PEARSON EDEXCEL GCE A’LEVEL: ECONOMICS A 

 

COURSE PLANNER – CLASS 6: 

Teaching Week	Topic	Key Learning Objectives
Theme 1
1-2	Course introduction  Chapter 1-The Nature of Economics	Understand positive and normative statements, scarcity and choice, opportunity cost, resources, PPC, division of labour, mixed economy.
3-6	Chapters 2-5: Demand, Supply, Price Determination, Price Mechanism	Understand the demand/supply (causes, shifts, diagrams), elasticities. Application of demand/supply in different market situations.
7-9	Chapters 6-7: Market Failure and Externalities	Understand private and social costs or benefits, market failure, diagrams of externalities, private and public goods, examples.
10-12	Chapter 8-Government Intervention and Government Failure  Extra notes-Labour Market	Understand the ways in which governments intervene to deal with market failure, and the sources of government failure.   Understand the demand/supply of labour (causes, shifts, diagrams), labour market equilibrium, elasticities.
Plus tests, exam techniques and preparation, past-papers practice (Theme 1).
Theme 2
13-15	Chapters 9-10: Economic Growth, Inflation, Unemployment, Balance of Payments	Understand economic growth (real and nominal variables, measurement, limitations), inflation (causes, measurement), unemployment (causes, measurement), balance of payments (role and importance).
16-17	Chapters 13-14: National Income and Economic Growth	Understand national income, circular flow of income, income and wealth, multiplier, economic growth (factors, significance).
18-20	Chapters 11-12: Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply	Understand aggregate demand (components, determinants, diagram), aggregate supply (factors, diagram, short run and long run).
21-23	Chapters 15-16: Macroeconomic Policy Objectives and Macroeconomic Policies.	Understand the objectives of macroeconomic policy (reasons for, obstacles, conflicts), the types of macroeconomic policies (problems, merits).
24-26	Notes-Business growth.  Extra practice and revision.	Understand business growth (types, reasons for, advantages and disadvantages, integration, mergers and take-overs).
Plus tests, exam techniques and preparation, revision, past-papers practice (Themes 1 and 2), final exams.

 

Resources: Key textbook –Edexcel A Level Economics A 1 by Peter Smith, Edexcel Economics A-Student Guides for Themes 1 and 2, Handouts, Notes, Past-Papers Booklets, Extra reading material, Microsoft Teams. Assessment: Tests, participation, homework, classwork, final exams, extra material/assignments etc. 

 

 

 

 

COURSE PLANNER – CLASS 7: 

Teaching Week	Topic	Key Learning Objectives
Theme 3
1	Introduction/Revisiting Chapters 1-2: Business Growth and Objectives, Market Structure	Understand the reasons/ways in which firms grow, economies of scale, firms’ objectives, perfect competition, monopoly.
2-4	Chapter 3-Market Structure	Understand the notion of monopolistic competition, product differentiation, market concentration, oligopoly, cartel, monopsony and monopoly power.
5	Chapter 4-Pricing Strategies and Contestable Markets	Understand the sorts of pricing strategy that firms may adopt, contestable markets, entry   deterrence strategies, price discrimination.
6-9	Chapters 5-6: The Labour Market, Government intervention to promote competition  Extended practice on data response questions	Understand the demand/supply of labour (causes, shifts, diagrams, labour market equilibrium, elasticities), competition policy, Competition and Markets Authority, mergers, privatization,   natural monopolies.
Plus tests, exam techniques and preparation, revision, past-papers practice (Theme 3).
Theme 4
10-12	Chapters 7-8: Globalization and Trade, Trading Blocs     and Restrictions on trade	Understand globalization (definition, causes, effects), WTO, FDI, multinational corporations, forms   of economic integration, trading blocs, protectionist policies.
13	Chapter 9-The Balance of Payments and Exchange Rates	Understand the balance of payments, exchange rate systems, measures of international competitiveness and their significance.
14-15	Chapters 10-12: Poverty and Inequality, Emerging and Developing economies, Promoting growth and development	Understand economic development, Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, inequality and poverty, emerging and developing economies, models/theories of economic growth, ways of promoting growth and development.
16	Chapters 13-14: The Financial Sector, The role of the central bank	Understand the sources of money and credit creation, the role of the financial sector and the central bank.
17-19	Chapter 15-The role of the state in the macroeconomy	Understand the role of the state in the macroeconomy (policy objectives and instruments), the fiscal deficit and the national debt, taxation, AD/AS, public expenditure, public and private sectors.
20-22	Revision and extra practice of all themes	Topics of Themes 1, 2, 3 and 4.
23-26	Extra work and practice for Papers 1-3	Practice Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3.
Plus tests, exam techniques and preparation, revision, past-papers practice (Themes 1-4), final exams.

