“Why Are iPhones So Expensive?”: Motivation, Instruction, and Learning Strategies

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to use motivation and instructional design strategies for teaching economics in a diverse and inclusive classroom. The paper also rationalizes and offers a plan of a previously adopted lesson ‘Why iPhones Are So Expensive?’ which aims to develop the understanding of price-making strategies in students. At the same time, papers devoted to economics education for high school students are still rather scarce. Therefore, the work contributes to the literature of economics education for teachers and education students.

Teaching economics as a separate field of knowledge assumes that students should be financially competent, understand basic economic laws and market functioning, analyze labor market trends, be aware of management and marketing issues, etc. This is a wide area of studying. Although understanding in the economics domain aims to develop all core 21st century skills, critical thinking in students can be defined as a top priority of teaching economics at high school. Thus, the learning activities designed for the lesson on price-making strategies are focused on the development of critical thinking skills. The learning strategies are built on the use of the ARCS model, the inquiry-based learning approach, formative assessment, and the inclusive approach.