4.1 The relationship between a teacher and a pupil lies at the heart of successful learning and teaching. Successful learning is a blend of the many factors which influence this partnership. It also depends on an appropriate and correctly paced curriculum. It involves imaginative teachers planning the experiences of pupils and choosing appropriate learning and teaching approaches. It means ensuring that the curriculum meets the needs of pupils, that pupils receive regular, well-judged homework and that their work is correctly and regularly assessed.
4.2 Imaginative teaching stimulates the motivation of pupils. Teachers who are enthusiastic about their subject pass that enthusiasm on to their pupils: what they have in common is a liking for the subject and the idea that the learning about the subject is interesting and can be fun. In one economics class:
"the class was asked which pupils liked chocolate and two volunteers were selected and asked to come to the front. They sat facing the class with a bin on the desk beside them. Each was given a square of chocolate and asked to mark it out of 10 to show how satisfying it was. As the amount of chocolate eaten increased, the amount of satisfaction received declined and marginal utility was discussed. Some interesting questions were raised by the pupils, including whether there could be negative marginal utility, at which point the use of the bucket was identified. The class greatly enjoyed the lesson and finished with a good (and memorable) gasp of marginal utility."
4.3 Experience shows that the motivation of pupils is high when:
4.4 In most departments pupils are generally well motivated. However, even where this is true, it is not found in the classes of all teachers in the department. In the majority of classes, there is a sense of purpose; pupils work well, contribute to discussions and ask questions. In a minority of classes, where this is not the case, a sense of lethargy pervades the class, with lessons uninspiring or boring and pupils working at a slow pace. On occasion, pupils do not work well because the demands of the course are too great for them; it is more common, however, for teachers to underestimate the level of ability of a number of pupils and, as a result, to offer them too little challenge.
Planning
4.5 Planning is important if pupils taking a course are to do well. Departments which plan well ensure that:
In all departments some planning took place but it rarely covered all of these aspects and in many it was very limited.
4.6 The fear that too detailed planning might lead to rigid and inflexible teaching is rarely justified in practice. Some teachers argue that no two classes will respond in exactly the same way to a lesson; while this is true, it does not preclude planning. Good teachers allocate enough time to each topic, but ensure that all of the time is not committed, so that pupils can pursue ideas and the teacher can take advantage of events which arise throughout the course. These events are sometimes raised by the pupils or used by the teacher to relate the subject to real world events, discussing the reasons for them and their likely consequences. In one school, as the countries in Eastern Europe were attempting to restructure their economies on a more market-oriented basis, the teacher of a Higher Grade class:
"......broke off from the lesson topic which was being covered to take advantage of events in Eastern Europe which had been extensively reported on television and in the newspapers. She made very good use of pictures of queues of people and empty shops with fixed prices, a free market in the same city but with high prices and plentiful goods, and a very interesting article on the black market, to revise and reinforce previous teaching on the interaction of supply and demand. It made for a very stimulating lesson and pupils were animated and contributed well to the discussion, exploring the economic and social effects of economic change."
4.7 Effective departments plan the learning of pupils over the six years of secondary education. This is difficult for business studies departments because few have a major involvement with pupils in S1 and S2 and also because classes at Higher Grade contain not only pupils with an appropriate award at Standard Grade but also a high proportion of pupils with no previous experience of the subject. As the National Guidelines for Environmental Studies 5-14 are implemented, however, departments may become more involved in meeting the needs of S1 and S2 pupils and will wish to recognise and build upon their attainments in primary schools. Even where departments make no contribution to S1 and S2, pupils increasingly will come to them with a wide range of skills in information technology which will be built upon in S3 or even in S5 if they come to the department for a 'crash Higher'.
4.8 The balance of elements required in the business education subjects at Standard and Higher Grade makes careful planning very important. In recent years most departments have used nationally or regionally devised materials, secure in the knowledge that these have taken into account the aims, key ideas and content of the syllabus and the balance of assessable elements, and ensure that all aspects receive appropriate amounts of time. Although these materials are very useful to departments, many have found that they are not ideal for some pupils. Some departments use published materials exclusively and in a relatively pedestrian way, with the result that some pupils see a task as finishing a worksheet rather than exploring an economic idea. The results achieved by such departments are disappointing. Moreover, the teaching is dull and uninspiring and pupils see the subject as irrelevant and boring.
"The teacher spent a considerable amount of time getting pupils to do a task using worksheets when the subject content could have been taught to the whole class in a matter of minutes, with pupils acquiring the essential knowledge which could then be used more appropriately at a later stage."
