Colin Ong wrote
"I will like to move forward from Duncan's posting (about tutor2u) and
highlight the lack of quality economic essay sites that relate to ASEAN
economies (esp. Singapore and Malaysia) for 'A level' students of that
region.
In Singapore, there are economic "model" essay-books with lots mistakes
and
I believe only Raffles Junior College has a site of recommended
economics
essays (well done!)."
Colin, I am surprised we are the only college with in Singapore with
recommended essays on its website but it is something in which I take
absolutely no pride.
I was, and remain, firmly opposed to spoon-feeding students in this
manner. Furthermore it is clear that there are no model answers in
economics and the very existence of such a website misleads students as
to the true meaning of economics by encouraging 'shallow learning' at
the expense of "deep learning."
The reason I was outvoted by my colleagues is perhaps, best explained
through game theory. Most of my colleagues actually agree with me as to
the undesirability of spoon-feeding students but since other top
colleges do, we have to match them and thus we reach a Nash Equilibrium
in which all colleges spoon-feed because all the others do.
I make a point of setting my classes original, mostly contemporary,
essays for which the efforts of previous generations of Rafflesian
economists will be of little or no assistance.
In a world where plagiarism is becoming more frequent do we really need
such material?
Dave Sowden
Raffles Junior College
Singapore
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