Teaching, students

Is teaching a joke?

Teaching is not a joke for me, I enjoy it and take it very seriously. I've been awarded an outstanding teaching performance assessment during 2011-2014 by the Spanish evaluation agency (DOCENTIA-ANECA). However, in my classes, there is nothing more serious than a funny joke.

Over the years I've become convinced that good humor and having fun is an integral part of the learning process. But also punctuality, thus the cost of coming late to class is telling an economics-related joke. Here you can read why this is effective on many levels.

Some examples:

• Free speech rests upon an infinite supply of chatter.

• A mathematician, an accountant and an economist apply for the same job. The interviewer calls in the mathematician and asks "What do two plus two equal?" The mathematician replies "Four." The interviewer asks "Four, exactly?" The mathematician looks at the interviewer incredulously and says "Yes, four, exactly." Then the interviewer calls in the accountant and asks the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The accountant says "On average, four - give or take ten percent, but on average, four." Then the interviewer calls in the economist and poses the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The economist gets up, locks the door, closes the shade, sits down next to the interviewer and says, "What do you want it to equal"?

Textbook and Teaching Publications

 “Learning by teaching and assessing: A teaching experience” with Apetrei, A.  & Sapena, J.
in Peris-Ortiz, M., Gómez, J.A., Vélez-Torres, F. and Rueda-Armengot, C. (Eds), Education Tools for Entrepreneurship (2016), p. 29–38. Geneva: Springer. [DOI] [PDF]

“Creación de nuevas empresas internacionales: inversión extranjera directa” with Sapena, J.
Creación de Empresas y Emprendimiento: de Estudiante a Empresario (2014), p. 341–347. Madrid: Pearson Education. [DOI]

“Emprendimiento en pymes y grandes empresas” with Sapena, J.
Creación de Empresas y Emprendimiento: de Estudiante a Empresario (2014), p. 359–366. Madrid: Pearson Education. [DOI]

“Economía con humor. El chiste como recurso docente frente a la impuntualidad” with Comas, I.
XII Jornadas sobre Docencia de Economía Aplicada (2016) [PDF]
[Media coverage: ALDE]

“Aprender enseñando y evaluando: Una experiencia docente” with Sapena, J.
XI Jornadas sobre Docencia de Economía Aplicada (2015) [PDF]

Tutoring and office hours

Subjects taught and teaching methods