Teaching

When first considering how I wanted to teach classes, specifically principles courses, one economic concept kept returning to my mind: rational ignorance. Many students approach from different walks of life with different interests and fields. Some believed that economics was a field that they could be rationally ignorant of, because their interests lie elsewhere. I needed to consider how these students were optimizing, and teach accordingly. I feel that a trap many teachers fall into is teaching courses to the passionate economics student, rather than considering how to get concepts across to student who are very passionate about other fields, but finds economics boring or difficult. The thing these students need to understand is that economics is a valuable resource in any field, and it's a concept that's easier to grasp than they usually think.

I pride myself on my availability and patience with students, continuously reiterating points both inside or outside of class until it clicks for them. I continue to make and remake practice problems and quizzes to show students exactly what economics questions will look like and keep my expectations clear.

“Alex is very good at turning complex concepts and explaining them in ways that everybody can understand and encourages questioning.”
— Principles of Microeconomics, Spring 2026

“Alex was a great professor — he made the subject material so understandable and accessible. I really appreciated the course structure of lecture, practice and quiz every week because it made it easy to get into a learning routine as well as figure out how I could succeed in the course.”
— Principles of Microeconomics, Spring 2026

“Alex always checked in to make sure students were not confused and was always willing to rephrase or re-explain concepts. It was always so clear that he wanted us to do well and I really appreciated that.”
— Principles of Microeconomics, Fall 2024

“The way he taught us the definitions first before the calculations is one of the best ways a teacher has ever taught me new concepts because he never made things more complicated than they needed to be.”
— Principles of Macroeconomics, Fall 2025

"By far the best professor I have had so far... professor Kanode is actually the best professor in the world he makes everything so clear and you can tell he really cares if his students are understanding the lesson."

 — Principles of Microeconomics, Fall 2024