4.9 Too many departments which use nationally or regionally produced materials exclusively work steadily through too many low level tasks which do not challenge pupils. This results in boredom and under-achievement. Where there is a number of tasks set at each level, pupils should not undertake them all, provided they demonstrate clearly that they are coping and are capable of moving on to the next level. It may mean that they do not attempt any tasks at Foundation or even General level. Good departments guarantee that all pupils have the chance to succeed at the highest level of which they are currently capable, which means introducing Credit level work early in the course and giving sufficient regular practice to give a good chance of success. One department had set out a 'pathway' chart to monitor success and progress.
"Pupils had to undertake those tasks marked 0 which they checked themselves and presented those marked X for teacher check. If this exercise was correct then pupils would move to the task marked * at the higher level and repeat the process.
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[0] |
[0] |
[X] |
[ ] |
[ ] |
[ ] |
[ ] |
[ ] |
[ ] |
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G |
[ ] |
[*] |
[0] |
[0] |
[X] |
[ ] |
[ ] |
[ ] |
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C |
[*] |
[0] |
[0] |
[X] |
[ ] |
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[ ] |
[ ] |
Good departments use nationally and regionally produced materials more flexibly and the result is a more interesting, varied and responsive course which meets the needs of their pupils.
4.10 Few departments have guidelines on teaching approaches, especially at Higher Grade. In good departments teachers, who may teach up to four subjects, think about the links, similarities and differences that exist between the various subjects, and develop appropriate strategies to permit the aims to be met in stimulating and appropriate ways. They realise that what is appropriate for the teaching of one subject may not be suitable for another. They also tend not teach subjects in isolation, but use their knowledge of all of the subjects to enrich the experience gained by pupils, by providing a wide range of appropriate illustrations.
4.11 Planning is also of critical importance where pupils are producing materials for handling information, tackling a practical abilities project or undertaking an investigation at Standard Grade or a project at Higher Grade. Although, in many departments, successful courses are planned to ensure that the necessary work is not left until late in the course, this is not always the case. Where this aspect of the course is not well planned, pupils do not do as well as they should. In one school, in OIS:
"pupils had not begun to build up a Handling Information folder 6 weeks before it was due for submission to the Scottish Examination Board. This meant that they did not gain as high an award as was possible because they were unable to cover all the specific objectives or to produce work to justify an award at Credit level.
However, in another:
"when pupils successfully tackled a task at Foundation level they stored it in their folder and recorded it on the front page. When they successfully completed another task for the same specific objective at General level then they would replace the Foundation level task with the new one and this process would continue until the pupil had one task for each specific objective at the highest level possible."
This process is repeated in many schools and, in some, pupils have completed their Handling Information folder to a Grade 1 Credit level by October of their S4 year.
4.12 In subjects with an investigative or project element, such as economics or MIS, the most effective departments plan the teaching of the necessary skills early in the course. Often in Standard Grade economics this starts early in S3. These departments begin early in S3 to give pupils short, structured tasks which focus on the sub-skills of investigation and build up to a more substantial mock-investigation. Each task has a specific purpose. This approach offers success to virtually all pupils at the beginning and encourages them to move on to more complex tasks. In one school:
"a pupil undertook an investigation into whether or not it would be viable for a local cafe owner to extend his opening hours over the year and whether or not he should change his practice of closing his cafe during the months of January and February. The pupil drew on a range of source materials such as daily-takings logs, expense sheets and other accounting records; interviews with staff and a questionnaire to customers over a number of weekdays and weekends. She then consulted BR on the numbers of pupils using the local rail station [beside the cafe] over the year and the local meteorological office about rainfall and bad weather. The result was an enjoyable experience for the pupil, a high final grade and an outside view of a problem provided to the cafe owner, which helped him decide to open for longer hours but which justified his wish to have his 2 month holiday in Tenerife in January and February."
4.13 In good departments teachers manage the investigation or project very tightly. In some, they give deadlines for each stage of the investigation and remind pupils that these have to be met. In others they negotiate deadlines with the pupils but the dates negotiated are usually little different from those set in other schools. In others they give a structure for the investigation process to pupils, with a suggested timescale, which, if not met, will be likely to cause the pupils some difficulty. What is common to all good departments, however, is a strong teacher expectation that the dates will be met; this is a major factor in pupils meeting them. In one school where the MIS project was not well managed:
"pupils had been encouraged to gather information from a wide range of sources and had written to many organisations throughout the country. Lack of response from the organisations and poor oversight by the class teacher meant that, with only a few weeks to go before the submission deadline, the pupils found themselves without a viable project."
