A level economics - Economic growth

Introduction

The topic of economic growth is a key part of the Development Economics modules of the main GCE Economics specifications. Gaining an appreciation of the problems associated with achieving economic growth is a key underlying theme of such modules. Students may at first, without any prior study, believe that there should be an ideal model of how to achieve economic growth and escape from poverty. The aim of this series of lessons is to enable students to discover for themselves the complexities of economic growth. Ultimately, students should realise that economics is not an exact science and that there is no ‘one size fit’s all’ growth strategy to achieving growth!

Learning outcomes: students should be able to 

  • Define economic growth and its measurement (Content)
  • Identify countries that have achieved low, medium and high rates of economic growth over the past 50 years.(Application)
  • Explain the theory and working of at least three economic growth models (Content & Analysis)
  • Analyse and evaluate the possible limitations of these models (Critique) (Analysis & Evaluation)
  • Identify the various factors that affect a country’s growth rate. (Content & Application)
  • Understand how countries have achieved different rates of economic growth.  (Analysis & Application)
  • Apply theory to explain at least one country’s position and its economic growth record. (Application & Analysis)

The resources that can be downloaded from the right hand column on this page comprise the full article which includes three classroom activities, the activities in Word format so that you can personalise them for your own use, reading and resources to support the activities and the rationale behind the lesson.