Critical thinking and the principle of problem-based learning

Finn Olesen and Ioana Negru
Additional contact information
Finn Olesen: N/A
Ioana Negru: N/A

Advances in Economics Education, 2026, vol. 5, issue 1, 85-97

Abstract: Often modern mainstream macroeconomics is criticized for its lack of empirical validity. With its monist view on theory and methodology, there only seems to be one way of doing economics. However, in other social sciences, most often, a plurality of different worldviews coexists with one another. Why is economics different? Do economists not need to think critically about important economic issues? Could they not gain further scientific progress by following some guidelines of pluralism? This paper addresses these aspects and discusses the many benefits of doing critical thinking and adhering to the principles of discovery and problem-based learning (using the education in economics at Aalborg University, Denmark, as a case).

Keywords: Critical thinking; Discovery and problem-based learning; Macroeconomics; Methodology; Pluralism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A20 B22 B41 E1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/journals/aee/5/1/article-p85.xml (application/pdf)
Restricted Access

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:aeejrn:v:5:y:2026:i:1:p85-97

Access Statistics for this article

Advances in Economics Education is currently edited by Peter Docherty

More articles in Advances in Economics Education from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().