Business, Economics and Enterprise

Teaching School Subjects 11-19

Jacek Brant, Peter Davies

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9781134287383
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Negocios en general

This book has been written for teachers of business education and economics in the years of their early professional development, including those on PGCE courses, those in their induction year, and those in years two and three of their teaching career. The book will also be suitable for subject leaders with mentor responsibilities and Advanced Skills teachers undertaking specialist inset and teaching support.

The book covers the training standards for NQTs and the Induction Standards. But it goes beyond this by fully exploring issues to do with subject knowledge in learning to teach, broadly accepting that an essential element of a secondary teacher's identity is tied up with the subject taught. The book is divided into three sections:

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• framing the subject – which defines subject knowledge and raises questions about business education and economics as school subjects
• teaching the subject – which looks at pedagogical, curricular and pupil knowledge
• business, economics and enterprise within the professional community – which focuses on the place of business education and economics within the wider curriculum and the teaching community.

This book aims to provide stimulating assistance to subject specialists by helping them find ways of thinking about their specialism, how to teach with it and how to engage with what pupils learn through it.

Chapter 1
Introduction

This book is part of the Teaching School Subjects series. Each book aims to examine the role for teachers in developing an established school subject in the secondary school curriculum. So the book aims to set an agenda. In our conclusions we suggest directions in which teaching and learning the subject area might be developed and ways in which developing as teachers and developing the subject can be linked. As the title indicates we are treating ‘business, economics and enterprise (BEE) education’ as a coherent subject area. We are explicitly claiming enterprise education as one part of a shared subject area. To some extent we might view this subject area in the same way that science comprises different subjects. However, learning and teaching in BEE is much less developed than in science. As yet, our understanding of how learning progresses in BEE is informed by a small body of evidence. There are far more ideas about how to teach BEE than there are systematic sets of evidence to back up such ideas.

We have tried to refer to evidence wherever this is available and we have also tried to refer to a wide range of arguments that are relevant to deciding what to teach and how to teach. However, we are conscious of the limited foundations for the suggestions we put forward. One of the messages of the book is that we need much more systematic evidence in the subject area. This is a quest for teachers as much as for policy makers.

We have also tried to write this book for a wide audience. We hope that everyone who is interested in the subject area will want to examine arguments about the design of individual lessons, modes of assessment and whole curricula in BEE. But we are also conscious that many readers of the book will be either in the process of becoming a teacher or still in the early stages of their teaching career. For that reason, and also because we believe it aids explanation, we have included a substantial number of specific examples. For example, we have tried to illustrate the application of particular theories of learning through specific BEE lessons. We have also made reference to some of the standards used to define the achievements necessary for qualified teacher status (QTS) in England.

The book is written from an English perspective and the majority of the examples are taken from this context. While there is much in common in the issues that are addressed by teachers of BEE in other parts of the UK and other parts of the world, we have not had the space or expertise to provide a more comprehensive account. One of the advantages of the distinctiveness of the education systems in the countries in the UK is that there are opportunities to learn from innovations and experiments elsewhere. Thus far this has only happened to a limited degree. The distinctiveness of the way in which Northern Ireland pursued ‘cross-curricular themes’ and the development in Scotland of curricula for economics and enterprise education have had less impact elsewhere than was merited. As Wales develops an approach to education policy that is increasingly distinct from that in England there may be a greater number of characteristically Welsh innovations in BEE. Perhaps all would benefit from greater collaboration between curriculum developers and between teachers in the different parts of the UK. We do include some references to policy and curriculum developments in other parts of the world, but we are not attempting any comparative analysis. We simply aim to show that some of the issues that preoccupy teachers and policy makers in England also occupy colleagues elsewhere.

The book is organised into nine main chapters. Chapters 2 and 3 examine the way in which BEE can contribute to different educational aims. The justification for the place of any subject area in the curriculum ultimately rests on its claim to make a difference to young people’s lives and the society into which they are maturing. At a time of change in the curriculum it is particularly important that the contribution of the subject to such aims is revisited and used as the basis for curriculum design. Moreover, anyone preparing for an interview at a school should be ready to explain why the subject should be included in the curriculum.

Chapters 4 and 5 review the influences that have shaped the development of BEE. In Chapter 4 we concentrate on the influence of government policy. We review the impact of variation in types of school, the definition of a core curriculum, the academic vocational divide and the design of the assessment framework. In Chapter 5 we examine the influence of other stakeholders. We pay particular interest to the role of private-sector business. There is a natural affinity between BEE and private-sector business and this is evident in the history of sponsorship and curriculum development. As such, BEE can be regarded in schools as overtly promoting the interests of private sector industry, rather than developing young people who are capable of playing constructive but critical roles in the development of private business within its place in society. We examine the justification for this perception and the way in which the subject area might develop so as to provide a more rounded education.

