Hinterland Knowledge in Economics

When I first started learning about CLT, I started to consider how to chunk knowledge and break up instruction so pupils would practice after small pieces of instruction to reduce pressure on working memory. I tried to implement what I had read about specifying exactly what knowledge pupils needed to know.

One problem initially was that pupils started to look at different topics as entirely separate and could not see the links between topics. Every topic in economics is linked. When looking at a factor like increased government spending, pupils need to understand how this impacts inflation, output, the balance of payments and how these all interrelate and impact different economic agents. It is impossible to understand one topic by itself.

This was partly solved by explicitly teaching the links between topics and considering questions I ask pupils, so they must think hard about links between topics. But there was still something missing. Pupils could start to see links between topics, but they did not really get the point of the subject.

Their learning was improving, and they were getting more motivated as they saw more success, but they missed something about economics. The subject was not really joining up and by breaking it up into its component parts, something about economics was being missed.

Core and Hinterland Knowledge

I first came across the concept of core and hinterland knowledge. The idea of hinterland knowledge to provide a wider context to knowledge was appealing but it felt to be entirely counter to what I had learned about working memory.

If our ability to process information is so limited and we have broad curriculums to teach, surely, we need to minimise any additional clutter as much as we can?

My opinion changed when I read a blog by Christine Counsell which explained that hinterland isn’t an ‘added on’ section which distracts pupils but is of equal importance to core knowledge. The core knowledge might be what pupils remember but they won’t be remembered without the hinterland knowledge that contextualises them.

Similar to when Daniel Willingham spoke about memory being the residue of thought, the core knowledge is the residue of thinking about the hinterland.

Hinterland Knowledge in Economics.

When I consider the hinterland knowledge in economics, I like to categorise it into 2 different areas, timelines and stories.

Timelines are useful to give pupils an understanding of how economic thought has evolved over time. There is a real lack of discussion about economists in the A level curriculum and I think understanding this and the link between economics and politics makes understanding economic theories a lot clearer.

When understanding Adam Smith and reading the wealth of nations, understanding Britain in 1776 in the context of Empire is crucial. It shows why Adam Smith suggesting a nation becomes wealthy not from conquest or accumulation of gold but through cooperation via trade is so revolutionary. The classical economists do not get a great press in 2020 but it is important to understand what a break this was from mercantilism and laying an intellectual economic foundation for anti-imperialism.

Similarly, how the massive increase in wealth that British capitalists enjoyed in the industrial revolution and the horrid working conditions of workers is crucial to understand both the popular acceptance of classical economics as well as Marx’s critique. From Smith to Ricardo to Marx to Keynes to Friedman, the economic theories we teach fit neatly into a timeline of world events.

The other way I like to bring in the hinterland is through individual anecdotes. These don’t give a timeline but they help explain how economic concepts have been introduced. When understanding GDP, I like to tell the story of how Congress asked Simon Kuznets to measure the economy and so he aggregated output. This tale and how his advice that this shouldn’t then be used as a measurement advice which was completely ignored helps pupils understand both what GDP is and how economists’ models can be used and abused by politicians.

As Christine says, this isn’t about ‘fun activities’ to distract pupils, but rather meaningful thinking that enriched core knowledge.

Hinterland that isn’t clutter

The way that I try to square the need to specify the knowledge being taught with the need to teach the hinterland knowledge is to change how it is taught. Whilst I will tell a story or timeline there is a lot less verbal questioning than there is when teaching core knowledge.

This is not because it isn’t important, but rather because they don’t need to remember the exact details, it provides a hook for them understand the core knowledge. Similarly, there are no practice questions on this and there are not any retrieval activities on this knowledge in future lessons.

This way pupils do not have the cognitive overload of thinking about too many different things. Rather, the hinterland just sits in the background and gives meaning to those core bits of knowledge that pupils do think about when practicing and retrieving.

It just gives meaning and joy to lessons, which is so important when teaching the greatest subject in the world!