By Ke Shi, ESSEC PhD student.

Ke taught for the first time Microeconomics for pre-Master students (MiM programme), at ESSEC Business School Cergy campus.

In what program did you teach for the first time?

I taught for the first time during my fourth year of the PhD, in the Pre-Master programme, with students who had just finished prépa and were about to start the Grande École programme. I taught the same course again earlier this year, and also taught Microeconomics to the Global BBA cohort.

What course was it?

Microeconomics. For the Pre-Master course, it was a fairly introductory course covering the usual foundations: consumer and producer theory, utility maximization, cost minimization, equilibrium, and so on, and I tended to spend a little more time on market failures.

The BBA course, Microeconomics for Business, covers broadly the same ground, but with less mathematical formalism and a more intuitive approach.

How was your experience? Did you enjoy it?

In retrospect, I greatly enjoyed it. But to be honest, I was quite nervous before teaching for the first time. Preparing the course with Professor Giuseppe Berlingieri, who coordinated it, made the whole experience easier and less stressful.

Once I was actually in the classroom, I started enjoying it a lot more than I had expected. I particularly enjoyed teaching the BBA class this year—I really liked the vibe with the students, and there was quite a bit of back-and-forth in the classroom. Overall, it has been a very good experience, and I learned a lot from it.

What tools or teaching methods did you use?

The first time I taught the Pre-Master course, we substantially updated the course materials, building on previous slides while incorporating new examples and some case studies from CORE Econ’s open-access teaching materials.

In terms of tools, it was mostly the old-school stuff: slides, the board, Moodle and some in-class quizzes. I have found that what matters more to me is finding examples that make the theory feel tangible. Students tend to become much more engaged when an economic idea is connected to something topical or familiar, especially when it gives them room to express their own views while discovering the economic reasoning underneath.

How did you prepare for it?

Preparing the course for the first time took substantially more time than it does now, partly because we were working on a new set of slides and updating many of the examples.

I also prepared teaching notes for every lecture. That turned out to be extremely useful: when I taught the course again, I could go back to those notes rather than starting from scratch, and I could also build on them when preparing for the BBA course. With the course coordinator, we also worked on the quizzes and the content of the exams.

What did you learn about teaching that you wish you knew before entering the classroom?

I did my Master’s at ESSEC, so standing on the other side of the classroom felt a little disorienting at first.

One thing that helped was remembering what it actually felt like to be a student. As a student, you don’t walk into every lecture expecting the professor to give you some kind of intellectual revelation. Remembering that keeps you grounded and takes away some of the pressure to make every minute of every class perfect.

And I think when you are less stressed about teaching, you actually teach better.

How does teaching complement your work as a PhD student researcher?

Teaching does take time away from research, which can be both a good and a bad thing. But one thing I really appreciate about it is that it forces me to revisit the fundamentals.

Teaching Microeconomics meant going through many of the theories I had learned years ago and, in a way, learning them again—and then doing it again when I taught the course this year. You also have to think about how to explain those ideas in a way that is clear and non-intimidating.

Research can make you spend a very long time thinking about one very specific question, so teaching is also a nice opportunity to zoom out, refresh your memory and keep your mind off your own research for a little while.

How does your artistic practice influence your teaching?

I’m not sure my artistic practice has a direct influence on how I teach economics, but maybe it makes me a little more chill about what a classroom can be.

The first time I taught, I had a small recurring bit after the break where I would recommend a record to the students each week. It started mostly as a fun experiment to see whether any of them would actually listen. At the end of the semester, one student came up to me and told me he had really loved one of the experimental hip-hop records I recommended. That was very cool.

I suppose things like that remind me that a classroom can have some personality. You are there to teach the material, of course, but you are also spending quite a lot of time together, and I think a slightly more relaxed atmosphere can make it easier for students to participate.

Any advice to future students teaching for the first time?

Don’t scare yourself too much before you start teaching, like I did. Before my first class, I somehow imagined that students would be throwing the hardest possible questions at me after every sentence I spoke. That will, most likely, not happen.

Prepare your material carefully, but also give students room to think beyond what is written in the textbook. Some of my favourite moments have been discussions where we moved from the theory to bigger questions—for example, a conversation with my BBA class about positive and normative approaches in economics.

And don’t be afraid to talk a little about your own research when it is relevant. Students can be surprisingly interested, and sometimes the questions or reactions they give you are genuinely useful. Teaching doesn’t always have to be a one-way exchange.