4.14 Good courses have, on occasion, elements of all three assessable areas built into specific tasks, which allows pupils to see how the development of the three elements blend together to produce the results demanded by the teacher. In one school:
"pupils in one group were required to handle a variety of reference books and supplementary documents to plan a visit to London for a pupil from another school. The information was collated and keyed into a blank report format by one pupil, checked for accuracy by another and finally faxed to the other school by a third pupil. The satisfaction gained by the team as they talked about the work involved and their pleasure at having undertaken the task successfully in the time allocated was heartening to observe."
Numerous examples of this happening were observed.
Range and variety in learning and teaching
4.15 Pupils vary in the teaching approaches which they find help them to learn; using a range of different approaches is likely to benefit many pupils. In addition, a variety of approaches helps to maintain their interest. However, although maintaining the interest of pupils is important, the use of a variety of learning and teaching approaches does not mean that teachers have to entertain the class. The prime criterion is how well the method meets the aims of the lesson or section of the course and helps the pupil to understand the concepts. Effective business studies teachers select, and use effectively, a well balanced range of whole-class, group and individual teaching strategies, sometimes within one lesson, but more often within a unit of work and certainly across the entire course. The balance varies from subject to subject.
4.16 In 1987-88, HM Inspectors of Schools visited TVEI pilot schools and issued a report which criticised the narrowness of teaching and learning styles at the upper secondary level. Lessons relied too heavily on teacher delivery and pupil activity was controlled and directed solely by the teacher. The content of the lessons was often also based on theoretical considerations at the expense of practical applications.
4.17 Good business education departments understood the problems inherent in this approach and addressed it by introducing well-structured courses which blended theoretical and practical aspects and produced a flow of work which had to overtaken and allowed some flexibility to the pupil. This move was enhanced by the introduction of Standard Grade. Teachers began to spend more time supporting pupils' learning rather than directly teaching the whole class for the majority of time. In a significant minority of schools, however, teachers mistakenly almost gave up whole-class teaching when what was required was a mix of styles. Good teachers of business education use, and are competent in using, a range of different learning and teaching approaches.
4.18 All of the business education subjects at Standard Grade have different assessable elements. All, however, seek to develop knowledge and understanding; the other elements differ from subject to subject. Knowledge and understanding of the key concepts of any subject is important because they provide the foundation upon which practical skills, handling information and investigation is based, and the framework within which events can be interpreted and the validity of views tested. As pupils’ knowledge and understanding of a subject increases, they acquire a greater and more detailed bank of knowledge of the subject upon which they can draw to solve problems. This provides them with an increased capacity for independent work and the ability to work faster. A good foundation of knowledge and understanding, however, needs to be taught and is not acquired merely by pupil activity. This has important implications for the selection of an appropriate learning and teaching strategy.
4.19 Keyboard and word processing skills are crucial to pupil success in OIS and secretarial studies and are valuable personal and vocational skills for individuals. Where time and attention are given to good keyboard training in the initial stages of learning, pupils are more likely to produce work which is accurate and well presented.
"The very high standard of keyboarding and word-processing was founded on a prolonged period of keyboard training at the beginning of the course where emphasis was placed on correct fingering and touch-typing skills. Time spent at this stage was more than compensated for later in the course by the increased speed of accurate input achieved by the pupils."
In a significant minority of departments, however, keyboarding is poorly taught, with pupils not having command of the ‘home’ keys before moving on to producing text. As a result they cannot produce text accurately at a reasonable pace and this is reflected in their results. In one department:
"pupils produced text slowly, made frequent mistakes, did not proof-read their work and often found the language of text they were required to process too difficult; weaknesses in spelling and punctuation contributed to the high failure rate in external examinations."
4.20 The different requirements of knowledge and understanding and keyboard and word processing skills provide an example of how the teaching approaches used in any subject will vary, dependent on what is to be taught. Good interactive expository teaching (expository teaching combined with a great deal of questioning and discussion) is an effective way of extending pupils' knowledge and understanding. It is the most common teaching approach at Higher Grade, in economics and in accounting and finance, and to an extent in MIS, when allied to individual work for consolidation. It is less common at Standard Grade, especially OIS. Interactive expository teaching is particularly effective for introducing a new topic, summing up the key points of a topic, and also for explaining and exemplifying difficult topics and theoretical points. It is particularly effective when used in conjunction with sensitive questioning and discussion without which the development of understanding is likely to be limited. In one accounting and finance class:
"the main teaching style was one of teacher exposition of new topics or parts of the course, with her working through a sample exercise on the OHP and checking pupil understanding and comprehension with subtle and probing questioning - drawing individual pupils into discussion and thereby ensuring that those encountering problems were not targeted as individuals but made to feel part of the group."
and in an economics class:
"the teacher built up a market demand schedule by discussing with the class in a stimulating way the number of compact discs they would each buy from a limited budget with a varying price. As the demand schedule built up, the pupils began to see the relationship between the price and the quantity demanded. One pupil, however, insisted on keeping his quantity demanded constant irrespective of price changes. This was well built upon by the teacher to demonstrate that, despite individual idiosyncrasies, overall, the demand curve would slope downwards."
