Dear Newbie teacher,
Congratulations. As a new business teacher you
have decided to embark on one of the most rewarding careers possible. You may not need it but you may find it
helpful to cast your eyes over these words of advice.
Firstly my overarching
piece of advice is something I was told many years ago. Always try to be a “reflective practitioner”. Every time you leave a class, think about
what went well and what could have gone better.
Make the time to make a note on your lesson plan to remind you of this
the next time you leave the class – by the time it comes round again you will
have forgotten – until it happens again.
How
should you take the students into consideration?
Never stop being a student yourself. In addition to being important in terms of
keeping your own Continuing Professional Development up to date, this is the
best way I know of for you to remain aware of what it feels like to be a
student. On the course I am just completing
I have missed deadlines, not always participated fully and not read as widely
as I should or wanted to. It makes me
more empathetic of my students to be in their situation once in a while.
Also, you have to take the students as they are, not as you
would want them to be or even on occasion, how they should be to take the
course you are supposed to teach them. Figure
out what it is they need to achieve what their goals and then help them to
achieve them.
What kinds of teaching and learning strategies might be helpful?
This is a tough one to answer. The best advice I can give you is to caution
you against using the “default” style with which you are most familiar or
comfortable. Personally I think my
natural style is as an interactive teacher.
But one of the many things I have learned on this course is that there
are times when that is not the appropriate method to maximise student
learning. There are many teaching and
learning strategies. They can all be
effective in certain situation depending on the level of the students and the
content being delivered. There is often vehement academic argument about their validity
and you yourself may feel that one or other should be used because it feels
more in line with your views about what education “should” be. Try to avoid that trap. Bear in mind that what you are trying to
achieve is for your students to master the material in the current course and
also to develop skills which will help them become independent learners. Often it will seem that these two goals are
mutually exclusive. They usually are not
– try to figure out the solution.
How and
what should be assessed?
As you are teaching courses with a highly practical element
in the real world make your assessments as real as possible. Try to think of assessments that bear
relation to what the student would be required to do in a job they are likely
to acquire.
I once taught a course in Financial Services to students
looking to join a bank at a junior level.
The course involved teaching them how to open a bank account for a
customer. The best way to assess that is
for the assessment to be a role play where they do exactly that. The worst way I can think of is to give them
a sheet of paper with a case study about a potential customer who wants to open
a bank account and ask the student to transfer the information from the case
study to the application form. Guess
which of the 2 methods was selected? Apparently
this was because it was quicker and easier to assess. Ease of administration is an important factor
in any assessment but it should never trump the appropriateness of the method.
What special characteristics does for teaching business have?
You will need to remain at the forefront of your career in
both business and teaching. This takes
twice the effort and commitment than for many academic subjects. You will need to keep up to date with all the
latest research and practice in teaching but also business. A few years ago I
taught a course where my students had to set interest rates to manage a
bank. If they got the rates wrong then
their bank could go bankrupt. Students could
never understand how this could happen.
I used to show them a clip from “Its a Wonderful Life” to demonstrate
what a run on the bank looked like.
Since 2008 all students have been aware that banks can go bankrupt and
as a teacher you have to adapt to these changes in the real world.
As a new business teacher I am sure there will be many times when you will be incredibly
frustrated and demotivated but they will be temporary. Your chosen career will also give you many
moments of affirmation. Good luck!
Andrew
