Business, Economics and Enterprises: Teaching School Subjects 11-19

Business, Economics and Enterprise 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 2 and 3 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. We refer to 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. A distinguishing feature of the book is that it starts by recognising that new teachers often feel disempowered in relation to the subject expertise that they bring into teaching. The book is divided into three sections: ■ 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. Peter Davies is Professor of Education Policy and Director of the Institute for Education Policy Research at Staffordshire University, UK. Jacek Brant is Lecturer in Business and Economics Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, where he is subject leader for the PGCE in Business and Economics.

Teaching School Subjects 11–19 Series Series Editors: John Hardcastle and David Lambert Mathematics Candia Morgan, Anne Watson and Clare Tikly English John Hardcastle Geography John Morgan and David Lambert Science Edited by Vanessa Kind and Keith Taber Modern Foreign Languages Edited by Norbert Pachler, Michael Evans and Shirley Anne Lawes Business, Economics and Enterprise Peter Davies and Jacek Brant

Business, Economics and Enterprise: Teaching School Subjects 11–19 Peter Davies and Jacek Brant

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/. © 2006 Peter Davies and Jacek Brant All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-48836-9 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-69375-2 (OEB Format) ISBN10: 0-415-36357-8 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-415-34432-8 (pbk) ISBN13: 9-78-0-415-36357-0 (hbk) ISBN13: 9-78-0-415-34432-6 (pbk)

Contents List of illustrations

vii

Acknowledgements

xii

Abbreviations

xiii

1 Introduction Part I The subject: purpose and focus 2 Developing citizens, consumers and owners

1 5 7

3 Work-related learning and enterprise education

19

4 Government policy and the shape of the curriculum

28

5 Business, not-for-profits, higher education and teachers: contesting the character of the subject

53

Part II The subject in school: learning and assessment

67

6 Making sense of assessment frameworks

69

7 Choosing and using different types of assessment

83

8 Learning through doing: designing tasks and types of processing

98

9 Learning through thinking: the roles of experience and conceptual understanding Part III Professional development

122 148

10 Evaluating teaching in business, economics and enterprise

149

11 Conclusion

170

Appendices Appendix Competency statements in business studies A

175

Appendix Assessment objectives B

177

Appendix AS Business Studies data response question: coffee with conscience 179 C Appendix AS level Economics data response question: an industry riding for a 181 D fall Appendix Grade descriptions for the Edexcel Business and Economics GCSE E

183

Appendix Qualities of economic judgements in citizenship education F

185

Appendix Developing students’ understanding of qualities of economic G arguments in citizenship education

187

References

189

Index

201

Illustrations FIGURES

6.1

An application of Bloom et al.’s taxonomy to assessment objectives

76

7.1

A marking grid focused on connectives

93

7.2

A critical realist approach to variations in students’ conceptions 94

8.1

Example of a living graph task

110

8.2

A mind map focused on a tuck shop enterprise activity

115

9.1

Kolb’s ‘learning cycle’

131

9.2

Honey and Mumford’s typology of learning styles

134

10.1 Graphs of predicted and actual grades

166

TABLES

4.1

Occupational categories and employment shares

35

4.2

Assessment regulations for business and economics, 2004

50

8.1

Most popular after-school snacks eaten by 7–16-year-olds, 2003 111

9.1

Cash flow example

10.1 Example of Ofsted analysis of the examination results of a

125 162

business education department 10.2 Predicted and actual GCSE scores using CATs and YELLIS data

164

BOXES

2.1

A framework to guide students’ thinking about economic decisions

12

2.2

The eight priority areas of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission’s proposals for financial literacy

14

3.1

Work-related learning and enterprise education

19

3.2

HMI definition of the aims of work-related learning

21

4.1

Key characteristics of business and enterprise colleges

31

4.2

Specification aims for GCSE Business and Communication Systems and Business Studies

39

4.3

Performance descriptions for GCE A level Business Studies

42

4.4

Performance descriptions for GCE AS level Applied Business

43

4.5

Extract from the Ofsted review of vocational A levels

44

4.6

Comparison of aims, content and assessment objectives of GCSE Business and Applied GCSE Business Studies specifications

45

4.7

Extracts from a specification for an Applied Business GCSE

47

4.8

Extract from an examiner’s report on an Applied Business GCSE examination

49

5.1

The Howard Davies Review definition of financial literacy

57

5.2

Resources on financial literacy produced by the NatWest Face 57 2 Face programme

5.3

Extract from The Times 100 Case Study on Kellogg’s Real Fruit Winders

59

5.4

Oxfam view on traits for the educator aspiring to be a Global Citizen

60

5.5

Brief for role play activities provided by Christian Aid

63

6.1

Assessment objectives from the OCR Certificate in Enterprise (Young Enterprise) level 2 unit 2

72

6.2

Bloom et al.’s taxonomy of educational objectives

74

6.3

Example of a Business Studies GCSE question and mark scheme

7778

7.1

Extract from an examiner’s report on GCSE coursework

84

7.2

Examples of multiple-choice questions in economics

87

7.3

Story grammar: the components of stories

92

8.1

An overview of behaviourist and information-processing theories of learning

99

8.2

A typical break-even worksheet

101

8.3

Cloze procedure: how can I avoid getting into debt?

104

8.4

Data on the Brent Spar case

104

8.5

A matching task involving one-to-one matches

107

8.6

A matching task involving multiple possible matches

108

8.7

An analysis task on marketing strategy

108

8.8

A revised version of the text in Box 8.7

109

8.9

Variations in the difficulty of synthesis tasks

113

8.10 The pricing decisions of a Young Enterprise group

114

8.11 Sequencing task

116

9.1

An overview of experiential, neo-Piagetian and social constructivist theories of learning

123

9.2

Strategies for cognitive acceleration

128

9.3

A style of lesson that aims to move students from one conception to another

138

9.4

Examples of scaffolding in one-to-one work with students

141

9.5

The organisation of a lesson to provide scaffolded support for students

143

10.1 Extracts from the standards for qualified teacher status in relation to setting objectives and planning lessons

152

10.2 An example of a teacher’s lesson planning

153

10.3 Extracts from the standards for qualified teacher status in relation to using ICT

155

10.4 A depreciation spreadsheet model

156

10.5 Extracts from the National Curriculum ICT attainment targets

157

10.6 An example of a trainee teacher’s evaluation of their use of ICT in a business studies lesson

158

10.7 Extracts from the standards for qualified teacher status in relation to differentiation

159

10.8 One teacher’s approach to differentiation in GCSE Business Studies

159

10.9 Ofsted commentary on conversations with pupils during a school inspection

167

11.1 The roles of an advanced skills teacher

174

11.2 Characteristics of leading practitioners

174

Acknowledgements We are grateful to Wendy Meigh and Rob Randall, who have contributed case studies that we have included in this book, and to Andy Garbett for further exemplification. We are also grateful to the following for their helpful comments on draft chapters: Nick Adnett, Gwen Coates, Karen Davies, John Gibb, Monica Greer, Richard Hughes, Samantha Link, Jonathan Lines, Annabel Lubikowski, Erik Meyer, Fiona Rodger and Nancy Wall. We are grateful to the following organisations for permission to reproduce material: Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (Box 7.2, Appendix C), Daily Telegraph (Appendix D), Edexcel (Boxes 4.7, 6.3), Guardian Newspapers (Appendix C), MBA Publishing (Box 5.3), Mintel (Table 8.1), Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (Appendix D), Office for Standards in Education (Table 10.1), Oxfam (Box 5.4).

Abbreviations BEE

business, economics and enterprise

BTEC

Business and Technical Education Council

CATs

Cognitive Ability Tests

DfES

Department for Education and Skills

DTI

Department of Trade and Industry

EBEA

Economics and Business Education Association

FSA

Financial Services Agency

FSM

free school meals

GCE

General Certificate of Education

GCSE

General Certificate of Secondary Education

HMI

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate

ICT

information and communication technology

IT

Information Technology

ITT

initial teacher training

NLP

neuro-linguistic programming

NVQ

National Vocational Qualification

Ofsted

Office for Standards in Education

QCA

Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

QTS

qualified teacher status

TTA

Teacher Training Agency

VAK

visual, auditory and kinaesthetic

VCE

Vocational Certificate of Education

YELLIS

Year Eleven Information System

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

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2

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.

Introduction

3

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

Business, economics and enterprise

8

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).

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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 taught ‘how the economy functions’ (DfEE, 1999). There is plenty of scope in this broad statement for teachers to interpret the requirement in very different ways. What evidence is there of the economic understanding of students and adults? There is widespread recognition that economic understanding is typically rather low. Some indication of this is provided by the National Commission on Education, who suggest that ‘it is not always as well understood as it should be how fundamental the performance of the economy is to the well-being of the country’ (1993:13). Detailed evidence of low levels of economic knowledge and understanding is provided for the UK by Leiser (1983), Furnham (1987), Furnham and Stacey (1991) and Davies, P. et al. (2002a). Similar evidence for the US is provided by Walstad and Larsen (1992) and Salemi and Siegfried (1999). These studies show that adults do not, as a rule, accumulate economic knowledge and understanding through their experience of the economy that is significantly better than the knowledge and understanding of young people. In both cases there are fundamentally weak levels of knowledge and understanding. For example, most students do not know which organisations are run by the government and which are not and their understanding of inflation is very confused. Understanding of the relationship between taxation and government spending is particularly problematic. Most students and

