Creating a transformative learning experience through a capstone course in economics

Being a bridge between students’ undergraduate curricula and the real world, a capstone research course in economics is an effective method to promote the achievement of economic learning proficiencies. The main foci of the course are to produce a substantial research paper that integrates past skills, advance data collection, processing, and econometric analysis techniques, and develop professional writing and presentation skills. In this article, we describe how a one-semester, required senior level capstone course in economics is developed, so it serves the purpose of being a transformative learning experience. Why is it a transformative experience? It starts with student ownership of their own research project. It fosters original and independent thinking and careful integration of courses completed in the economics curriculum. The student project demands critical analysis and critical thinking and reading, and model building and the application of economic theory and quantitative analysis to a real life research question. Most importantly it builds competence and confidence in students and their ability to master economic research with the tools that they learn and apply. They learn to write and present their work in a professional manner. The data come from 170 students in eight sections of the course taught over the course of 6 semesters. We used multiple assessment methods for data collection: questionnaires, faculty evaluations of the research project, and formal course evaluations. We discuss our findings from our teaching experience of the capstone and also our results from the various assessments used to track our students’ development. We then make recommendations for design, teaching, and assessment of the capstone course.