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Professor Robert B. Harris
Director, Center for Economic Education

Education:
Ph.D., Ohio State University, 1979
M.A., Economics (Public Finance), Ohio State University, 1970
B.A., Economics, Ohio State University, 1968



Office: CA 511
Phone: 317.274.0095
rharris@iupui.edu

Professor Harris’ research is in the area of economic education at the pre-college level. This includes issues involving how students learn economics and how that learning can be evaluated. His current research involves a comparison of environmental economic education between the United States and Japan. Although environmental education is a high priority in both countries, the approaches are quite different. The United States approach relies on deductive logic and active learning. In Japan, the emphasis is on inductive reasoning and lecture on institutional material that is more factual than conceptual. The United States approach is also much more neoclassical, without the Marxist influence that exists in economic education in Japan.

In other recent research, Professor Harris has built upon his experience offering training programs in economics for teachers in various states of the former Soviet Union, including countries in central Asia and Eastern Europe. He has explored current economic conditions in former Soviet states, based on first-hand interviews with participants from Eastern Europe, along with his personal experience.

Professor Harris has also researched the role of different test instruments in assessing student understanding in economics. In California, he identified the value added by including essay questions in a statewide testing program in economics. He found that using a combination of essay and multiple-choice questions provides additional information not generated by multiple choice alone; for example, including essay questions offsets the gender differential favoring males on multiple choice exams in economics.

Selected Publications:

• “What Social Studies Teachers Should Know About the Transition Economics,” with Michael Watts, The Social Studies, Vol. 89, No. 6, 246-248, November/December 1998.
• “Statewide Performance Assessment as a Complement to Multiple-Choice Testing in High School Economics,” with William Kerbe, Journal of Economic EducationVol.28, No. 2,, 122-134, Spring 1997.
• “Assessment of Learning in High School Economics: Results from Large-Scale Performance and Multiple Choice Testing,” with William Kerby, International Conference on New Developments in Secondary Economics and Business Education: Proceedings, William Walstad, editor, West Sussex, England: The Economics and Business Education Association, 1996.
• “Energy, Economics, and the Environment: Case Studies and Teaching Activities for High School,” with Harlan Day, editor, Indianapolis: Indiana Department of Education, 1993.
• “Why Trade Technology? What are the Effects on Economic Growth?” with Robert Catue, On Reserve, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, No. 24, January 1993.
• “The Cognitive and Effective Impact of the Give and Take Film Series,” ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, 1986.
• Teaching Activities to Accompany “The People on Market Street,” Michael Watts, editor, Purdue University Press, 1984 (co-author).