In their everyday lives, students inevitably go through the process of making choices, which involves weighing their various available options and selecting the best one given circumstances. In their years of secondary school education, students have acquired the skills necessary to analyze data and articles critically, drawing inferences about the intentions behind various sources. These experiences will allow students to understand Singapore as a nation which lacks in both natural and human resources. Under such circumstances, students will be able to better identify with the concepts introduced in this introductory unit of Economics.
In this Unit 1.1, students will discover the pivotal concept behind Economics - scarcity. Due to the limited amount of resources that society has, not all the wants of society can be satisfied. As a result, the interplay of the two problems of limited resources and unlimited wanted would require choices to be made at all levels. Society cannot consume and/or produce all the goods it desires. It can only consume and/or produce more of one good by giving up some units of another good. Hence, making choices are inevitable due to the existence of scarcity.
Students will also consider how individuals and communities make choices based on their dominant self-interests. In selecting the choice with the lowest opportunity cost, rational decisions on how these limited resources are to be allocated are made by weighing the costs and benefits of doing a little bit more or a little bit less of a specific activity. They will be able to apply this notion of trade-offs to the selection of daily choices, and gain a better appreciation of Economics in the real world.
Learning about the idea of scarcity and opportunity cost will enable students to understand the motivation and consequences of decisions in the context of economic theory and reality. Through this, students will be able to realize how the government and firms arrive at conclusions such as specialization, division of labour and trade between and within countries based on their respective goals. Households are also involved in decision-making, where they have to make choices on how to allocate their means to reach various ends. Such understandings will lay the foundation upon which all economic theories are formed. With these critical thinking and analytical skills, students will be more aware of real world events happening around them and value the importance and relevance of Economics in explaining these occurrences.
In this Unit 1.1, students will discover the pivotal concept behind Economics - scarcity. Due to the limited amount of resources that society has, not all the wants of society can be satisfied. As a result, the interplay of the two problems of limited resources and unlimited wanted would require choices to be made at all levels. Society cannot consume and/or produce all the goods it desires. It can only consume and/or produce more of one good by giving up some units of another good. Hence, making choices are inevitable due to the existence of scarcity.
Students will also consider how individuals and communities make choices based on their dominant self-interests. In selecting the choice with the lowest opportunity cost, rational decisions on how these limited resources are to be allocated are made by weighing the costs and benefits of doing a little bit more or a little bit less of a specific activity. They will be able to apply this notion of trade-offs to the selection of daily choices, and gain a better appreciation of Economics in the real world.
Learning about the idea of scarcity and opportunity cost will enable students to understand the motivation and consequences of decisions in the context of economic theory and reality. Through this, students will be able to realize how the government and firms arrive at conclusions such as specialization, division of labour and trade between and within countries based on their respective goals. Households are also involved in decision-making, where they have to make choices on how to allocate their means to reach various ends. Such understandings will lay the foundation upon which all economic theories are formed. With these critical thinking and analytical skills, students will be more aware of real world events happening around them and value the importance and relevance of Economics in explaining these occurrences.
From Hung
ReplyDeleteThank you for your summary . It helps me solidify my idea a lot .
However the font is small , it is not very easy to read .