{"id":106881,"date":"2017-04-07T10:06:04","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T14:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=106881"},"modified":"2018-12-05T15:18:35","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T20:18:35","slug":"economist-michael-murray-wins-2017-kroepsch-award-for-excellence-in-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2017\/04\/07\/economist-michael-murray-wins-2017-kroepsch-award-for-excellence-in-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Economist Michael Murray wins 2017 Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

The real-world power of economist Michael Murray\u2019s teaching is on display everywhere his former students go.<\/p>\n

Take, for example, Analysis Group in Boston, which has had an active alumni connection since its co-founding by trustee emeritus Bruce Stangle \u201970 in 1981.<\/p>\n

Jim Hughes, one of Murray\u2019s Bates colleagues, does consulting at Analysis Group. More than once, a former Murray student now working at Analysis has given Hughes \u201ca lecture on the econometric techniques needed for a project that I\u2019m working on. It blows me away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael just makes econometrics click for them in a way that other people don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making things click for generations of Bates students is why Murray, the Phillips Professor of Economics and a member of the faculty since 1986, has won the 2017 Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching, the college\u2019s top teaching honor carrying a $5,000 prize.<\/p>\n

As Hughes\u2019 anecdote indicates, one of Murray\u2019s courses (he\u2019s taught 16 different ones at Bates) is econometrics, a notoriously difficult course at any college because it asks students to use math and statistics to grasp the workings of economic systems.<\/p>\n

Students don\u2019t just rave about Murray\u2019s ability to communicate econometrics. They say he even makes it fun.<\/em> \u201cHe made complex concepts enjoyable and interesting to learn,\u201d says Sarah Centanni \u201917 of Hingham, Mass.<\/p>\n

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To his students, Michael Murray is \u201cpassionate, intelligent, funny, caring, and personable,\u201d says a former student. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

Murray has written the book on understanding econometrics, literally. His textbook, Econometrics: A Modern Introduction<\/em>, was published in 2005. \u201cIt\u2019s quite different from other textbooks,\u201d he says. \u201cIn that sense, I teach the subject in a very different manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a manner that studiously avoids what he calls \u201cblack boxes,\u201d which symbolize memorizing. In his book and in his classroom, Murray instead tries to give his students an understanding of econometric theory, rather than simple proficiency in using the various tools of the field, including econometric software.<\/p>\n

With that approach, he\u2019s passing on a maxim from his own school days.<\/p>\n

An amateur actor who\u2019s been in many Bates theater productions, Murray adopts the character of a beloved high school math teacher who spoke with a nasal twang and would draw out certain words. Time and again, the teacher would tell Murray and his classmates, \u201cDon\u2019t memorize. Understaaaannnd.\u201d<\/p>\n

And his students do. \u201cProfessor Murray lays out the base of the material in class and he pushes you, the student, to find the answers on your own,\u201d says Dan Willsey \u201918 of Glastonbury, Conn. \u201cHe holds his students to an incredibly high standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I did not understand some material during the course, he talked with me for over an hour until I got it,\u201d recalls Shelby Rader \u201917 of Duxbury, Mass.<\/p>\n

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Here are some scenes of Murray in the classroom as he talks about teaching Bates students:<\/em><\/p>\n