EXPERIENCE IN USING QUALITATIVE PROBLEMS IN TEACHING THE COURSE OF DEMOGRAPHY FOR BACHELOR ECONOMISTS

• Main Author: Natalia Kalmykova
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow State University, Faculty of Economics 2018-04-01
• Series: Население и экономика
• Online Access: https://populationandeconomics.pensoft.net/article/36044/download/pdf/

One of the tasks that the teacher must deal with when preparing the Demography course for bachelor students who do not specialize in demography is to interest students with the subject by demonstrating the application of the indicators and trends they study. Another important task is to check the learning outcomes both during the semester and during the exam. Qualitative problems can be used to simultaneously solve both problems. Unlike traditional calculation tasks that require the knowledge of formulas of indicators, qualitative tasks are designed to help students see the links between demographic processes and population structures, better understand the nature of demographic indicators, pay attention to the possible socio-economic consequences of demographic processes in dynamics. In discussing a text problem, it is important to draw the attention of students to the need to build logical chains of reasoning, rather than simply listing the reasons or factors required by the statement. Such exercises teach students to critically comprehend the information they receive from journalism and when reading scientific publications, employ the knowledge they received in the course of Demography to solve applied problems.