Although economists may disagree on what concepts are considered to be the most important within their field, there seems to be general consensus within the profession that the purpose of economics education is to teach students to "think like an economist." Economists do have an unusual method of approaching problem-solving, and the analytical tools they have developed can be a valuable contribution to a student's intellectual toolkit. However, as Steven Miller and Phillip VanFossen (2008) note in their review of the literature on pre-collegiate economic education, relatively little is known about how middle and high school economics teachers broach economic theory in their classrooms.