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adults want a combination of lower taxes and more government spending. Research by Williamson and Wearing (1996) in Australia suggests that adults rationalise their wish for higher government spending and lower taxation with a belief that much current government spending is ‘wasteful’. Furnham and Gunter (1983), Lewis (1983), O’Brien and Ingels (1985), Furnham and Lewis (1986), Furnham (1987) and Davies P. et al. (2002a) have used inventories to explore the relationship between students’ preferences for government spending and their political views. Unsurprisingly, students with more right-wing political views want less government spending and they are more likely to attribute unemployment to the ‘laziness’ of individuals. Nevertheless, the great majority of 16–17 year olds in the UK and the US agree with the propositions, The poor and the ill have a right to help from the government’, ‘It is the responsibility of government to take care of people who can’t take care of themselves’ and ‘It should be the duty of the government to be sure that everyone has a secure job and a decent standard of living’. It is more surprising to find consistent evidence that students believe that actual policies are in line with their personal beliefs. Students who want more government spending tend to believe that is happening. Students who want less government spending tend to believe that is happening. Students think the world operates in the way they want. In summarising their review of evidence of young people’s economic understanding, Furnham and Stacey conclude that even for 16 year olds able to leave school, understanding of economics is poor in many areas. It may be seen as desirable to improve on this state of affairs since, while experience may be important in some areas it is still not known which economic misconceptions are corrected by maturation and life experience. (1991:44) To what extent have previous programmes of teaching been shown to increase economic understanding? Evaluations of the effect of specific economics instruction on economic understanding have typically relied on two key assumptions. First, economic understanding is defined as the acquisition and application of specific concepts and vocabulary as found in economics examination syllabuses. Second, this understanding is assessed through multiple-choice questions. These assumptions are found in research employing the Test of Economic Literacy (TEL) (e.g. Whitehead and Halil, 1990; Stock and Rader, 1997; Lietz and Kotte, 2000) and other US-based assessment tools (e.g. Walstad and Allgood, 1999). This research has found that explicit teaching in economics results in a significant, but modest increase in economic understanding. However, as Walstad and Allgood observe, it ‘is discouraging that college seniors with economics show only a limited knowledge of basic economies’ (1999:350). This is broadly consistent with evidence from in-depth interviews carried out by phenomenographic researchers (e.g. Dahlgren, 1984), who tend to find that ‘formal knowledge’ has a limited impact on young people’s thinking about their experience of phenomena (such as the economy). These findings are similar to evidence from other school subjects.

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An alternative approach to developing students’ economic understanding, via crosscurricular work, was attempted during the early years of the National Curriculum in England and Wales (NCC, 1990a, 1990b). Exemplification of practice (e.g. Quigley et al., 1991; Davies P. et al., 1993) suggested that cross-curricular work could impact on young people’s economic thinking. However, wider evaluations were either pessimistic (DES, 1987, 1990; Whitty et al., 1994) or, at best, very cautious (Jamieson and Harris, 1992) about the overall impact of cross-curricular work. The prevailing strength of the subject-based curriculum was further compounded by subsequent revisions to the National Curriculum and the disappearance of the National Curriculum Council. Moreover, Davies, I. et al., (1999) found that teachers in England perceive citizenship chiefly in terms of social and moral attitudes and secondarily in terms of political knowledge. We conclude that hopes that pupils will develop an understanding of ‘how the economy functions’ by the age of 16 seem highly optimistic unless some way is found to help teachers to focus more explicitly on this aspect. What should be the aims of an economic element of citizenship education and how can these be achieved? In this section we briefly summarise two broad approaches to the economic elements of citizenship education. The first of these focuses on decision-making. The central idea is that citizens will make better decisions (and support better decisions by democratically elected governments) if they carefully select the best possible option through calculating the costs, benefits and risks of different alternatives (Horton and Weidenaar, 1975). This defines ‘better decision-making’ in terms of mainstream economics. It leads to the suggestion that students should be taught how to use the economic concepts, scarcity, choice and opportunity cost, to identify and evaluate the costs and benefits of any set of alternatives. This may be exemplified by some example activities from the Economics Education 14–16 Project (1985). In one example, students were shown a line drawing of an accident scene and asked to identify the costs of the accident. This activity was devised to draw students’ attention to the costs that were generated by the delays caused to individuals in the picture and invited students to calculate the costs to these individuals of not being able to do what they would otherwise have chosen to do. In another activity students were asked to choose between three alternative ways of spending a Local Authority budget: on roads, social services or education. This approach to citizenship and decision-making treats the calculation of the ‘best’ option as unproblematic. The student simply has to apply some key economic concepts and the answer becomes obvious. Henderson (1985) and Hodkinson and Thomas (1984) regarded this assumption as unacceptable. Hodkinson and Thomas suggested a framework (Box 2.1) for decision-making that attempted to overcome the problem. This framework supplements the focus on comparing costs and benefits with the question: What does best mean? This is intended to prompt students and teachers to recognise and review the value judgements that are implicit in the way that costs and benefits are being identified and calculated. For example, in the exercise where students are asked to choose how to allocate a Local Authority budget the total amount of money available is assumed fixed. The implicit assumption here is that taxes cannot be raised. A

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teacher using the Hodkinson and Thomas framework would encourage students to recognise this and ask them whether this recognition would affect their decision. This decision-making approach to citizenship education has the advantage of being securely rooted in the standard accounts of the fundamental BOX 2.1 A FRAMEWORK TO GUIDE STUDENTS’ THINKING ABOUT ECONOMIC DECISIONS ■ Examine any marginal decision involving the use of scarce resources. Deduce whether the decision indicates that marginal benefits are greater than or equal to prices or money costs. ■ Does it represent the best use of scarce resources? What does best mean? ■ Are any costs other than money involved? Analyse the question in opportunity cost terms: What returns are available from alternative uses of resource? What other resource use is involved as a result of the decision? Are external/social costs present? ■ Re-examine the choice behaviour. Consider benefits at the margin in relation to cost at the margin noting the effect of value judgements. ■ Does it represent the best use of resources? What does best mean? ■ Consider policy implications. ■ Alternatively start with a policy or advisory statement and work backwards, exposing the value judgements involved. Source: Hodkinson and Thomas (1984:7–8). concepts of economics. However, this, in itself, biases the approach against any other type of economic analysis and this bias may be difficult for teachers as well as students to recognise. There is also a danger that the probing approach envisaged by the authors of this framework may become debased in two ways. First, the emphasis on evaluating costs and benefits can get reduced to merely identifying advantages and disadvantages. The economic analysis aims to provide a systematic way of reckoning the net impact of all effects. Second, the student has to identify relevant alternatives in the first place. It may be that simply by learning to use the concept ‘opportunity cost’ students learn to look for options (like changing the level of tax in the Local Authority budget example) that are not presented in the task. However, their ability to identify the systematic effects of any policy will depend on their ability to understand how one change in an economic system will lead on to other changes. It is not clear how the decision-making framework itself will help students in this way. Davies, P. (2005) argues that the central contribution of economic understanding to citizenship education lies in understanding relationships between individual and collective well-being. He suggests that common sense understanding believes that an improvement in the well-being of one individual comes at the expense of the well-being of others. The insight of economic thought is that an improvement in the well-being of one individual may also lead to an increase in the well-being of others. This idea may be described as a threshold concept (Davies, P., 2003; Meyer and Land, 2003) which integrates a way of thinking about the world. The economic element of citizenship may then be described as the development of capabilities to produce better arguments that necessarily adopt more sophisticated approaches to the ways in which individual actions

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are related to general well-being. Davies, P. (2004) suggests three strands to this improvement in the quality the of argument: recognising different stakeholders, different reasons and interdependence. EDUCATING CONSUMERS AND OWNERS Consumer education has traditionally been a low priority in schooling in England (Hodkinson, 1994), although it has sometimes emerged as a significant strand in BEE. One of the three elements of the Economics Education 14–16 Project (1985) was titled ‘Young Person as a Consumer’. Consumer education also used to be an element in commerce courses. Students were taught about laws protecting consumer rights and options they faced in their banking and insurance. The success of Business Studies following the introduction of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) put an end to commerce courses and residual elements of consumer education were relegated to personal and social education. This was clearly a relegation because courses that led to public examinations were already higher status than those that did not and this trend was reinforced by the introduction of league tables for school examination performance. However, there are reasons for regarding consumer education as an important aspect of what should be achieved through BEE. First, we might expect schooling to help students to avoid being exploited as consumers. There are many areas of consumption in which consumers have less information about products and services than producers. In these circumstances the ignorance of consumers can be exploited. In the UK and elsewhere, this has been most notable in the area of financial services. Second, there are elements of individual consumption that have significant implications for others in present and future generations. Also, consumers’ purchasing and recycling decisions have implications for current and future environments. The education offered to consumers as adults tends to focus on informing them about how they can identify recyclable products and where they can take products to be recycled. Information of this kind tends to change with circumstances and it is therefore less appropriate for schooling. However, it is pertinent for schooling to address questions such as: What are the effects on the environment of changes in the total level of my consumption?, How should decide whether to spend time and resources recycling something?, How do my decisions as a consumer affect the approach of businesses to the effect of their products on the environment? and How as a consumer should regard the environmental effects of government policy? There is a case for regarding schooling as an appropriate place to help students to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between consumption and the environment. Typically, 15–16-year-old students will regard recycling as inherently a good thing, failing to take any account of the resources that might be used in recycling (Knighton, 2005). At the same time they may have little awareness of the overall impact of their consumption on the environment or the potential effect on producers of their behaviour as consumers. There is a danger that this aspect of consumer education becomes reduced to encouraging students to pick up litter in school and put waste in the recycling bin at home.

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Financial literacy Financial literacy includes education for consumers and education for owners. This can be observed in the agenda for financial literacy put forward by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (Box 2.2).

BOX 2.2 THE EIGHT PRIORITY AREAS OF THE AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENT COMMISSION’S PROPOSALS FOR FINANCIAL LITERACY ■ Retirement planning and investing generally ■ Superannuation ■ E-commerce ■ Insurance ■ Dispute resolution ■ Financial literacy and financial exclusion ■ Consumer rights ■ Credit (once Financial Services Reform Act is implemented). Australian

Securities

and

Investments

Commission

(2003)

(www.asic.gov.au/fido/fido.nsf/print/01%2F378+ASIC+launches+financial+services+consumer+education+strategy?opendocument).

