E50 - Getting better at Teaching with Tal Gross

Aug 5, 2025

Tal Gross, a Professor at Boston University and a Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, discusses innovative teaching techniques in health economics. He shares insights from his book, 'Better Health Economics,' emphasizing the importance of active learning over traditional lectures. The conversation dives into the impact of distractions on productivity and offers strategies for decision-making. Additionally, Gross highlights how simple actions, like providing cookies, can improve student evaluations and explores effective writing as a tool for clarity in teaching.

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ADVICE

Minimize Interruptions for Quality

Avoid interruptions to maintain the quality of work.
Isolate yourself during focused tasks like writing to prevent significant drops in performance.

ADVICE

Try the Nothing Alternative

Use the "nothing alternative" by dedicating specific time blocks to work without distractions.
You don't have to produce always, but avoid doing anything else during that time.

ADVICE

Offload Tasks From Your Mind

Use a trusted system to offload your cognitive load by making lists and setting reminders.
Getting things out of your head frees mental resources and improves workflow.

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In this episode, we talk with Tal Gross about new teaching techniques. Tal is a Professor in the Department of Markets, Public Policy & Law at Boston University. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on health insurance and household finance.

In this book, Tal shares about his new book “Better Health Economics”, which you can buy through Bookshop.org, Amazon, or the publisher’s website.

They are also giving out slides, exams, and active-learning exercises to instructors. If you are teaching health economics – or know someone who is – they can provide the materials.

Tal talked about his latest publication in economics just appeared in AER: Insights, and it’s joint work with Tim Layton and Daniel Prinz.
We talked about how to structure our day and refer to this article on Non-technical summary of decision fatigue.
We also talked about how interruptions affect your work, and here is the George Mason study on interruptions
We also talked about how writing is important and references the article: “One learns through the act of writing itself.”
The Elite Illusion
We also talked about an easy way to improve student evaluations: Cookies improve student evaluations
And two articles that argue against student evaluations One and Two
Here is a Great summary of active-learning methods in STEM classes
Awesome PNAS paper: active-learning method is more effective but feels less effective
In addition, Tal has put together A list I put together of resources on active-learning exercises
We talked about ModLab, which provides a number of great active learning resources.
Tal’s recommendation of the week is to get a stopwatch, which is useful for setting a time to work, cooking, and many other things!
Alex’s recommendation of the week is the book “Teaching Statistics: A bag of tricks” by Andrew Gelman (Author), Deborah Nolan
Sebastian’s recommendation of the week is Ommwriter, a minimalist and relaxing writing app

Sebastian Tello-Trillo is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.

Alex Hollingsworth is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.

Henry Morris is our main editor. He is a student at the University of Virginia studying computer science and mathematics.