Teaching macroeconomics: how to benefit from problem-based learning

Teaching economics at most economics departments focuses almost exclusively on mainstream economics. However, because of years of economic recession many economists seem to have become more and more critical of the modern mainstream macroeconomics - the New Neoclassical Synthesis - and their use of the DSGE modelling approach. As such, there seems to be a bit of a gap between the mainstream textbook approach and real-life phenomena. Furthermore, the teaching method is also rather uniform among departments with an almost exclusive focus on formalized economic models. However, it is possible to teach economics from a non-mainstream perspective, as we have done for many years at Aalborg University, Denmark, where we teach economics pluralistically, incorporating both the mainstream orthodoxy and a range of heterodox approaches. Accordingly, our pedagogical philosophy emphasises the use of problem-based learning in respect of the guidelines given by a pluralistic research methodology.