4.21 Where interactive teacher exposition is used, it is important that the lesson is well structured and the teacher is clear and unambiguous in her or his exposition.
"The expositions and explanations of the teacher were exemplary and were always clear and unambiguous. Lessons had a clear aim, and began with a review of the previous lesson. This was followed by practical work, well supported by the teacher, with a recapitulation at the end of the lesson."
4.22 Pupils appreciated lessons like this. For most pupils, interactive expository teaching by a skilled teacher is a beneficial experience. Many pupils spend much of their lives relatively isolated from adults and spend little of their time communicating with them, even at home. These pupils often enjoy the social interaction involved in this type of teaching. Pupils who have some difficulty in concentrating also respond well to it, because of its carefully considered structure and the capacity of the teacher to adjust to individual pupils' response and hence to make the lesson interesting. As one pupil memorably put it:
"it’s really good in this class. She makes it real. It helps you to understand. She’s really good at explaining things. It’s much better than ....... where it’s mostly just worksheets."
4.23 Although interactive expository teaching is effective, it should not be used to the exclusion of other methods. Pupils benefit from working in groups and, from working individually on tasks to reinforce teaching. With the development of Standard Grade, more teachers are using group methods to allow pupils to discuss and compare ideas, structure their opinions and report back to the class. It is not used as widely as it could be and is more common in economics and in MIS than in the other subjects. It is often most effective when combined with other methods. In one school:
"at an early stage in the Standard Grade course, the pupils were set a structured task of deciding how adequate the staff parking in the school grounds was. They were organised into groups and asked initially to design the approach to be taken to the research. After they had reported back and a methodology agreed, the groups were asked to design the questionnaire which was to be used. Again, the suggestions were fed back into the whole class with some very skilful interventions by the teacher. Because of her positive approach to their suggestions, pupils became increasingly confident and a simple, well worded questionnaire was the result. This was followed by the research being carried out and the results discussed on a whole-class basis. A very useful lesson on scarcity and choice was well married to the beginning of learning about research methodology and questionnaire design."
4.24 Successful group work helps to develop several of the attitudes described earlier in this report e.g. confidence in speaking one’s own mind, attentiveness to what others say, respect for the views of others, respect for evidence as the basis for judgement, openness of mind, willingness to accept the complexity of situations and readiness to change one’s mind in the light of evidence. Successful group work, even where the groups report back to the whole class, is greatly enhanced by teacher involvement and interaction with the groups. If groups of pupils are discussing events, then teacher interaction can enrich the lines of discussion and pull the groups together to clarify or explain points of general difficulty. On occasion, whole-class discussion will be profitable and will enable the teacher to encourage the involvement of all pupils by pitching questions at an appropriate level to individual pupils.
4.25 Although good teaching involves whole-class teaching and group work, the impact of learning is on the individual and pupils must develop their own capacities. They need individual work to reinforce learning and achieve understanding. They need time to digest and apply ideas, read and form their own conclusions and plan an investigation or produce an individual report on a group activity. However, not all individual work contributes well to the achievement of understanding or the development of a practical skill. For individual work to be effective, it has to be carefully devised and well monitored. This is not always well done and, especially in OIS, many pupils spend a great deal of time working in classrooms on mundane individual tasks with support from the teacher, largely when 'stuck'. In extreme cases some pupils stay 'stuck' on a particular difficulty for more than one period and this is not picked up. This is unsatisfactory. In addition, some pupils produce minimal answers and are not sufficiently challenged. It is not an effective way to develop knowledge and understanding and where it is the predominant method of teaching, pupils perform less well in this element of their course. Individual work can often be done as homework and this is a regular feature of effective business education teaching.
4.26 Where teaching approaches are well considered, any particular lesson may well involve drawing on a range of different teaching strategies. In one economics class at Higher Grade:
"groups of pupils were required to research and make presentations to the whole class on the roles and methods of operation of a number of institutions. In a previous lesson the teacher had explained what was required. He had supplied a minimal amount of source material, but the pupils had also used the school library and contacted the organisation directly. The research and preparatory work had been done partly in study periods and partly out of school. The teacher introduced the lesson, reviewing previous progress and setting the scene. Groups of pupils then made short, lively presentations on their institutions. The other pupils asked penetrating questions and the teacher ensured, by careful questioning, that all key points were covered. The teacher had seen, in advance, the slides which the pupils had prepared and the pupils ensured that there were sufficient copies for all pupils to have a note of the key points. The unit offered a rich and varied diet to pupils."
