Higher Order Skills, Job Design, and Incentives: An Analysis and Proposal

There is a growing consensus that the curriculum as taught in schools is “out of balance.” Emphasis on basic skills outweighs to a far greater extent than appropriate the emphasis on problem solving and higher order skills. Drawing on ideas about the effects of specialization from behavioral decision theory and on recent work in the economics of organization, this article proposes structural changes in the teaching job to address this problem. The possible limitations as well as advantages of the proposal are discussed.