The first two bullet points are focused on ownership and they might be extended to include share ownership. The remaining bullet points are more concerned with consumption decisions. An important part of financial literacy is helping students to think about long-term decisions relating to ownership in a different way from their decisions about current spending and then to think carefully about the relationship between the two. This need is highlighted by the increasing levels of personal debt. The Financial Services Agency (FSA) reported in 2003 that 6.1 million families in the UK had difficulties with debt repayment and, of these, 31 per cent of the family’s income goes towards debt repayments. Yet the same group was identified as having fewer assets to fall back on in the event of loss of income. Debt finances approximately 10 per cent of household spending. The FSA has identified a ‘heightened risk for consumers taking on higher debt levels’ in the current economic environment. The total level of debt is predicted to soon reach £1 trillion, almost equivalent to Britain’s gross domestic product (The Observer, 2003). In the US one estimate puts the number of ‘over-extended consumers’ at 34 per cent and the number of credit card debtors making only the monthly minimum payment at 38 per cent (OBRE, 2003). The problem is not stable. A report by Leeds Business School for the Credit Services Association found that the average UK household falling into difficulty with debt owed £25,000 spread across 15 different lenders. This compares with an average of £10,000 three years previously (Guardian, 2003). On average, each UK consumer has one credit card compared with 2.5 credit cards per consumer in the US (The Observer, 2003). This is leading some market analysts to predict further rapid growth in UK credit card ownership and use. Consumer debt problems handled by Citizens’ Advice Bureaux (CABs) increased by 46 per cent over the period 1998–2003. In a survey of over 900 CAB debt clients more than half were using credit or taking on further borrowing to cope with their debt problem. A quarter were receiving treatment for

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stress, anxiety and depression. The poorest households are increasingly turning to doorstep lenders charging rates of interest as high as 177 per cent (Guardian, 2003). Problems with debt are not evenly spread across different types of household. Fifty per cent of unsecured debt is owed by just 10 per cent of the population (Financial Director, 2003). Not surprisingly, it is the poorest sections of society who are most likely to get into serious difficulties with their debts. The surge in personal debt has coincided with a huge growth in the availability of credit cards. There were 1,500 different credit cards available in the UK in 2003 and the total amount of credit card lending doubled between 1999 and 2003 (Guardian, 2003). This growth in credit ownership has been fuelled by aggressive marketing from finance companies. In the US in 2000, credit card issuers mailed 3.54 billion solicitations to consumers. This equates to an average of 3 credit card offers per month per household (OBRE, 2003). For many individuals a large proportion of their personal debt is incurred through house purchase. The proportion of people in the UK owning their home rose from 55 per cent to 68 per cent between 1980 and 1999. This is ‘secured debt’ because the lender can always repossess the house to recover the debt. However, large and increasing levels of debt secured against assets such as houses leave individual consumers and the whole economy highly susceptible to changes in asset prices. When prices (e.g. of houses) rise consumers and consumer spending are buoyant. When asset prices fall some consumers face the burden of negative equity and consumer confidence tumbles. For example, it is calculated that average household financial assets in Japan fell by 18.4 per cent between 1994 and 1999 (Statistics Bureau and Statistics Centre, 2001), contributing to the crisis in consumer spending. Similar principles apply to the ownership of financial assets, such as shares. The fall in share values between 2000 and 2002 led insurance companies to cut pension and endowment payouts in the UK. The most notorious asset value problem in the UK in recent years was created by the mis-selling of private pensions. Following the revelation that customers had been misinformed by insurance agents eager to sell private pensions, insurance companies were ordered to pay a total of £11.5 billion in compensation to customers. The problems in less established democracies with weaker procedures for financial regulation can be far more severe. Pyramid selling in Albania in 1999 led to a crisis that brought down the government of Dr Sail Berisha. The next year, Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs (2000) warned that The western countries are at imminent risk of yet another great debacle: failing to come to the help of Nigerian democracy, even as the country is rocked by riots and unrest stemming from profound impoverishment and financial destabilisation.’ A comparison of these examples shows the dependence of citizens on the intervention of their government when things go wrong. Can citizens in established democracies always rely on their government to intervene financially on their behalf? The Consumers’ Association in the UK clearly thinks not, having launched a campaign to encourage the 5 million people who it estimates to have been ‘mis-sold’ an endowment policy to claim compensation. Governments in many countries have perceived ‘greater financial literacy’ as the answer to these problems. The reasoning could be that, if we educate young people and adults to recognise the ways in which the behaviour of financial services might lead them astray, then they will be able to avoid the pitfalls. The language of statements about

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16

financial literacy invariably puts the responsibility on the customer. For example, in explaining current policy one government minister in the UK stated: We want to build a generation of empowered consumers who can manage their credit effectively, understand why it is important for them to master their finances, and how they might achieve that. (We want consumers) who can make appropriate decisions about their finances and understand the choices open to them and their implications. Ultimately, individuals have the responsibility to manage their own finances effectively. But Government has a role to empower them to do so. (Johnson, 2002) If we suppose that financial literacy rather than tighter regulation of financial services is the answer to this problem we need to specify what ‘financial literacy’ should include. On the basis of our analysis so far we would suggest that students should be taught: ■ To assume that any financial adviser, however genuine, may face an incentive to sell products that are not in the consumer’s best interest. ■ How to calculate implications for future expenditure of taking on any particular level or type of current debt. ■ How to recognise the broad implications of future levels of inflation and asset prices for future income and spending. ■ How changes in total levels of debt, asset prices and income are likely to affect the financial environment in which they will be making their spending and saving decisions. Many private-sector organisations, notably those in the financial sector, have echoed this message of equipping individuals to carry out their personal responsibilities. Microsoft made a donation of 45,000 copies of Microsoft Money 2003 to US schools on the basis that it was giving students the tools to learn money management skills (Microsoft, 2003). The company has also teamed up with the Center for Student Credit Card Education to provide selected colleges with credit card literacy material along with 10,000 free trial copies of Money 2004. In the UK the NatWest Bank has championed financial literacy through its ‘Face 2 Face’ programme since 1994. By 2003 the programme director was able to claim that just over 350,000 students had taken part in the programme (NatWest Bank, 2003). The objectives of a unit on credit and credit cards are listed as enabling students to calculate the cost of credit and getting into debt; to appreciate the costs and benefits of cards for customers and business; and to understand the need for security in the use of cards. It is difficult for these private-sector businesses to dodge the accusation that they are simply aiming to promote further demand for their products. It is also fairly easy to portray this whole scenario as one in which large multinational companies are allocating small educational budgets to mitigate some of the grosser effects of their large marketing budgets. However, it is important to remember that financial service companies have not been equally culpable in the problems created or equally committed to ‘empowering’ consumers. For example, the ‘Face 2 Face’ activities are designed to help students to carefully evaluate the risks they are taking on when they enter the market

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for credit and this kind of activity has every chance of being a really valuable addition to the school curriculum. Fair Trade and sustainable development Students might also be educated at school about the impact of consumption on individuals and communities in other countries. The message of ‘Fair Trade’ has been well promoted by the ‘Just Business’ web site (http://www.justbiz.org/) and the resources it provides. A minor part of this concerns the spending decisions of individuals. There are now plenty of opportunities for individuals to buy products that have Fair Trade kitemarks of one kind or another. The education issue here is analogous to the provision of information about where individuals can go to recycle waste products. As with environmental education the bigger issues concern students’ understanding of the relationship between consumption as a whole and prosperity in other countries. There are two competing ideas to be understood here. The first idea, frequently promoted in the name of ‘Fair Trade’, is that, if consumers in the affluent West pay low prices, causing low wages in other countries in the world, then people in the West unfairly benefit at the expense of others. This idea focuses on the terms of trade: the rate at which commodities from one country are exchanged for commodities in another. If we can sell our goods at high prices and buy from others at low prices then our terms of trade are high. We gain, they lose. The second idea is ‘comparative advantage’, which suggests that both parties to a trade can benefit in so far as they are able to agree a trade within limits to terms of trade set by production possibilities in each country. This idea suggests that people receiving low wages for making clothes in low-income countries will benefit as well as the Western consumers whose demands they are satisfying. An educated consumer ought to be introduced to both ideas and helped to use these ideas in analysing particular situations. The assumption that trade is always a ‘zero-sum game’ is symptomatic of simplistic understanding (Pong, 1997). On the other hand, the assumption that trade is always a ‘win-win game’ fails to recognise that individuals do not have equal power to shape their destinies and that ‘decisions’ can be more or less forced by circumstances. We might interpret the inclusion of references to the perspectives of different stakeholders in the aims of business studies specifications as a positive step towards raising the status of consumer education within BEE. However, as Hodkinson (1994) points out, this is easier said than done. Pupils find it hard to switch from one perspective to another. Hodkinson connects this problem to the way in which pupils understand phenomena. He draws upon the work of Marton (1981, 1992) in suggesting that the ability of students to adopt a particular perspective is related to the awareness of different aspects of a situation. He cites an example of primary children discussing the packaging of a jigsaw puzzle. They were unimpressed that the box was much bigger than necessary for the pieces of the jigsaw. As consumers they felt they were being duped by the large box. They did not consider at all the effect of boxsize standardisation on the costs of the firm. He cites another example where pupils are working to produce and sell popcorn. In this example the pupils focus on the price only in terms of its impact on their profit per unit, taking no account of what consumers might be prepared to pay or what they might consider a fair price. In other words, once the teacher has encouraged pupils to begin seeing a situation from one perspective it may be very hard to get them to also see it from

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another. The emphasis on the producer perspective in business studies and even more so in enterprise education therefore has serious implications for the extent to which BEE can contribute to consumer education. CONCLUSION Any school subject tends to build up its own tradition. As a result, it can be taken for granted that certain things are included in the curriculum while others are ignored. Education of future consumers and owners has become relatively neglected in business, economics and enterprise (BEE) education in England and Wales. As a result, initiatives such as the current interest in ‘financial literacy’ are seen by policy makers as taking place beyond the boundaries of BEE. This is not healthy for the subject because it suggests a weakening of grasp on the purpose of the subject within the curriculum. In this chapter we have aimed to outline why the aims of developing understanding of citizenship, consumption and ownership are important aspects of the curriculum. We have reviewed different ways in which these aims have been articulated in relation to BEE and we indicate which of these alternatives we believe offers the best way forward for the subject area. Debate about these aims and innovation in practice that seeks to achieve these aims is essential for the development of the subject. In the next chapter we concentrate on the aims of developing employability and enterprise. FURTHER READING Davies, H. (2002) Enterprise and the Economy in Education, London: HMSO. (The final report from Howard Davies’ Review of economic and enterprise education which identifies ‘financial literacy’ as one of three strands to be developed in the curriculum.) Davies, P. (2004) Contributing to citizenship education by improving the quality of students’ arguments, Teaching Business and Economics, 8(1): 26–30. (A categorisation of different levels of quality in students’ arguments in the context of the contribution of BEE to citizenship education.) Davies, P. (2005) Educating citizens for changing economies. Journal of Curriculum Studies (forthcoming). (An analysis of different conceptions of citizenship education and the relationship between understanding economics and these conceptions.) Furnham, A. and Stacey, B. (1991) Young People’s Understanding of Society, London: Routledge. (A comprehensive survey of the empirical evidence of students’ understanding of social and economic phenomena up to 1990.) Hodkinson, S. (1994) Producer and Consumer: towards a parity of esteem, Economics and Business Education, 2(1): 26–29. (An argument for giving greater priority to consumer education in the curriculum and in BEE in particular.) Hodkinson, S. and Thomas, L. (1984) Economics in the General Curriculum, London: University of London, Institute of Education. (The development of a model for teachers to use with students to develop their economic awareness. This model was highly influential in the UK in the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

Chapter 3 Work-related learning and enterprise education KEY THEMES ■ Work-related learning and enterprise education are distinct though overlapping categories. ■ The preparation of students for an ‘uncertain economic future’ involves important value judgements that should be exposed. ■ Enterprise education is best understood as preparing students to take part in and evaluate ‘project management’ whether that takes place in the market or the not-forprofit sector.