Homework
4.27 Departments which produce consistently good results in external examinations usually believe in the importance of homework as a reinforcement of, and extension to, classwork. It is relatively rare to find departments which do not give pupils any homework, especially in S4. However, many departments do not use homework systematically and therefore do not gain the full benefits which are possible. The use of homework varies within departments and between subjects. It is common in all subjects at Higher Grade and at Standard Grade in accounting and finance, but is least common in S3 and in OIS in particular. Good departments instil positive attitudes towards homework in pupils by setting homework that is not simply a repetition of what has been done in class, by sharing its purpose with pupils and by establishing a routine pattern for the issuing and returning of homework. Where the use of homework has been well considered and it is well done by pupils, this is often because the department has set out clearly the reasons for issuing it. These are best summed up as being to allow pupils to:
4.28 Good departments view homework as an opportunity to extend the time available to pupils in the course and consider the needs of their pupils in designing the tasks to be completed. In these departments homework is appropriate to the needs and abilities of pupils and includes not only tasks such as set exercises, but also a range of activities designed to develop study skills, such as revision of notes, the reading and preparation of case studies, and work on class and individual projects, investigations and handling information tasks. Valuable teaching time is increased in many good departments by asking pupils to read and prepare a piece of work in advance, thus allowing teachers to spend more time in discussion with pupils. Many of the tasks which individuals need to do for learning to be effective can be well done through homework, thus getting the maximum benefit from the teacher's skills in the classroom.
4.29 Pupils generally perform better in the written examination in departments which encourage the writing of extended prose as a means of developing understanding of the knowledge which has been taught. The writing of extended prose is not often required in homework at Standard Grade, although in many departments essays and other written exercises are used extensively at Higher Grade. Many of those who do better in the Higher Grade examinations, however, have already begun to develop the skills of extended writing early in the Standard Grade course.
4.30 Well planned homework takes into account the time to be spent by teachers on correction. Partly for this reason and partly because it encourages a degree of personal responsibility, it is helpful if some of the work set can be assessed by the pupils themselves. This is quite common in accounting and finance, but is not equally suitable for all subjects. Nor can it be done for all homework in accounting and finance. Where it is used, good teachers satisfy themselves that the work has been done by the pupils concerned and that they have mastered it. This means that pupils are able to see a correct solution and teachers take in pupils' folders periodically to mark particularly important tasks and check that the other work has been done. In one department, in accounting and finance:
"pupils were required to mark most work themselves or with the help of peers, but certain key exercises within each topic or section were marked by the teacher - this allowed the teacher to decide whether more work needed to be done on the topic or section or whether the pupil had demonstrated a sufficient level of understanding to move on to the next level or topic."
4.31 It is important that teachers mark homework, which pupils have taken the time to do, quickly and positively. Many teachers mark work but make little comment and where they do comment, they do not always show the pupil how to improve his or her performance. This reduces the value of the work and misses valuable opportunities to help pupils to improve their learning and raise their personal expectations. In one department which tried to improve the essay writing abilities of its pupils:
"The teacher spent a great deal of time marking the first essay which the pupils had done as homework. Comments were detailed, copious and, on occasion, almost as long as some essays. Pupils then had to write around half a page on the positive steps they needed to take to improve their essay writing. When their second essay was submitted they had to staple a copy of the steps they had taken to improve the essay and sign it to say that they had acted upon it. The quality of almost every essay improved markedly."
4.32 In summary, homework should be:
Meeting Pupil Needs
4.33 In business studies departments teachers have traditionally coped with pupils with widely differing levels of ability. Although the introduction of Standard Grade eased the difficulty by offering pupils differentiated targets, teachers faced the new problem of coping with pupils of different ability levels, following a differentiated syllabus, in the one classroom. Their response to this challenge has been good and has been dealt with in a number of ways.