Chapters 6 and 7 examine the design and implementation of assessment frameworks. The diversity of courses in BEE creates a tension in the use of assessment systems. The vocational tradition lends itself more to competence-based assessment systems, while more academic courses have tended to use derivations of Bloom et al.’s taxonomy to produce assessment objectives that guide syllabus design. The strengths and weaknesses of these systems are reviewed in Chapter 6. In Chapter 7 we concentrate on particular strategies for assessment, analysing the strengths and weaknesses of coursework, data response questions, case studies and multiple-choice questions. In the last part of the chapter we concentrate on formative assessment. We provide some examples of practice and comment on the potential for formative assessment in BEE.

Chapters 8 and 9 examine the implications of key theories of learning for teaching BEE. In Chapter 8 we concentrate on information-processing theories. We consider the distinctions between ‘recall’, ‘comprehension’, ‘application’, ‘analysis’ and ‘synthesis’ and the distinction between low and high cognitive demand. We illustrate how tasks may be designed to require different levels of processing by students. We also review the application of a theory of styles of learning that distinguishes between preferred types of processing. In Chapter 9 we examine experiential and cognitive theories of learning. We use examples to show implications of these theories for the design of teaching in BEE and we evaluate the arguments for drawing on each of these approaches.

In Chapter 10 we examine how teaching in BEE may be evaluated. Much of this chapter focuses on criteria that may be used in evaluating progress when becoming a teacher, but we also refer to criteria used in evaluating established departments. Throughout this chapter we aim to refer to underlying principles that can guide evaluation of teaching at any level. In our final chapter we offer our conclusions about how the subject area should develop and the role of teachers in that development.

In our roles as ‘initial teacher educators’ and ‘supporters of continuing professional development’ in BEE, we have gained much from the ideas, enthusiasm and commitment of colleagues—those who are just starting out in teaching and those with many years’ experience. We hope this book will be part of a continuing conversation about what young people can, should and do learn. Each main chapter begins by identifying a few key themes and ends with some suggestions for further reading. We hope that you will find some suggestions for teaching, planning and researching as well.

Part I
The subject: purpose and focus

Chapter 2
Developing citizens, consumers and owners

KEY THEMES

• The justification for the place of a subject in the curriculum depends on its contribution to wider educational aims, so the way in which BEE develops citizens, consumers and owners has to be kept regularly under review.
• A key way in which the subject contributes to citizenship education is through helping students to understand relationships between individual well-being and collective well-being.
• The role of BEE in developing consumers and owners has been relatively neglected.

INTRODUCTION

New teachers starting their initial training frequently say that they aim to ‘pass on their knowledge for the benefit of others’ (Wood, K., 2000). The experienced teacher is often more focused on the way that their performance will be evaluated. As a result the most typical answer to the question ‘What are you hoping to achieve with this Year 10 class over the next 2 years?’ would be ‘So many passes at grades A*-C’. A problem with each of these viewpoints is that they do not address the question ‘What is the point of teaching BEE?’.

This question becomes most pressing when teachers are asked to justify why an opportunity to study business, economics or enterprise should be provided at the expense of opportunities to study other subjects. Even when some element of BEE is made a compulsory part of the school curriculum, there remains a question of how much emphasis it should receive. How will you respond when asked to teach part of a citizenship course or run an enterprise activity that will not lead to an examination grade? What will your answer be when friends repeat newspaper assertions that examination grades are no longer a worthwhile measure of achievement?

Another reason for looking beyond examination results is ‘the health of the subject’. As an individual teacher it is easy to assume that the nature of the subject is out of our hands. Purpose and content are laid out in course specifications. But there are many ways in which individual teachers can exert an important influence. In each school, subjects develop reputations not only for their degree of examination success but also for how they contribute to the whole school curriculum. A subject that becomes disconnected from the driving purposes behind a school’s curriculum eventually becomes perceived as marginal and finally surplus to requirements. This was an important factor in the reduction of entry numbers in A level Economics between 1985 and 2000. Subject teachers within a school can affect how their subject is perceived and the contribution it makes by working out ways in which underlying aims can direct their curriculum practice. Individual teachers can make, and have made, valuable contributions to the development of business and economics in schools. These contributions have been made through articles written for subject journals, such as Teaching Business and Economics, participation in curriculum development projects and the development of new or revised examination specifications.