INTRODUCTION In this chapter we follow the practice of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) (2003) in treating enterprise education as a sub-set of work-related learning. To identify the distinctiveness of enterprise education within work-related learning we use the threefold distinction between ‘education for work’, ‘education through work’ and ‘education about work’ that is frequently cited in definitions of work-related learning (Box 3.1). There are some signs that policy in England is yet to settle on a definitive view of the relationship between work-related learning and enterprise education. Row 2 refers to enterprise and employability and then enterprise education is defined as part of employability along with financial capability. In this chapter we present a view of how the two terms may be distinguished. In the next section we examine the shared rationale for increasing the emphasis on work-related learning and enterprise education in the curriculum and in the following sections we consider work-related learning and enterprise education from the perspective of the teacher of BEE. BOX 3.1 WORK-RELATED LEARNING AND ENTERPRISE EDUCATION Work-related learning (extracts from QCA, 2003a)

Enterprise education

1 Education through work

Learning from direct experiences of work (for example, through work experience or part-time jobs, enterprise activities in schools and learning through vocational contexts in subjects)

When the experience (real or simulated) is of self-employment usually in the context of a group project

2 Education

Learning for work by developing skills for enterprise and When the work focus is employability (for example, through problem-solving upon participation in

Business, economics and enterprise

for work

20

activities, work simulations, and mock interviews). Defined by QCA as comprising… enterprise education and employability, the latter being broken down into ‘enterprise education, financial capability and business and economic understanding’ with key skills added as a post-script.

3 Learning about work, by providing opportunities for Education students to develop knowledge and understanding of about work work and enterprise (for example, through vocational courses and careers education). Defined by QCA as referring to the areas of the curriculum formerly described as ‘Economic and Industrial Understanding’

and evalution of projects (in the market, not-for-profit or voluntary sectors)

When the focus is learning about enterprises in the private or public sectors

THE RATIONALE FOR AN INCREASING EMPHASIS ON WORK-RELATED LEARNING AND ENTERPRISE EDUCATION IN THE CURRICULUM Justifications for enterprise education and work-related learning have been developed by government agencies around the world. A good example is provided by the Curriculum Corporation in Australia (2003), whose statement begins with a confident assertion about the nature of future employment: ‘more jobs will be in small business, more jobs will be part-time or casual, and changes of job and periods of unemployment will be common’. The statement goes on to assert that the future requirements of workers will be adaptability, creativity, multi-skilling and autonomy. It envisages a future in which workers will be employed in establishments where leadership will be devolved and the attributes of enterprise will need to be more widely spread. There is a possible irony in this rather definite depiction of ‘an uncertain world’. But it is widely shared. Gibb states that ‘The environment in which individuals are living their lives is one of greater uncertainty and complexity. The challenge to education and training organizations is to equip individuals and organizations to deal with this’ (2002:136). One way of viewing these expectations of future workers is to set them in the context of the present. According to the European Charter for Small Enterprise, ‘Small enterprises are the backbone of the European economy. They are a key source of jobs and a breeding ground for business ideas. Europe’s efforts to usher in the new economy will succeed only if small business is brought to the top of the agenda’ (European Commission, 2000). In 2000 in Britain there were 3.7 million small businesses (under 50 employees) of which two-thirds were either sole proprietorships or partnerships. These accounted for 43.6 per cent of private-sector employment and 37.2 per cent of privatesector turnover. In contrast, 7,000 firms employing 250 or more employees account for around half of private-sector employment and turnover (Davies, H., 2002). The importance of these companies may be judged not only by the number of workers they employ directly but by the number of small companies who rely on servicing the requirements of these larger organisations. The percentages quoted above also ignore all the people employed in the public and voluntary sectors. So employment in small privatesector businesses is important for economies like that of the UK, but they account for a

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21

minority of the workforce. To what extent should education for employability be focused at this employment sector rather than at large private-sector firms, the public or voluntary sectors? Available evidence (Davies, H., 2002: Annex B) suggests that young people in England already have a positive attitude towards small businesses. The broader agenda in Box 3.2 of developing a flexible workforce may also be regarded as a contentious aim. The need for flexibility depends on the policies adopted by governments and firms. When large corporations choose to reorganise their production by ‘outsourcing noncore activities’ they transfer economic uncertainty from the corporation to other businesses and individuals. When governments change regulations governing companies’ responsibilities in the labour market they change the balance of uncertainty between companies and individuals. The expectation that workers will be adaptable, accepting casual employment and periods of unemployment, suggests that workers rather than companies should bear the costs of economic adjustment. This approach to economic development has been strongly championed in the US and to a somewhat lesser extent in the UK. However, it conflicts with the ‘social contract’ model that has been championed within the European Union. It has also been associated with an approach to economic management that encourages the development of a two- or three-tier economy (Hutton, 1996). Individuals employed at the heart of large companies gain secure, rewarding employment, while others have to make do with much less certain prospects servicing the needs of large companies and still others drop into an ‘underclass’. Critics of enterprise education (e.g. Smyth, 1999; Banfield, 2000) perceive enterprise education principally as aiming to confer legitimacy on capitalism. In Banfield’s words it is a ‘way of shaping the products of schooling and aspirations of young people tightly to the needs of capital’ (2000:23). Where the proponents of enterprise education see students developing capabilities to determine their future by setting up their own businesses, these critics see students being trained to become blind to the ‘inherent contradictions in the capitalist system’ and therefore submissive to its demands. Banfield dismisses the ‘broad view of enterprise education’ as a chimera offered to secure support from liberal thinkers. The degree of flexibility that should be expected from workers is, to some extent at least, a matter for political debate and judgement. Presenting one approach to worker flexibility may be consistent with dominant policies in any one country, but it falls some way short of educating informed citizens. WORK-RELATED LEARNING The approach to work-related learning of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Schools in England (HMI, 1998) is presented in Box 3.2. Bullet points one, three and four present a view of education about work. This list is interesting for many reasons. It explicitly refers to economic but not BOX 3.2 HMI DEFINITION WORKRELATED LEARNING Pupils should develop through work related learning:

OF

THE

AIMS

OF

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22

1 an awareness of the diversity of industry and what it does so that they gain insights into the relevance and applicability of their work in school to the world of work; 2 high standards in key skills and an understanding of the significance of them to employers; 3 an understanding of basic economics, how industry contributes to the nation’s prosperity and how they, as future employees, can contribute to the economic success of the country; 4 a knowledge of the range of employment opportunities available to them; the prior attainment needed and the skills demanded, to enable them to make informed career choices; and the skills to plan effectively for lifelong learning; 5 an understanding of the day-to-day expectations made of an employee and their responsibilities and rights in the workplace. Source: HMI (1998:4–5). business understanding. The 1998 report concludes that ‘the development of pupils’ understanding of basic economics is generally weak’ (p. 6) but that most schools are fairly successful in achieving the other aims through their work-related learning programmes. Points two and five present a view of education for work. One question raised by the notion of ‘education for work’ is whether there are generic skills and types of understanding that are relevant to all types of work. For example, does it matter whether students are being educated to be employees, small business entrepreneurs, senior managers in private enterprise or public-sector workers? Point 5 refers explicitly to the role of employee. This contrasts with documents on enterprise education that invariably refer to the role of employer or entrepreneur. For example, the Howard Davies Review (2002) anticipates that a rise in the proportion of employment in small businesses will mean that young people seeking work in the future are likely to need to be more flexible and entrepreneurial in their attitudes… How well is it (the education system) adapting to these changes and how effective are schools and colleges in developing an understanding of the economy, and of enterprise, among their students? (P.7) A third strand of the work-related curriculum is learning through work. Work experience has provided the focus for this strand in schools in the UK. The emphasis in this strand lies not so much in understanding as in skills. Level 1 is the foundation performance equivalent to the average person at age 14. Level 2 is the immediate performance equivalent to average performance at age 16. Level 3 is equivalent to an A2 (public examination in Advanced General Certificate of Education (GCE)) pass at age 18 and level 4 is intended to represent the standard expected of a graduate. Each skill is divided into three strands. The increase in demand at each level is underlined to draw attention to the progression assumed in these skills.