4.34 The simplest approach is to set children in broad ability groups to reduce the range of pupils taught by the teacher in the one classroom, usually to two groups, thus allowing him or her the opportunity to focus teaching more specifically. For some subjects, especially OIS, where more than one class set comes at one time, this can be done. Many departments, however, do not have more than one class coming simultaneously. The solution in such cases has been to have a mixed ability class but to group the pupils within it into those likely to attempt the General and Credit examinations and those likely to attempt the Foundation and General examinations. This approach allows the teacher to focus the teaching more specifically and meet the needs of different pupils more easily:
"At the start of the lesson the teacher sent those pupils intending to sit the General and Credit examinations to the school office for a demonstration of the new photocopier. She spoke to the remaining pupils, who were intending to sit the Foundation and General examinations, about different duplicating methods and prepared them well to make the visit to the school office later in the period. When the first group returned the second group was sent. The General/Credit group then discussed, at a more advanced level, what they had seen. Later, both groups wrote notes on reprographics with the Foundation/General group being given more support on content and structure."
4.35 Many departments consider the main approach to differentiation to be by differentiated worksheet. Although differentiated tasks are helpful they are not the only, or necessarily the main, approach to this problem and a wider range of strategies is needed. Many teachers, through the years, have coped admirably in whole-class teaching by using differentiated exposition and questioning. For many pupils this can be very effective, the teacher explaining difficult concepts and ideas more than once and in different ways; and in whole-class discussions by asking pupils easier and more difficult questions. In the hands of a skilful teacher who knows his or her pupils well, this is a powerful tool. It involves all of the pupils and enables them to take part in a richer discussion than would have been possible had they worked only with other pupils. Differentiated tasks, however, also have a contribution to make.
4.36 The development of centrally or regionally produced support materials has also helped teachers to offer a more differentiated curriculum to pupils. The approach adopted has often been one of core and extension, combined with individual or group teaching which allows more time for interaction with pupils to give help or to encourage them to move on to more challenging and open-ended tasks. It is important to stretch all pupils to achieve the best that they can and not to assume them to be capable of succeeding only at Foundation or General level.
4.37 Good departments provide opportunities for pupils to undertake tasks at Credit level from the beginning of S3; poorer departments do not do this until S4 and in these cases the standard achieved is usually lower. All pupils should be offered the opportunity and encouraged to attempt work at the highest level of which they are capable; only in this way are they likely to further develop the knowledge, understanding and skills associated with the subject and to be sufficiently challenged to enjoy it. This approach not only improves performance at Standard Grade but also can lay the foundation for greater success at Higher Grade. Similarly, good departments recognise the needs of the more able pupils by ensuring that a sufficient challenge is set for them.
"The teacher ensured that able pupils were encouraged to write at greater length as a way of preparing them for the types of essay that would be required when they moved into the Higher class and by giving them a variety of more complicated handling information tasks which required a faster rate of work and the use of additional facilities when using machinery and software."
4.38 Some pupils have learning difficulties, often involving communication problems. Good departments involve the learning support department in evaluating their course materials and in suggesting how they might be adapted for pupils; in addition learning support teachers offer help on how best to deal with the particular learning difficulty which pupils might have. Where this happens it has a very beneficial effect and is highly effective.
"The learning support teacher had adapted the course materials and provided co-operative teaching three periods per week when she worked with a variety of pupils on the acquisition of factual content necessary for the knowledge and understanding examination".
Another learning support teacher
"had produced a carefully structured bibliography which explained simply the complex terminology, but still let the pupils be exposed to the terminology of the course and assisted them in learning it"
4.39 Success is highly motivating and it is, therefore, valuable to inform pupils frequently of what they are doing well during the process of learning. Pupils, especially those having problems, benefit from engaging in activities in which they can have a high expectation of success, without the activities being trivial. This has to be counterbalanced by the need to stretch all pupils to produce the best of which they are capable. Staff must, therefore, tread the fine line between failing to stretch pupils because of fear that they will fail and offering them too hard a set of tasks in which they have little chance of success. This is largely a matter of trial and error and good teachers adjust their demands on pupils depending on pupil ability and response. With good teachers, failure to achieve success when a pupil has tried, is treated constructively - often as partial success on the way to complete command of what is to be learned. Invariably they build upon what the pupil is able to do.
4.40 The pace of work is vitally important no matter which teaching approach is used. If it is too fast, some pupils experience difficulty and their difficulties increase steadily as the course progresses; where it is too slow pupils become lethargic and produce very little work, thus achieving much less than they are capable of doing. In a significant minority of departments the pace of work demanded of pupils is too slow. In successful departments an emphasis is placed on making sure that pupils constantly produce work of a high quality, within a set time limit. The general ethos and atmosphere in departments which embraced this ideal was very high and was reflected in a high standard of achievement in the different elements of the course, including investigation.
