Resumen de The Role of Contextualization in the Teaching of Economics to Hospitality Management Students
Carole Doyle, Dorothy Macfarlane
It is rare to have to justify to students on an industry-based program the need to include subjects that develop the practical skills and knowledge base of their chosen industry. In fact, students on such programs often cannot see the relevance of theoretically based subjects such as economics, finance etc and often perceive these subjects as more difficult (Doyle and Macfarlane 1995). This perception not only reduces the student's enjoyment in the learning experience but may in fact contribute to student failure rates. Employers and lecturers alike recognize the importance of an awareness and knowledge of wider issues within the various industries, but it is sometimes difficult to convert that awareness and desire for relevance into a method of learning, which captures the student's imagination and provides an enriched learning experience for the students.
Whilst contextualization of learning material may provide a solution to this problem this too may be fraught with difficulties. This paper examines some of the difficulties in attaining successful contextualisation and offers some practical advice on how to teach subjects such as economics within a contextualized format. The paper focuses on the experience of teaching economics on industry based degrees and is the result of research undertaken to resolve some of the difficulties experienced by students through their perceived notion that economics is irrelevant to their industry, and difficult.
