Does CORE work?

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Hi, I’m Margaret Stevens, professor of economics at the University of Oxford and one of the CORE authors. 

I’ll explain how learners and instructors benefit from CORE. 

Teachers want their students to enjoy economics. Learners benefit from CORE’s approach because from the very beginning they see the relevance of economics to the world around them. Economic models are not abstractions but are tools to be used to understand real world problems and how they can be addressed. This approach keeps students engaged. 

Instructors are praising the CORE course for engaging students and improving attendance. 

From surveys of instructors, we know that CORE’s signature approach of combining a new benchmark model with new pedagogy makes it easier to adapt CORE’s material for economics courses at different levels, and in different regions of the world. It’s being successfully used in economics and non-economics courses, for undergraduates and postgraduates, and for audiences from diverse backgrounds. From Russia to the UK, the CORE curriculum is enhancing how economics is taught. You can find more examples of how CORE is being taught around the world from teachers’ reports found on the ‘Who uses CORE’ page of the CORE website. 

Is there evidence that CORE works? 

A very simple way to answer this question is to look at who is teaching with CORE. As of July 2021 we know of at least 371 universities in 61 countries that are using CORE on 560 courses. Over one hundred and fifteen thousand students per year are being taught with CORE. Preliminary research also suggests that CORE works. At University College London, the first cohort taught with CORE in their first-year introductory course did better in their compulsory second-year examinations, than the previous cohort who had been exposed to a traditional curriculum. At La Trobe University in Australia, students assigned to classes taught using CORE on their first-year introductory course did better in their later economics as well as non-economics courses than students assigned to classes taught with a conventional textbook. We encourage more research evaluating the impact of using CORE, including whether it affects the retention of underprivileged or underrepresented students in economics, and longer term outcomes such as career choices. But already, CORE has a strong track record of success in the classroom.