 

Resources: Key textbook –Edexcel A Level Economics A 2 by Peter Smith, Edexcel Economics A-Student Guides for Themes 3 and 4, Handouts, Notes, Past-Papers Booklets, Class 6 resources, Extra reading material, Microsoft Teams. Assessment: Tests, participation, homework, classwork, final exams, extra material/assignments etc. 

 

 

 

 

Appendix (adapted from material supplied by Pearson): 

 

Some examples of transferable skills	Interpretation in this subject	Examples of where the skill is covered and developed throughout the subject course
Critical thinking	Using economic concepts and data to make judgements. For example, looking at economic growth from different perspectives, looking at economic trade-offs, using data to determine price elasticities of demand and supply.	Economic growth, PPC, impact of economic activities, trade-offs, opportunity cost, market failure, government intervention and policies, international trade, trade liberalization.
Interpretation  Problem-solving  Quantitative skills	Interpret economic data and apply economic theories, concepts and formulas to different contexts, to solve economic problems. For example, calculations of elasticities, revenues, costs, profits, exchange rates, real and nominal variables, growth and inflation rates.	Demand and supply, elasticities, costs and revenues, firms’ pricing strategies and objectives, exchange rates, labour market, economic cycles, international trade. Use macroeconomic data and charts to interpret, calculate and analyze.
Analysis  Interpretation	Looking at economic issues and developing and analyzing responses by making reference to knowledge, interpretation of data and diagrams provided. For example, factors affecting the growth of firms, alternative views of consumer behavior, diagrams of various market structures, growth and development etc.	Types of economies and diseconomies of scale, market  failure in the financial sector, market structures, factors that influence the behavior of firms, reasons firms stay small, externalities, measures of economic performance, impact on economies of different events or policy changes.
Reasoning/Argumentation  Evaluation	Give reasons and arguments on both sides related to economic issues. For example, advantages and disadvantages of various topics like division of labour, privatization, government intervention, contestable markets, market failure etc.	Arguments for and against various issues like competition, large/small firms, monopoly and oligopoly, collusion, free trade. Impact of various issues like currency fluctuations, price discrimination, cartels, globalization, patterns of trade.
Decision making	Making a choice or a decision in terms of an essay/question or selecting the correct information to use to answer the question. Evaluate data and economic issues to draw conclusions which are consistent with evidence. For example, advantages and disadvantages of fiscal and monetary policies, conflicts between policies and objectives, case for free trade, competition, monopoly and monopsony power etc.	Decisions as to the impact of various government policies as  a respond to external shocks, MNCs, competition based on the market structure, government intervention, failure and controls.
Creativity  Adaptive learning	Apply economic knowledge to situations set in an unfamiliar context (unknown passage or article). For example, looking at real world stories on news to determine the appropriate policy response or suggest a way to solve an economic problem.	Assessment of economic issues changes in minimum wage policy, buffer stocks, mergers and demergers, protectionism, trading blocs, ways  to reduce relative poverty and income inequality.
Continuous learning  Direction and Productivity	Planning, setting goals and meeting them regularly, including time management, fluency in economic terms etc.	Feedback in work that is constructive, ways to improve performance, looking at types of questions and what success looks like, discussing stories in the news etc.