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Definitions of levels of performance like this can make teaching appear to be a straightforward process. Lesson plans and schemes of work can specify the levels of skill that are to be developed and the teacher can monitor the achievement of standards. There is certainly some virtue in using these Key Skill definitions to clarify and focus the intentions of teaching. However, it is important to be realistic about what can be achieved. Bereiter and Scardamalia take it that the actual belief among most learning scientists is that only in the basic academic skills of reading, writing and elementary mathematics do we know how to teach cognitive skills with fair confidence that they will transfer to a wide range of situations. (2004:55) So while there are many claims for how we can teach ‘soft skills’, such as problemsolving, social communication and working with others, there is little evidence as yet. This general point includes the supposed benefits of work-related learning. Work-related learning may be an effective vehicle for developing these skills, but we do not yet know for sure. It may also support the development of ‘the thinking skills of information processing, reasoning, enquiry, creative thinking, and evaluation’ (DfES, 2003:18), but we do not whether this is true, let alone how it happens. ENTERPRISE EDUCATION There is a long-standing problem of definition with enterprise education (CEI/DTI, 2001). There has been very little research on the learning outcomes that should be expected from enterprise education and even less on the outcomes that are actually achieved (Heeboll, 1997; Hayward, 1998; Machin et al., 2001; DTI, 2003). There are three broad types of definition. The first restricts enterprise education to the preparation of business entrepreneurs whose objective is assumed to be the maximisation of profits (e.g. Bhide, 1999). The second, referred to as a ‘broad approach’ by the OECD (1989), regards enterprise education as the development of ‘those personal dispositions, abilities and competencies related to creativity, initiative, problem solving, flexibility, adaptability, the taking of responsibility and knowing how to learn and relearn’ (OECD, 1989:10). A third approach to enterprise education adopts the perspective of ‘social entrepreneurship’ (Dees and Starr, 1992). This has been characterised by Caird (1990) as ‘project development’. These three definitions have drastically different implications for teaching and the organisation of the curriculum. For example, if the purpose of enterprise education is to prepare students to manage or lead private-sector enterprises in market economies, then enterprise education ought to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills that are relevant for running a company. In short, the link between enterprise education and business studies is very close. However, if the purpose of enterprise education is to develop students’ capacity ‘to take the initiative in any situation’, this could be created in any part of the curriculum. In this section we examine the arguments for each definition and conclude that the third definition is to be preferred.

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The idea of the entrepreneur as the maximiser of private benefit is particularly associated with ‘Austrian Economies’ (Foss, 1994; Kirzner, 1997). This view characterises entrepreneurs as disinterested in the intrinsic qualities of the good or service they are providing. They are interested solely in identifying consumer needs that are not currently being met. For example, if an entrepreneur of this kind was considering setting up a restaurant, they would not consider what type of food they liked eating or cooking. They would only be interested in which type of food would make the most profit and by implication meet the greatest unmet need. This is highly relevant for students setting up a Young Enterprise activity as students often find it hard to distance themselves from their own preferences when they think about the products or services they might provide. Likewise, if they decided that the resources they managed could be used to earn more profit as a pet shop, then they would switch out of the restaurant market into the pet shop market. In the case of Young Enterprise, students might well find that, if they recorded the number of hours they spent on their enterprise they would be earning substantially less per hour from their enterprise than they could achieve through part-time work in a local shop. If this was the case, then they ought to consider the degree to which the satisfaction of running their own enterprise compensated for this lower remuneration. The successful entrepreneur must be able to correctly discern ‘unmet consumer needs’ and correctly calculate future costs and revenues that will arise from meeting these needs. Some, but by no means all, of this activity may be reasonably described as ‘innovation’. Innovation and entrepreneurial activity are sometimes treated as synonymous, but this is not very helpful. An innovator recognises how to turn an invention into a product or service that will be useful to people. The entrepreneur calculates whether it is worth implementing such an innovation and plans out how to turn an innovation into a market success. The ‘broad’ definition of enterprise education is accepted by the CEI/DTI (2001) review of enterprise education. This review defines enterprise as a set of behaviours, skills and attributes which are conducive for the development of innovation and creativity and which help young people deal with uncertainty and complexity. They are seen as generic characteristics and not solely those associated with business. (CEI/DTI, 2001:9) The degree to which these capabilities can be described as generic is open to question. Evidence in support of this assertion is yet to be provided. Moreover, there are reasons for believing that these capabilities are not generic. For example, a broad conception of enterprise education implies that creativity is transferable across a wide range of domains and that it can be appropriately nested within enterprise education. A reading of literature on creativity in English (Myhill, 2001), art (Beattie, 2000) and science (Hu and Adey, 2002) makes this broad conception hard to sustain. If teachers of English, art and science are thinking about different types of outcome when they speak of creativity, what is the common thread that holds them together? A person’s willingness to overcome uncertainty is strongly related to their belief that they are able to complete a particular task successfully. This belief is known as ‘self-efficacy’ and it has been carefully studied. The evidence currently available is that self-efficacy is specific to particular types of task

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and context. Just because an individual thinks they can be successful in writing does not mean they feel they can be successful (and experimental) in mathematics. Social entrepreneurship defines enterprising activity more broadly than the maximisation of private benefit, but less broadly than ‘creativity and problem-solving’. By restricting enterprise activity to ‘project development’, Caird (1990) reserves the term for instances when individuals plan the use of resources to create social benefits. This definition embraces cases where the individual is only concerned with social benefits that are also private benefits: others will be willing and able to pay for the full value of the social benefits. It also embraces cases where the enterprising individual is motivated principally by the social benefits that will be created rather than the material benefits they will secure personally. This view of entrepreneurship is consistent with Shane’s suggestion that ‘Entrepreneurship is an activity that involves the discovery, evaluation and exploitation of opportunities to introduce new goods and services, ways of organizing, markets, processes and raw materials through organizing efforts that had not previously existed’ (Shane, 2003:4). In so far as the enterprising individual values benefits to others even when these are not synonymous with their direct personal benefit, there is a moral or value judgement underpinning the selection of project aims (Gibb, 2002). Dees (1998) defines social entrepreneurship as: ■ Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value). ■ Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission. ■ Engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation and learning. ■ Acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand. ■ Exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created. The first bullet point narrows the scope of enterprise considerably when compared to the open-ended ‘innovation and creativity’ perspective. An act is only enterprising if it is motivated by an intention to create and sustain social value. However, this definition is broader than the definition of enterprise education as the preparation of business entrepreneurs, which restricts enterprise to attempts to create and sustain private value. If applied to ‘Young Enterprise’ this would extend allowable activities to projects that aimed, for example, to identify and meet the needs of a group of local elderly citizens, without any charges being made. We presume that the aims of enterprise education ought to extend beyond encouraging students to want to be entrepreneurial. Schooling should aim to help students to be more able to be effective entrepreneurs in the sense of social enterprise. This means that enterprise education must extend beyond the development of certain attitudes and skills. This approach to enterprise education treats it as preparation for ‘project management’. The project may occur in different settings with very different forms of organisation, but there are certain types of knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes that are relevant to any project. Moreover, enterprise education ought to help young people to evaluate the benefits and identify implicit values in different forms of organisation.

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CONCLUSION We conclude this chapter by examining how our analysis of aims for business, economics and enterprise education applies to the design of the school curriculum and individual examinations. Schools in England vary greatly in the kind of BEE curricula they provide. Are these differences more than alternative ways of achieving the same aims? If these differences in curricula imply differences in aims, to what extent are these aims evident to school managers, parents and students? Are the differences the result of expedient staffing decisions or responses to transitory incentives? Are these differences in the public interest? In trying to answer these questions we first want to stress that aims do matter. Schooling should be more than the act of filling students’ heads with content that they forget once they have left school. Decisions about what to teach should be justified by arguments that go beyond examination results or the preferences of an individual teacher. If it doesn’t matter what we teach, why should students be bothered and why should the public pay teachers to teach? The major points to address are that the school curriculum should help students to (1) see BEE issues from different perspectives: as consumers, citizens, owners and producers; and (2) understand relationships between these perspectives. We believe it is a good thing for students to start learning how to be more enterprising, identifying market opportunities and how to exploit them. However, if this amounts to no more than learning how to exploit consumers, then it might reasonably be argued that the curriculum has reduced rather than increased public welfare. In the ten years prior to the publication of this book, specifications for examinations for business studies in England changed significantly to increase the emphasis on different perspectives. It is open to debate how far these statements of aim are realised in practice, but at least they are there and we can evaluate business studies examinations on the basis of whether they truly reflect this aim. The same cannot be said of statements on enterprise education from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). For example, guidance published in 2001 refers to the knowledge, skills and attitudes to be developed by enterprise education, but makes no reference to understanding at all and includes among its aims ‘being positive about enterprise’, but nothing about respecting consumer rights or the public interest. A coherent curriculum for BEE in a school should address each of the aims discussed in Chapters 2 and 3. Moreover, the way in which these aims are addressed should be consistent. The current organisation of the school curriculum and the way in which new initiatives are introduced does not make this an easy task for schools. A reasonable objective for the next ten years would be to achieve modest coherence and that will require involvement of specialist teachers of BEE at the heart of the achievement of each of these aims. However, we must also acknowledge that the more extravagant our aims, the more curriculum time it will take to achieve them. In practice, we suspect that this has been a major reason why curriculum provision for BEE in individual schools has fallen short of our ideal of giving students opportunities to view issues from different perspectives. Our argument would be that, where schools face a problem of trying to ‘fit a quart into a pint pot’, then they should endeavour to provide a curriculum that introduces students to some different perspectives and the relationship between these perspectives, rather than a

Work-related learning and enterprise education

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curriculum that provides a detailed grounding in one perspective while ignoring the others. FURTHER READING Relevant government reports and guidance: Davies, H. (2002) Enterprise and the Economy in Education, London: HMSO. Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2004) Enterprise Britain: a modern approach to meeting the enterprise challenge (London: Department for Education and Skills). Online. Available at www.dfes.gov.uk/ebnet/DR/DR.cfm. Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) (2003) Work-related Learning for All at Key Stage 4 (London: QCA).Online. Available at http://www.qca.org.uk/14–19/%2011–16schools/downloads/ks4_guidance.pdf.

Three alternative views of enterprise and enterprise education: Gibb, A. (2002) Creating conducive environments for learning and entrepreneurship: living with, dealing with, creating and enjoying uncertainty and complexity, Industry and Higher Education, 16(3): 135–148. (A statement that positions enterprise education in the market sector.) Shane, S. (2003) A General Theory of Entrepreneurship, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. (A view of entrepreneurship that includes not-for-profit and voluntary sectors.) Smyth, J. (1999) Schooling and enterprise culture: a pause for critical analysis, Journal of Education Policy, 14(4): 435–444. (A trenchant critique of enterprise education from a sociological perspective.)

