From the back of the classroom to the top of the leaderboard

The Challenge

For Adrian Johnson, one of the biggest challenges in teaching economics and commerce at Alexandria Park Community School was not simply explaining the concepts. It was finding a way for students to engage with them in the first place.

With various levels of literacy in the class, unfamiliar economic terminology only made low confidence in the classroom. As Adrian put it, the challenges were “low [economic and financial] literacy, low engagement,” with many students finding

“the commerce and economics terminology in particular pretty hard.” 

Above all, he said, “engagement was the biggest one.” The challenge was therefore bigger than making concepts easier to understand. It was about finding a way into the subject for students who might not immediately see economics - or traditional classroom learning - as a place where they could succeed. 

What We Did

STEP UP: Playconomics offered a different entry point. Instead of encountering concepts primarily through textbooks and terminology, students could experience them through the game - making choices, competing with other students and seeing it all play out in practice.

For Adrian, that gave classroom theory a reference point students remembered. Rather than sending students back to a textbook definition of opportunity cost, for example, he could take them back to decisions they had actually made in Playconomics: “Do you remember when you could only get bananas and you could only, or you could only go fishing and you couldn't do both? And they remember that.” 

The experience remained with them well beyond Year 9. Adrian now teaches Year 11 students who first played Playconomics two years earlier and can still draw on those shared experiences when introducing economic theory. As he explained,

“I can point always, always to the game rather than the textbook.” 

But the game introduced something else: competition. When students saw themselves climbing the leaderboard against students from other schools, engagement shifted. Adrian recalls being surprised by how strongly his students responded:

“I didn't realise that we would dominate the competition, but these kids had just got it.”

Seeing themselves succeed “brought out their competitiveness,” and for some students, that success began changing how they participated in the classroom.

The Result

The most important change Adrian saw was not simply greater engagement. It was confidence. Students became more comfortable with the theory, but the effect was particularly striking among students who had previously been less visible in class. As Adrian explained,

“it lifted their esteem and their confidence [particularly] in kids who were quiet.” 

Then came the moment that perhaps best captures the impact: “Suddenly the quiet kid up the back became the centre of attention and I got to know him better.” Playconomics had created a new way for students to demonstrate what they could do - one that did not necessarily depend on being the most vocal student, the strongest in maths or the person who usually put their hand up first. And the experience extended beyond the classroom. Students were invited to UNSW for the STEP UP Awards, where their achievements were recognised alongside those of students from other schools. Adrian remembers the impact vividly. When a bus arrived to bring the students to campus,

“the kids, they just felt like they were rock stars.”

Going to the university, he said, “was huge.” For students, commerce and economics had become more than content in a textbook. It had become something they could experience, compete in and succeed at - with that success recognised beyond their own classroom. For Adrian, Playconomics is now also a resource for a much bigger challenge. With economics teachers facing what he describes as a “mammoth” and increasingly complex new syllabus, he worries that schools could lose students from the subject. At an Economics and Business Educators conference, his response was straightforward:

 “I have to recommend Playconomics. The reason is simple: it's gonna help us.”

 The Alexandria Park story shows what that help can look like: making economics accessible to students who may struggle with traditional approaches, turning participation into confidence, and giving students new opportunities to see themselves as capable learners.