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The Labour Market: Supply and Demand - Lesson Plan: 2 x 1 hour lessons

A series of 'off the shelf' lesson plans and resources for use in the classroom. These lessons deal with the Labour Market: Supply and Demand and are relevant to the following specifications:

• AQA: Module 5, 14.4
• Edexcel: Unit 5A
• OCR: Unit 2884, 5.4.3 and 5.4.4

Aim:

The purpose of these lessons is to get students to question and evaluate the relevance of the traditional model of the labour market when applying it to public sector workers. The student should be able to understand problems in applying theories such as marginal revenue product to service sector workers, and how government involvement in the labour market can influence the determination of the wage rate.

The opportunity is provided in the questions for the student to demonstrate higher order (analysis and evaluation) skills demanded at A2.

Educators can use the questions in a variety of ways. They could be used in a traditional manner for individual work, students can work in pairs or small groups and use the questions as a guide to develop arguments to be used in a later class discussion or they can form the basis for whole class discussion if the group size is relatively small.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the lessons, students should understand the following:

• The main factors determining the supply and demand for labour
• The nature of the term 'derived demand'
• The derivation of the demand curve from the MRP curve
• How imperfections in the market can impact on wage rates for different occupations
• Different perspectives on using financial remuneration as a means of recruitment and retention in the public sector

Resources:

• PowerPoint Presentation - The Labour Market: Supply and Demand [332 KB] (basic version also available for quicker download [150 KB])
• Mind Map - The Labour Market
• Activity - The Labour Market
• PCs for student research
• Digital projector and white board
• Use of the school/college union rep (optional)

Lesson Structure:

Lesson 1

1. Begin the lesson with an exploration of what students know about the labour market - a series of questions about how wages are determined in both the private sector and the public sector and on what basis those wages might be determined. (10 minutes)
2. Ask students to discuss in small groups (no more than 4) on what basis they would determine the wage rate of a teacher. (10 minutes)
3. Feedback the results of the group discussion. (10 minutes)
4. Use the PowerPoint Presentation to outline the main theories behind labour markets. (15 minutes)
5. *Optional - Use school/college union rep to present the issues facing teachers/lecturers from the Union perspective. (10 minutes)
6. Review main points of the lesson. (5 minutes)

Lesson 2

1. Brief reflection on the key issues emerging from the last lesson. (5 minutes)
2. Outline the task - the format will obviously depend on the method chosen. (5 minutes)
3. Set students on task.

The remainder of the lesson will depend on what method has been selected. If the questions are to be tackled in a traditional manner, the educator can use the time to focus on the learning of the students and to ask probing questions to encourage further thinking or to offer support for students.

If the group route is chosen, set a time for the feedback to occur and allow time to develop the discussion on the issues arising - this might stretch into another lesson.