Chapter 4 Government policy and the shape of the curriculum KEY THEMES ■ Government policy has influenced the development of the subject area in four main ways: changes in school type; definition of the core curriculum; treatment of the academic/vocational divide; and the development of the qualifications framework. ■ While some aspects of government policy have hindered the growth of BEE in the curriculum, other aspects have been pivotal in developing the subject area. ■ The most pressing problem in the development of the subject area is the definition of ‘business skills’, and the development of a ‘business and enterprise’ route in the qualifications framework might be a solution.

INTRODUCTION The effect of governments on a subject may be observed in several different ways: how many students study a subject, the age at which students study the subject, the characteristics of students who study the subject, the way in which the subject is defined and the way in which it is taught. In recent decades the influence of UK governments on the curriculum in secondary schools in England has increased in scale and complexity. To some extent this trend has been mirrored in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, but it is important to remember that the education systems in other parts of the UK are governed by different statutory bodies. Scotland, in particular, has developed a distinctive curriculum reflecting different priorities and a different relationship between publicly owned schools and the state. In this chapter we refer principally to the effect of the UK government on the curriculum in England, while making some comparisons with developments elsewhere in the UK. We concentrate on developments since 1976, when the Prime Minister, James Callaghan, delivered a famous speech at Ruskin College, Oxford. In this speech he strongly criticised the way in which education had become a ‘secret garden’ in which teachers and other educational professionals had freedom to decide what to teach and how to teach it. In 1976 there was no National Curriculum, no parental choice for parents sending their children to state schools in England and no concept of league tables. The speech fuelled considerable public debate, which helped generate a political climate in which it was seen as desirable for the government to take a proactive role in shaping what was taught in schools. In succeeding years the UK government increasingly assumed the right to determine on behalf of industry and parents what should happen in schools.

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Two political themes have contributed to this trend. First, education has come to be viewed as one of a shrinking group of policy areas in which the government can exert an influence on national prosperity and direction. Once policies of ‘demand management’ became discredited in the 1970s, the attention of governments switched to ways of affecting the ‘supply-side’ of the economy. Improving education came to be seen as a way of improving the supply of suitably qualified workers. In the early 1980s it was high unemployment rates that injected a sense of urgency into government efforts to ‘improve education’. From the 1990s it has been a belief that increased global competition means that UK workers need to be more highly educated to compete in the era of ‘globalisation’. Second, the influence of ‘neo-liberal’ thinking has led many to doubt whether public servants, such as teachers in state schools, can be trusted to act in the best interests of those whose needs they are supposed to serve. However, even strongly right-wing governments have not yet felt able to privatise state schools in the manner suggested by neo-liberal thinkers. Ironically, ideas that have been developed by right-wing thinkers have been used by governments as a justification for increasing government interference in schooling. According to neo-liberal analysis this ought to make matters even worse, as ‘short-termism’ prompted by the electoral cycle compounds the ‘government failure’ that would be anticipated from central government as much as from local state schools. In this chapter we examine four ways in which governments have influenced the development of BEE in schools in England: through changes in types of school; the idea of a ‘core curriculum’; the approach to the ‘academic/vocational divide’ in the definition of subjects; and the design of the qualifications framework. TYPES OF SCHOOL Different types of school typically offer different types of curriculum. Government policy can change the number of each type of school or introduce a new type of school. These changes can affect the number of students studying BEE and the type of course students are likely to follow. Prior to the introduction of comprehensive schools, students were divided at the age of 11 between grammar schools and secondary modern schools according to whether they had passed an ‘eleven-plus’ examination. A few counties in England have persisted with this segregated system of education. Secondary modern schools aimed to provide a vocational education and typically offered courses such as commerce and typewriting that were intended to equip young people, particularly girls, for routine clerical work (Davies, P., 1999). Grammar schools and independent schools were more likely to offer economics as an A level subject, but were unlikely to offer any BEE in the 11–16 curriculum. With the introduction of comprehensive schools it became more common to find schools offering A level economics as well as commerce and typewriting. But these subjects were usually taught by different teachers, with very different status in schools. A division between teachers of economics and teachers of business studies has persisted in many schools despite the fact that separate training of teachers of economics was replaced by courses for ‘business and economies’ and despite the ‘Economics Association’ re-branding itself as the ‘Economics and Business Education Association’ (EBEA).

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The organisation of schooling systems into schools catering for pupils aged 11–16, 13–18 or 11–18 can also have a major effect on the provision for BEE in the curriculum. Most teaching of BEE takes place in the 14–18 curriculum when opportunities for students to specialise begin to be offered. This means that it is financially more cost effective for an 11–18 school than for an 11–16 school to hire a BEE specialist. We might therefore suspect that 14–16-year-old pupils are more likely to have an opportunity to study business studies or economics in an 11–18 school than in an 11–16 school. However, no such pattern was found by Davies, P. et al. (2004b) in their study of the subject choices of over 100,000 students in 1998. In 2001, the White Paper ‘Schools— achieving success’ announced a shift in government policy towards treating the 14–19 curriculum as a coherent curriculum planning unit. This shift in thinking should encourage schools to provide courses in BEE. The publication of ‘14–19: opportunity and excellence’ by the DfES in 2004 is a significant development in the 14–19 curriculum with major implications for teachers of BEE. The Key Stage 4 statutory requirements are grouped in three categories: compulsory subjects, compulsory areas of learning and entitlement areas. The compulsory subjects are English, information and communication technology (ICT), mathematics and science. The compulsory areas of learning are careers education, citizenship, physical education, religious education, sex education and work-related learning. Entitlement areas (the arts and the humanities, design and technology and modern foreign languages) are not compulsory, but they must be available should students wish to study these subjects. Most of the changes came into force in September 2004. Since 2002 the policy of encouraging secondary schools in England to become ‘specialist colleges’ has introduced a new status and a new set of opportunities for BEE. Although not included in the initial set of specialisms, ‘business and enterprise’ has become established as a fairly popular specialism for schools. By early 2004 there were 107 such colleges, with many more applications for business and enterprise specialist status in the pipeline. The characteristics required of schools bidding to become business and enterprise colleges are presented in Box 4.1. It remains to be seen just how these new specialist schools will interpret these requirements in practice. For example, what will count as an ‘emphasis on teaching business studies, economics, statistics and ICT’? How will these schools interpret the reference to ‘economic literacy’ in point 6? The justification for some of these requirements is also not immediately obvious. For example, why are these schools required to offer a vocational course in ICT? Why must economic literacy be ‘relevant to the business world’ rather than, say, to citizenship education? Nevertheless, the existence of ‘business and enterprise colleges’ enhances the status of the subject area and encourages the development of curriculum innovations that were unlikely to happen otherwise. A typical innovation has been the introduction of a business course in Key Stage 3. This does create some conflict with other parts of government policy. For example, providers of initial teacher training (ITT) for business education have been required to specialise their provision on Key Stages 4 and 5. In other words, they are not allowed to train teachers to teach the emerging courses in Key Stage 3 that have been encouraged by another arm of government policy.

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THE IDEA OF A CORE CURRICULUM The idea of a ‘core curriculum’ to which all students are entitled was not invented by the National Curriculum. England also had a core curriculum in 1904 that featured most of the subjects that were enshrined as compulsory for all children in England by the Education Reform Act in 1988. Other countries in the UK also introduced common core curricula about this time that resembled, but were certainly not identical to, the one introduced in England. For example, the curriculum introduced in Northern Ireland laid great stress on underlying ‘cross-curricular themes’, such as ‘education for mutual understanding’. The common core introduced in Scotland was divided into curriculum areas: ‘Language and BOX 4.1 KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE COLLEGES 1 They commit themselves to a four-year development plan with specific targets to improve their standards as a whole and to raise performance and participation in the specialist subjects. 2 They develop strong curriculum business links and develop teaching strengths in business studies, financial literacy and enterprise-related vocational programmes. 3 They have the support of the private sector, both financially and through the provision of advice and management support, including co-option of sponsor governors. 4 They emphasise the teaching of business studies, economics, statistics and information technology. It will be a requirement to offer an IT vocational GCSE, and GCSE or A level business studies. 5 They both utilise existing, and develop new, best practice techniques for raising educational standards, including setting targets of achievement for each student; the use of a longer school day and year; computer-based learning; a wide provision of courses at 16; work experience, development of close links with local firms and high status of vocational education for all students. 6 They ensure that a significant number of other departments within the school take action specifically to develop pupils’ economic literacy and skills relevant to the business world. 7 They seek to involve external partners in a range of activities to enhance ‘vocational’ understanding and skills. 8 They work with other schools, higher education, e.g. City University, and the wider community in sharing facilities and educational resources and undertaking joint ventures. They may be part of a collaborative arrangement organised by their local education authority. 9 They work closely with leading universities/business schools that provide a high level of advice and support, especially on curriculum development, ensuring it continues to reflect key skills needs of the business sector. 10 School governors and managers develop a strategic approach, focusing on curriculum, staff recruitment and development and external partnership activity. Source: Specialist Schools Trust (2004).