4.41 It is particularly important to manage the pace of learning when individualised approaches are used. In worksheet-based approaches a slower pace of work than is desirable is the more common problem at Standard Grade, especially in OIS and in National Certificate text and word processing modules, with the demands on many pupils being set far too low. Some teachers who use these strategies do not distinguish about the differences between pupils working at 'their own level' and 'working at their own pace.' Where a slow pace of work is a problem, or as a measure to prevent this happening, some teachers introduce strategies to ensure the pace of work does not slacken. For example, in one OIS class:
"The teacher had a stock of short tasks which required the retrieval of information or text stored on disc and she would issue these from time to time to pupils who had slackened off in their application in the class. They were given a relatively short period of time to complete the task and present it to the teacher for checking. The pupils enjoyed the tasks and the sight of one pupil working furiously to complete the task would stimulate others to greater effort themselves.''
4.42 A particularly important element in meeting the needs of all pupils is to provide a range of courses, with good advice, so that they can choose appropriately. If this is to work well, teachers need to know their pupils well, be aware of their likelihood of success at the next level, such as the transition from Standard Grade to Higher, and be able to offer a good range of courses. Good departments monitor the relationship between pupils' results at Higher Grade and their previous performance in each of the elements at Standard Grade and offer appropriate guidance. Sometimes pupils and their parents are unwilling to take it but the more it is backed up by analysis of previous years' results the more powerful it is. It is, however, open to pupils and parents to ignore the advice and to attempt a course.
4.43 Good business studies departments provide a range of modules and SEB courses to allow pupils of all inclinations and abilities to maximise their potential. Good departments consider how the modules and courses relate to each other. A number of departments use modules as a stepping stone to a Higher Grade course in S6, usually for those who have not achieved an award at Standard Grade likely to lead to success in S5 and, occasionally, for some of those starting a new subject for the first time. Pupils whose main strength at Standard Grade in OIS lies in keyboarding and word processing may well have difficulty with the theoretical element of Higher Grade secretarial studies and may be better advised to take a series of text processing and word processing modules. Many departments also find them to be useful for pupils who wish to acquire or improve their keyboarding and word processing skills for use in employment or in further or higher education.
4.44 A few departments have gone further and as part of a whole-school attempt to broaden the curriculum have worked in partnership with other schools and their local further education college to provide a General Scottish Vocational Qualification (GSVQ) in Business Administration.
"The school was part of a Neighbourhood Group and, with two others, decided to offer a GSVQ 2 in Business Administration. They found there were some specialised modules for which they lacked expertise and equipment and approached the local college. The college offered the necessary modules on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and the education authority transported the pupils from the three schools to the college. Pupils were well motivated, seeing the award as more valuable than a set of unconnected modules."
Assessment and reporting
4.45 In the business education subjects, as in other subjects, assessment is an integral part of learning and teaching. Good assessment practices are crucial if learning and teaching is to be effective. Assessment, if flexible and imaginative, provides a great deal of feedback to pupils, teachers and parents. It :
4.46 Teachers have always undertaken assessment for a number of reasons; now perhaps they are more aware of the full range of purposes which it serves and more prepared to adapt the learning and teaching approaches which they use. In business studies departments there is a great deal of good practice and, although preparation for external certification is given a justifiable priority, good departments are well aware that assessment has many elements and can serve many purposes. In such departments teachers:
Good teachers use a range of these assessment approaches.
4.47 Assessment practices in Standard Grade courses were good in the vast majority of schools inspected. Most departments prepare pupils well for external examinations. Although most emphasise the preparation of pupils for external assessment, some have also increased their formative assessment to identify pupils' strengths and weaknesses. They have then tried to find ways of remedying these weaknesses and identifying next steps in the pupils learning. More departments, however, would benefit from a more overt approach to identifying with each pupil how he or she could best improve performance.
4.48 Teachers assess pupils through a combination of class exercises, end-of-unit tests and internal examinations combined with ongoing teacher evaluation and observation. Many teachers use regular end-of-unit tests, although few departments use them at the end of every unit. These departments are more flexible, setting pupils a range of tasks, and judging whether a more formal end-of-unit test is desirable. One of the strengths of using tests is that it encourages pupils to revise and master a topic before moving on to the next one, thus building their knowledge and understanding and making the acquisition of new knowledge easier. One technique which, although used infrequently, is useful, is that of short quick tests, either oral or written, to encourage pupils to learn new knowledge and terminology as the course unfolds.
