Letter to a New Teacher

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