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communication’, ‘Mathematical studies and applications’, ‘Scientific studies and applications’, ‘Social and environmental studies’, ‘Religious and moral education’, ‘Physical education’, ‘Creative and aesthetic activities’ and ‘Technological activities and applications’ (SCCC, 1989). So the curriculum introduced in England was structurally far more old-fashioned than the ones introduced elsewhere in the UK. The arguments for a statutory core curriculum had been strongly advanced by HMI in the 1980s. One argument was philosophical. Education should be thought of as equipping young people for each of the areas of experience that make up adult life. Therefore they should not be permitted to specialise in their education to the extent that they miss out one of these areas by, for example, learning no science, no artistic subject or no modern foreign language beyond the age of 14. A second argument was bureaucratic. When children move from one school to another during their secondary years, their education should not be disrupted by moving from one type of curriculum to another. We term this argument bureaucratic because it was natural for HMI, with a brief for critically evaluating the whole curriculum, to be inclined towards a common template against which the curriculum should be judged. A third argument has its roots in sociological analysis. Despite the introduction of comprehensive schooling, researchers were able to show convincingly that the curriculum experienced by young people still varied significantly according to their social background. In the case of BEE, middle-class pupils were much more likely to study economics and working-class students, chiefly girls, were much more likely to study office skills. A common core curriculum could ensure that all children had the same curriculum opportunities regardless of their social background. The narrowness of the National Curriculum in England actually enhanced the prospect of this becoming the case. Croxford (2004) reports that the breadth of the curriculum categories in Scotland’s common core has allowed class differences in experience of the curriculum to be maintained, albeit at a reduced level: Although the requirement to take scientific studies has reduced this gross inequality, there are still major differences between girls and boys of working-class and middle-class in the type of science course studied. Boys are more likely than girls to study physics, and less likely to study biology. Working-class pupils are more likely than middle-class pupils to take ‘general’ science. (p. 1) Although economics was not included in the common core curriculum other than in Scotland, politicians expressed a wish to see all students developing some economic understanding. For example, two years after the introduction of the National Curriculum, a Minister of State in the Department for Education stated: we would want 16 year-olds to have acquired some knowledge and understanding of basic economic ideas such as: the concept of the market and the potential roles of individuals, organisations and the state; how income and wealth are generated and distributed; how prices and wages are determined. (Rumbold, 1990:26)

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How could this be achieved if economics was not included in the National Curriculum? The supposed answer was to designate ‘economic understanding’ as one of a number of ‘cross-curricular themes’ (NCC, 1990a, 1990b). These themes were to be delivered through the teaching of the timetabled National Curriculum subjects rather than to have a separate slot of their own. In principle, this might have been an achievable aim. Development work in a number of subjects showed how students could demonstrate a measure of economic and industrial understanding or economic awareness in the context of mathematics (Scruton, 1989), geography (Davies, P., 1993a), history (Kerr, 1990) English (Clarke, 1992; Hickman, 1992), design and technology (Davies, P., 1993b) and modern foreign languages (Hodkinson, 1991). However, the success of this project depended on the readiness of teachers of ‘National Curriculum subjects’ to reinterpret their subject in the light of ‘cross-curricular themes’ and it also required the full support of government. These conditions were not met as the problems with the assessment regime of the National Curriculum became more and more apparent (Lawton, 1996). Government commitment to ‘cross-curricular themes’ was withdrawn as part of the scaling down of the demands of the National Curriculum initiated by the Dearing Review in 1993. As a result it is not surprising that Whitty et al. (1994) found that the cross-curricular theme ‘economic and industrial understanding’ had made a very limited impact on schools. In the absence of systematic evaluations of the impact of the different structural approaches to the curriculum adopted in Northern Ireland and Scotland, it is difficult to judge the extent to which this outcome is the result of the particular approach to subjects and cross-curricular themes in England. However, the effect of the National Curriculum on the number of students taking business studies in the 14–16 curriculum in England is fairly clear. The National Curriculum requirement for all 14-year-old students to study history, geography, a modern foreign language and design and technology was scheduled for implementation in 1991. In the late 1980s the number of students studying business studies as an examination subject in schools in England was rising rapidly (Davies, P., 1994a), but this rise was abruptly halted and then gently reversed by the new National Curriculum requirements (Davies, P., 1999). In 1992 GCSE examinations for 16-year-olds in business studies attracted 119,989 candidates, but, by 2001, this number had fallen to 105, 194 (QCA, 2003). Ironically, the requirement to study geography and history was never implemented, being revised to a requirement to study history or geography. Subsequent relaxations of the regulations requiring the study of specified subjects in the curriculum for 14–16-year-olds have resulted in greater opportunities for schools to offer students the option to study business studies or economics. A renewed government interest in vocational or ‘work-related’ education may stimulate demand for, and innovation in, business education in the compulsory curriculum. However, the legacy of the National Curriculum will be hard to shake off. The need to make this flagship government policy a success entrenched the position of the National Curriculum subjects in the thoughts and plans of government officials. Government support for the curriculum was channelled almost exclusively towards the National Curriculum subjects. For example, when the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) announced an initiative to provide guidance on the use of ICT in initial teacher training (ITT) and the British Educational and Communications Technology Agency (BECTA) began to

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provide online support for subject teachers, it was not until subject specialists and the subject association (EBEA) made representations that business and economics education was included. The inclusion from the outset of BEE in the TTA’s programme of support in 2003 for new trainers in ITT may indicate that this period of neglect may be coming to an end. There has also been a renewed government interest in recent years in the ‘crosscurricular themes’ that sank with rather little trace in the early 1990s. Two of the crosscurricular themes were ‘citizenship education’ and ‘economic and industrial understanding’. From September 2002 all schools in England have been required to teach citizenship education and this has been backed by a required programme of study and a statement of expected learning outcomes. The programme of study includes some economic themes, including a requirement that all students be taught at Key Stage 4 ‘how the economy functions’. Schools in England are also to be required to make more systematic provision for enterprise education following the publication of the Howard Davies Review (Davies, H., 2002). ‘The Government shares the assessment of the Davies review of enterprise and the economy in education, which reported earlier this year, that effort to build a deeper and wider entrepreneurial culture must begin in schools’ (DfES, 2004a). The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) has also called for the inclusion of BEE in the core curriculum. In a keynote presentation to teachers of business education, Brian McCafferty expressed the view that Economic and business understanding should be an entitlement for all pupils, but it is particularly important that it forms part of the Year 9 curriculum if pupils are to make appropriate choices between the different academic and vocational pathways proposed in the Green Paper. (Ofsted, 2002) It is possible that these initiatives will make a deeper impact on the school curriculum than was achieved through the cross-curricular initiatives in the 1980s and early 1990s. However, there are two related reasons for caution. First, although these initiatives are encouraging plenty of activity in schools, it is not yet clear how this activity will help to clarify the learning outcomes that should be aimed for. There is nothing yet in current policy to specifically support this focus. Second, government policy is making no connection between these initiatives and the subject expertise currently in schools. It is difficult to imagine a government initiative on ‘science across the curriculum’, ‘language across the curriculum’ or ‘history across the curriculum’ that does not explicitly include a central role for current subject specialists. Current policy in England assumes that any teacher can teach 14–16-year-olds ‘how the economy functions’ and ‘how to engage in successful entrepreneurial activity’. When put together these two aspects of policy do not look very impressive: no attention to learning outcomes and no specific involvement of teachers who have a subject expertise in relation to the definition of learning outcomes. This policy mix might be expected to generate plenty of heat but little light. It remains for teachers at school level to create a curriculum that will help students to progress in their learning. This is the opposite approach to curriculum development to the one employed in the development of the National Curriculum in England. The National Curriculum was

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developed by central planning, which identified what should be taught and how learning should be assessed. This central planning approach was taken a step further in the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, which also specified how teaching should be conducted. The government’s approach to curriculum development in citizenship and enterprise education adds up to saying to teachers and schools ‘You work out how students should progress in their learning.’ We might interpret this as a massive change of strategy towards curriculum development or a statement of a low level of interest in the outcomes. THE ACADEMIC/VOCATIONAL DIVIDE The 1944 Education Act introduced a tripartite system in schooling in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that provided for 25 per cent of secondary-age pupils to attend grammar schools, 5 per cent to attend ‘technical high schools’ and 70 per cent to attend ‘secondary modern schools’. This division has provided the context for the academicvocational divide in English education ever since. This division was based on an analysis of the type of skills required by the economy at that time, with grammar school education designed to equip young people for management, professional and scientific occupations and secondary modern education designed to prepare young people for largely semi- or unskilled jobs. But the economy has changed a great deal since 1944. In 1950, the proportion of employment was roughly 50 per cent in manufacturing and primary industry and 50 per cent in service industry. By 1980, the proportion employed in services had risen to 62 per cent and by 1998 this figure was 75 per cent. The relationship between this change in industrial sectors and the skills required of workers is shown by Hoskins (2000) and summarised in Table 4.1. However, these figures only illustrate one way in which the labour market had changed. In the 1990s, Hutton (1996) suggested an alternative tripartite division in the labour market. He suggested that 30 per cent were economically disadvantaged, either unemployed or existing in marginal and temporary employment. He described a further 30 per cent as ‘insecure’, either self-employed or working in jobs where the risk of redundancy was high. In the final 40 per cent of ‘advantaged’ workers he included workers still covered by union wage agreements and fulltime tenured employees working in the great organisations in the public and private sectors. Although millions of manufacturing jobs have gone and millions of new service jobs have been created, there is still a big divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in the UK labour market.

Table 4.1 Occupational categories and employment shares Occupational group 1 Professionals

1951 share %

1991 share % 2

5

2 Managers

14

21

3 Skilled non-manuals

18

24

4 Skilled manuals

35

21

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36

5 Partly skilled manual

20

16

6 Unskilled

11

6

Academic subjects and the university degrees for which they provide entry credentials remain the major routes into the advantaged professions. However, the rhetoric, at least, of government policy on the relationship between the curriculum and the labour market has changed a great deal since 1944. The current policy emphasis lies in ‘up-skilling’ the whole workforce: At degree level and above, the skills of the UK labour force match those anywhere in the world and we are making major advances in the educational standards achieved by school and college leavers. But the proportion of the workforce trained to intermediate level is half that of Germany; we have 50 per cent fewer people qualified to NVQ Level 2 or equivalent than either France or Germany; and there are shortages of some key technical skills. Most importantly, there are about 7 million adults in Britain who cannot read or write to the level we expect of an 11-yearold—making their everyday life a struggle and reducing our productivity and competitiveness as a nation. (DWP, 2004, para. 4.5) Yet there are still voices longing for the return of a traditional and sharp academic/vocational divide. On behalf of the Institute of Directors’, Lea (2002) argues that beyond the age of 14 only 25 per cent of students should follow an academic curriculum, with a vocational curriculum provided for the 75 per cent of students who are selected out of the academic route by failure to achieve high enough academic standards. Strangely, the Institute of Directors seems completely unconcerned by the contradiction between this proposal and their support for ‘parity of esteem’ between vocational and academic routes in school. Against this background, three themes can be observed in the development of curriculum practice in England. First, ‘less able pupils’ (as reflected by progress in the academic curriculum) are more likely than their peers to follow a vocational curriculum after the age of 14. Consequently, vocational subjects have traditionally had lower status than academic subjects in secondary schools in England. This difference was very pronounced in the mid-1980s. Economics was well established as one of the most popular academic subjects in the A level curriculum, with a relatively small number of entries also at O level. ‘Business Studies’ was still a very new title for examinations at O level and A level and it attracted few candidates. But there was a very well established tradition of ‘commercial subjects’, such as office practice, commerce and typewriting. These subjects were designed to equip students with the specific skills and knowledge required for clerical work. There was a marked gender bias at this time. Teachers and students of economics were more likely to be male. Teachers and students of commercial subjects were more likely to be female. The academic/vocational divide could hardly have been illustrated more starkly.

