DUKE UNIVERSITY
FALL 2014
ARTS & SCIENCES 398 - 01:
EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATIONS
Instructor:
Office:
Office hours (Gross):
Office phone:
e-mail:
Prof. Martin Zelder
Gross Hall 265
Tu 3:30-4:30 pm; W 1-2 pm; and by appointment
919-681-1863
martin.zelder@duke.edu
Class schedule:
Tu 4:40-5:55 pm (Gross Hall 230C)
This course, developed as part of the Bass Connections Education & Human Development (EHD)
theme, uses a multidisciplinary framework to understand how education and human development are
produced and valued. In this, we see “education” not just as formal K-12 schooling but also as learning
via families and social channels, and “human development” as encompassing valued life outcomes
across ages including health, social and familial connections, happiness, income, and employment.
Throughout the course, we will orient our thinking around 3 fundamental questions:
(1) How do we conceive of ‘education’? ‘Human development’?
(2) What are the mechanisms by which education and human development relate to each other?
(3) With regard to particular mechanisms, how and why is the state involved in that mechanism,
and should state intervention (or lack thereof) in these mechanisms be modified to better serve
society’s interests?
Answers to these questions will be raised from a variety of perspectives, with lectures covering these
diverse topics given by Duke experts. (Students will have an opportunity to continue with the second
half of this course in the Spring semester, which will develop additional conceptual approaches and apply
all these approaches to questions of policy and practice.)
Prerequisite: None, but permission of instructor required.
Required Reading: Those noted below, all posted on Sakai, plus readings for week 4 and beyond TBA.
Grading: Your grade is based on the quality of your work on:
a. Short (750-word) written responses to class in most (but not all weeks) (each graded on
0-100 scale), equally-weighted [70 percent in total]
b. Class participation (graded on 0-100 scale for semester as a whole) [30 percent in total]
FALL SEMESTER
F1: Aug. 26 (Zelder) OVERVIEW OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
 What Bass Connections is, and why it matters
o Lang, James (2011). “Doing Research With Undergraduates.” The Chronicle of Higher
Education
o Sternberg, Robert J. (2013). “Giving Employers What They Don’t Really Want.” The
Chronicle of Higher Education
o Chronicle of Higher Education (2012). “The Role of Higher Education in Career
Development: Employer Perceptions” (slides 1-3, 15)
 Our conception of “human development”
o Conti, Gabriella and Heckman, James J. (2012). “The Economics of Child Well-Being”
(pp. 1-8) [NBER Working Paper 18466]
 Our conception of “education”
o Conti, Gabriella and Heckman, James J. (2012). “The Economics of Child Well-Being”
(pp. 31-38) [NBER Working Paper 18466]
F2: Sept. 2 (Zelder) ECONOMICS FOUNDATIONS 1
 The (household) production of education and human development
o Woodhall, M. (1995). “Human Capital Concepts”, in International Encyclopedia of
Economics of Education (2nd ed; ed. Carnoy)
o Conti, Gabriella and Heckman, James J. (2012). “The Economics of Child Well-Being”
(pp. 8-29) [NBER Working Paper 18466]
 Thinking about causal links between education and human development
o Solomon, L.C. and Fagnano, C.L. (1995). “Benefits of Education”, in International
Encyclopedia of Economics of Education (2nd ed; ed. Carnoy), pp. 114-115
o Conti, Gabriella and Heckman, James J. (2012). “The Economics of Child Well-Being”
(pp. 38-43) [NBER Working Paper 18466]
o Loeb, Susanna and McEwan, Patrick J. (2010). “Education Reforms” (pp. 145-148), in
Targeting Investments in Children (ed. Levine and Zimmerman)
o Hanushek, E.A. (1995). “Education Production Functions”, in International
Encyclopedia of Economics of Education (2nd ed; ed. Carnoy)
F3: Sept. 9 (Zelder) ECONOMICS FOUNDATIONS 2
 Normative evaluation
o Zelder, Martin (2011). The Economics of (Almost) Everything, Chapter 10 (“In
Everything Society Does, It Should Compare Benefits and Costs”)
o Solomon, L.C. and Fagnano, C.L. (1995). “Benefits of Education”, in International
Encyclopedia of Economics of Education (2nd ed; ed. Carnoy)
o McMahon, W.W. (1995). “Consumption Benefits of Education”, in International
Encyclopedia of Economics of Education (2nd ed; ed. Carnoy)
o Wolfe, B.L. (1995). “External Benefits of Education”, in International Encyclopedia of
Economics of Education (2nd ed; ed. Carnoy)
F4: Sept. 16 (Gibson-Davis) PUBLIC POLICY AND DEMOGRAPHIC FOUNDATIONS
F5: Sept. 23 (Platt) NEUROSCIENCE FOUNDATIONS
F6: Sept. 30 (Hans) PSYCHOLOGY FOUNDATIONS
F7: Oct. 7 (Sanders) STATISTICS FOUNDATIONS
F8: Oct. 21 (Burton) QUALITATIVE AND ETHNOGRAPHIC FOUNDATIONS
F9: Oct. 28 (Goodridge) HISTORY OF EDUCATION
F10: Nov. 4 (Moody) NETWORK ANALYSIS FOUNDATIONS
F11: Nov. 11 (Macartney) EDUCATION POLICY—TEACHER PERFORMANCE AND
INCENTIVES
F12: Nov. 18 (Nechyba) EDUCATION POLICY—SCHOOL CHOICE
F13: Dec. 2 (Ladd) EDUCATION POLICY—CHARTER SCHOOLS