In this chapter we examine the potential role of BEE in developing citizens, consumers and owners. In the following chapter we look at the role of subject area in relation to employability and enterprise. We have grouped these purposes under these headings following a suggestion by Davies, P. (2000), who builds upon an approach used by the Economics 14–16 Project (1985). This approach identifies different roles that we may expect young people to play in society. Where the Economics 14–16 Project referred to ‘Young People as Consumers’, this is here extended to include the role of ownership. This role is particularly important in the context of financial literacy. When designing a curriculum it is particularly important to give students opportunities to consider the relationships between these roles. Some of the items, such as social skills, might easily have been placed in more than one of these lists and we do intend these aims to be regarded as interrelated. However, in this chapter we will consider each separately for the sake of clarity of organisation. In each case we will ask: In what way can learning business, economics or enterprise contribute to the achievement of this aim? In answering the question we begin to suggest implications for teaching that are developed later in the book. One difference between ‘teaching business’, ‘teaching economies’ and ‘teaching enterprise’ is the emphasis given to each aim and we return to this in our final chapter.

EDUCATING CITIZENS

Citizenship education is more closely connected with understanding economics than with the understanding and skills developed through business studies and enterprise education. This is because economics sets out to provide a way of evaluating policies and practice in terms of the overall public interest. In this section we look at four questions: What is the rationale for an increased focus on citizenship education and in particular its economic elements?, What evidence is there of the economic understanding of students and adults?, To what extent have previous programmes of teaching been shown to increase economic understanding? and What should be the aims of an economic element of citizenship education and how can these be achieved?

What is the rationale for an increased focus on citizenship education?

The recent growth of interest in citizenship education in the UK reflects a wider concern in many Western democracies. Globalisation has prompted many people to think again about what nation states can do and what they should attempt to do (Giddens, 2000). Globalisation has increased the number and complexity of international economic relationships. The economic power of the largest transnational companies has reshaped the balance of power between states and some companies. By the year 2000, 15 of the world’s companies had a higher turnover than Ireland (World Bank, 2000).

Globalisation has been accompanied by a decline in confidence in democratic institutions (van den Broek and Heunks, 1993; Norris, 1999). Electors in Western countries are decreasingly likely to turn out to vote and more likely to say that they do not trust their elected government. This decline in ‘civic engagement’ goes well beyond the turnout of voters at election time (Putnam, 2000). Membership of social groups such as bridge clubs, political organisations such as political parties and trades unions and many religious organisations has steadily fallen in Western countries. The combination of these factors has fostered interest in the definition and development of citizenship. This, in turn, has increased policy makers’ interest in citizenship education. A recent review of policy and literature on citizenship education in Europe concludes that ‘the literature on citizenship education reveals concern in many countries about how to respond to a period of unprecedented global change’ (Kerr, 1999:8). In the European Commission’s policy document Learning for Active Citizenship, Cresson (2002) writes ‘Learning for active citizenship includes access to the skills and competencies that young people will need for effective economic participation under conditions of technological modernisation, economic globalisation, and, very concretely, transnational European labour markets’.

In one respect a link between economic understanding and modern democracy is clear-cut. ‘Many studies have demonstrated the pivotal role of popular economic expectations in deciding the fate of incumbent governments in established democracies’ (McAllister, 1999:189). But the incentives for governments to promote economic understanding are unclear. On the one hand, they may reason that an economically informed electorate will be more able to appreciate the economic constraints under which the government is operating. On the other hand, they may not relish the ability of an electorate to bring a well-informed critical capacity to bear on the government’s economic performance. The citizenship education curriculum in England requires that all 14–16 year olds should be ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Business, Economics and Enterprise
• Teaching School Subjects 11–19 Series
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
• Part I: THE SUBJECT: PURPOSE AND FOCUS
• Part II: THE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL: LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT
• Part III: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Appendix A: COMPETENCY STATEMENTS IN BUSINESS STUDIES
• Appendix B: ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
• Appendix C: AS BUSINESS STUDIES DATA RESPONSE QUESTION: COFFEE WITH CONSCIENCE
• Appendix D: AS LEVEL ECONOMICS DATA RESPONSE QUESTION: AN INDUSTRY RIDING FOR A FALL
• Appendix E: GRADE DESCRIPTIONS FOR THE EDEXCEL BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS GCSE
• Appendix F: QUALITIES OF ECONOMIC JUDGEMENTS IN CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
• Appendix G: DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF QUALITIES OF ECONOMIC ARGUMENTS IN CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
• References