4.49 Teachers have an important professional duty to monitor the standards of pupils' learning and they have far more expertise than pupils - in the subject, in how it is best taught and learned, in methods of assessment, and in the criteria and standards used to judge pupils' performance. However, there are good reasons for involving pupils in assessing their own work and that of their peers. Involving them formally in the assessment process by showing to them how judgements are made and what criteria are relevant, can help them to direct their efforts in learning more effectively. It also helps them to become more critical of their own work before it is marked. In one OIS course:
"pupils were required to proof-read the text on the screen and when they were certain they had identified and corrected all errors they would ask their neighbour to carry out a further check. This had a beneficial effect on both pupils. The first pupil would take greater care in proof-reading the work as they would not wish their neighbour to find any errors and the second pupil would wish to show how good they were by finding errors the first pupil had missed. The overall effect was an increase in the quality of output and a greater awareness on the part of the pupils on the types of mistakes to watch out for."
In accounting and finance, in another school:
"pupils were required to 'mark' most work themselves or with the help of peers, but certain 'key' exercises within each topic or section were marked by the teacher - this allowed the teacher to decide whether more work needed to be done on this topic or section or whether the pupil has demonstrated a sufficient level of understanding to move on to the next level or topic."
4.50 However, even in a course with built-in checks and tests, good teachers have a major contribution to make to assessment. It is important that, where teachers encourage a degree of pupil self-assessment, pupils see this as a positive measure and not as an abdication of responsibility by the teacher. This means that the teacher should mark a significant amount of pupil work. In addition their involvement in assessment is crucial to pupils' learning, through reinforcement during lessons, rather than by sticking rigidly to the course materials and the pre-planned structure. Good teachers are active in interpreting pupils' approaches and responses, and in adapting teaching according to their awareness of how pupils are doing.
4.51 It is also essential for the teacher to monitor pupils’ folders to ensure that they have a good set of notes which can be used for revision throughout the course and that work has been completed to a satisfactory standard. Over the years teachers have become less systematic at monitoring pupils’ folders, perhaps because of increased administration. This is unsatisfactory given the increased emphasis on individualised learning and worksheets. Good teachers carry out random spot checks on individual pupils’ folders and files and this in itself often has a beneficial effect on ensuring that all pupils keep them to the standard expected by the department. In addition to random checks, however, effective teachers ensure that all folders are periodically monitored. It is vital that, where folders and files are monitored, any instructions given to pupils to repeat or complete work is followed-up. In one school:
"in the examination of a number of pupils’ accounting and finance jotters, it was obvious that, in many cases, where pupils had been told to repeat an exercise or to finish work, this had not happened. Pupils quickly realised that whilst their teacher faithfully corrected all work he seldom, if ever, checked up to see whether or not they had carried out the remediation work suggested. This meant that few, if any, of the pupils ever bothered to look at the corrected work."
4.52 In addition, teachers should be aware that folders now need not necessarily be cardboard files crammed with sheets of paper - the folder might well be an electronic file stored on the hard disc, the school file server or an individual pupil’s floppy disc. In a number of schools evidence was uncovered of unauthorised material, incomplete work, poorly produced material and, on occasion, inappropriate material and viruses. Whilst teachers may monitor paper records or files, the vast majority seldom browse through these electronic files.
4.53 Good business studies departments regularly obtain, record and report on pupil attainment and use this assessment evidence when planning and delivering their teaching. The mechanisms for ensuring high standards of assessment practice will be uniform through all sections in a department. Departments are helped in this process by the general advice that was offered in a range of publications about Standard Grade, as well as by subject-specific advice and instructions issued by SEB, SCOTVEC and the Business Education Network (BEN).
4.54 Most departments assess pupil performance from an early stage in S3 and diligent recording of this information means that teachers and pupils are able to comment on progress and success in each topic and level. Recording of information on pupils need not place an unnecessarily large burden on teachers. Efficient teachers record by exception - comment on individual pupils is made where work produced is of an exceptionally high standard or where pupils are seen to be experiencing problems. Where no comment is recorded, but merely a tick has been made, the teacher is able to report that the pupil has successfully completed the exercise or task to the required standard within the time set and has experienced no problems. In one school:
"the reports issued to parents at the end of term had been constructed from the very brief notes kept by the teacher over the term. These notes stressed success where it had occurred and areas where further development was necessary because of problems encountered. They also explained the next steps to be taken by the pupils."
4.55 Examination success rates convey useful information about departments but do not tell the whole story. They contribute useful knowledge about the quality of the department's work but they do not indicate how much the results are due to the department and how much to home and social background. However, good departments monitor the performance of their pupils, making use of information from SEB and the SOEID data on Relative Ratings, National Comparison Factors and Value Added information. In many departments the variation in results between subjects and between teachers is interesting and careful use of this information has helped many individual teachers and whole departments to increase their success rates.