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The variety of vocationally orientated business and commercial courses grew during the 1980s under the influence of a government initiative to promote technical and vocational education (TVEI). This initiative had encouraged groups of schools to design and implement innovative vocationally-orientated courses, often under the guidance of Local Education Authorities (LEAs). However, the introduction of the GCSE examination in 1986 provided a catalyst for a radical change. The government body (SEAC, the body that was the forerunner of the QCA) responsible for the new examination was keen to rationalise the array of examination titles in the 1980s and Business Studies emerged as the preferred title for courses. The question was, then, what would this new business studies be like? There were two rival conceptions. On the one hand, there was an academic version of the subject derived from the O and A level Business Studies syllabuses and the tradition of Business Awards offered by the Business and Technical Education Council (BTEC). On the other hand, there was the ‘business and office skills’ version that had been developed by the commercial subjects tradition in schools. Unsurprisingly, it was the ‘business and office skills’ version that was more popular in schools. This was the kind of subject that teachers had been more used to teaching and the Business and Information Studies GCSE translated this tradition into an ICT environment. For some observers this course represented a new approach to vocational education. Yeomans and colleagues (Williams and Yeomans, 1994; Jordan and Yeomans, 1998) have argued that the course provided a broad and flexible vocational preparation that was not narrowly focused on preparation for a single occupation. They interpreted this as a new development in vocational education. However, it was the academic version of the subject that triumphed through becoming embodied in the national GCSE criteria for the subject. In one sense we might view this simply as an outcome of the introduction of the GCSE examination in which the replacement of O levels and CSEs privileged academic subjects. Alternatively, we can interpret this triumph in terms of Goodson’s (1983, 1985) account of the way in which school subjects develop. Business studies emerged from a coalition of different interest groups: teachers of commerce, typewriting, business studies and economics. To achieve a secure place in the curriculum it needed to establish an academic credibility and this ultimately determined which kind of business studies would become dominant in the curriculum (Davies, P., 1999). This has left a residual problem for business studies as a subject. In establishing credibility as an ‘academic subject’ it is open to criticism that it is insufficiently practical as a vocational preparation. The introduction of a government initiative on enterprise education illustrates this point. A review of university courses including the word ‘enterprise’ quickly establishes that the word is being used to convey a particular approach to business studies at degree level. The major pre-existing use of the term ‘enterprise’ in a school context in England has been in the Young Enterprise scheme, in which groups of sixth-form students set up their own money-making businesses. The term ‘enterprise’ is being used in this context in association with the idea of an ‘entrepreneur’ as developed by the Austrian school of thought in economics. Yet the government’s promotion of ‘enterprise education’ following the publication of the Howard Davies (2002) Review presents enterprise education as something distinct from business education. In many senses this is extraordinary. Here is a subject in the

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curriculum that is required by government regulations to focus on developing students’ understanding of how business operates, yet it is not seen as central to developing students’ capability to set up a business. One explanation for this peculiar state of affairs is that the government wants all students to experience a minimum level of enterprise education, but a substantial minority of schools do not offer students a chance to study business studies at all. We noted earlier that government efforts to introduce elements into the core curriculum (such as enterprise and citizenship education) without making them distinct subjects have previously run into severe difficulties. It is far from clear whether this attempt to introduce a vocational element into the core is being attempted on the basis of new insights on how to make it work. Nevertheless, the inclusion of a vocational element in the core curriculum is a strong indicator of the way in which government policy has shifted away from promoting an academic/vocational divide. We trace this shift, culminating in the 2004 proposals for a 14–19 curriculum, in the next section. THE QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK Some governments do not provide regulatory frameworks for qualifications at all. In these cases, as in some Eastern European countries, it is usual for students to take examinations set by individual universities to determine their university entrance. However, there are several benefits of a qualifications framework regulated by the government. First, it is likely to be more efficient since fewer assessments need to be set. Second, it should enable a fair and transparent comparison between qualifications, making it more likely that individuals’ progress will be judged on the basis of what they have achieved rather than the institution they attended. Third, it provides a basis on which the performance of schools can be compared. This final reason has become increasingly important in England since the Education Reform Act of 1988 and the subsequent publication of league tables of school performance. Maintaining standards can prove difficult, even in a highly regulated system. The qualifications system defines the boundaries of the subject area, influences the emphasis given to different educational aims and determines the way in which a subject is assessed. In this section we look at each of these three influences in turn. The boundaries of the subject area Goodson’s (1983, 1985) analysis emphasises the way in which subjects are alliances of different interest groups. This is evident in the range of examination titles available in BEE. We commented in the previous section on the way in which the introduction of the GCSE examination in England, Wales and Northern Ireland acted as a catalyst for the transformation of the ‘commercial tradition’ into a school subject, ‘business studies’. This transformation left the relationship between business studies and ICT unresolved. The commercial tradition bequeathed a legacy of a close relationship between the teaching of business-related subjects and the development of ICT skills. This legacy is maintained by subjects such as ‘business and communication systems’ (AQA, 2004). A comparison of the specification aims in Box 4.2 illustrates this point. The business and

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communications systems specification requires knowledge of, and ability to use, a range of communication systems in which ICT must be prominent. The teacher of this specification would require frequent access to ICT facilities. A teacher of the business studies specification might choose to make significant use of ICT in their teaching, but this is not required by the specification aims. Nevertheless, even in the business studies specification there are 37 references to ICT. We noted earlier that specialist business and enterprise colleges are required to provide a strong ICT programme and the connection between ICT and business education is reinforced by Ofsted (2004a). There is also a reference to enterprise in the specification aims for the business studies specification and enterprise is suggested as a focus for coursework. There are no references to enterprise in the business and communications systems specification. Another combination involving business studies has seen the subject combined with economics, first at A level and then at GCSE level. One significance of this development is that it illustrates the way in which government policy on examination regulations has enabled experimentation in the development of the subject area. Business has been combined with ICT, communication systems and economics in GCSE specifications. Space and opportunity have been available for the development of different traditions within the subject area. It remains to be seen whether BOX 4.2 SPECIFICATION AIMS FOR GCSE BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS AND BUSINESS STUDIES Aims of specification for GCSE Business and Communication Systems AQA (2004) (a) Knowledge and broad understanding of aspects of workplace organisation and the business environment. (b) Knowledge and broad understanding of range of information and communication systems and their applications in the workplace and an understanding of their capabilities and limitations. (c) The ability to choose, design and use information and communication systems to carry out a range of tasks and solve business problems in a variety of contexts, e.g. communicating with customers and suppliers, storing and processing financial data, storing data about staff and existing and potential customers. (d) Communication skills, by composing, in good English, appropriate and coherent responses to business problems from given outline information. (e) Capacity for making reasoned judgements about the selection, presentation and interpretation of data so as to ensure the effective communication of information. (f) Awareness of the importance of layout and design in the workplace and their implications for health and safety. Aims of Specification for GCSE Business Studies AQA Specification A (2003) (a) Make effective use of relevant terminology, concepts and methods, and recognise the strengths and limitations of the ideas used. (b) Apply their knowledge and critical understanding to current issues and problems in a

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wide range of appropriate contexts. (c) Distinguish between facts and opinions and evaluate qualitative and quantitative data in order to help build arguments and make informed judgements. (d) Appreciate the perspectives of a range of stakeholders in relation to the environment, individuals, government and enterprise. ‘business and enterprise’ will be developed as a GCSE option. Given the current government emphasis on enterprise and the introduction of specialist status for business and enterprise colleges, it would appear to be a likely development. The emphasis given to different educational aims We noted in Chapters 2 and 3 that BEE can contribute to a wide range of educational aims: from employability and enterprise capability to citizenship. Broadly speaking, economics and economic education are more closely aligned with the development of citizenship because economics provides a framework for evaluating the effect of economic activity on general well-being. Enterprise education is chiefly orientated towards employability (which, we have argued, should be seen as much in terms of public-sector and not-for-profit organisations as private-sector business). Between these ‘academic’ and ‘vocational’ poles in the subject area, business studies has established a position in which it is seen as ‘academic’ because it has a well-established body of content knowledge and also ‘vocational’ because it is perceived as a preparation for employment in business. However, this leaves the status of business studies in the curriculum still open to change as the qualifications framework is developed. When business studies was establishing itself in the curriculum in the late 1980s the situation was clear enough. The 14–19 curriculum comprised GCSE qualifications for 14–16-year-olds and A level qualifications for 16–19-year-olds. There were vocational business courses (such as the BTEC awards) principally offered by colleges of further education, but these were peripheral to the school curriculum at that time. However, the situation was far from stable. During the late 1980s and the 1990s, schools engaged in a very high rate of curriculum change in BEE. New courses were introduced, other courses were stopped or one course was substituted by another (Davies, P., 1999, Davies, P. et al., 2003b). One reason for this rate of change was the rapid increase in the participation rate in 16–19 education. Although the increase in participation was largely taken up by an increase in enrolments at A level, schools also faced an opportunity to increase their sixth-form size by enrolling students who had previously gone directly into employment or training schemes (Davies and Adnett, 1999). In the mid-1990s, two curriculum reviews were undertaken by Sir Ron Dearing to try to create order and coherence in what was becoming a qualifications quagmire. This contributed to the development of a National Qualifications Framework, with three levels of outcome that are relevant to school level. The first level (‘Foundation’) is pitched below GCSE level, the second (‘Intermediate’) level is GCSE or equivalent (being pitched at the level of roughly average achievement at age 16) and the third (‘Advanced’) level is the A level or equivalent. By establishing these three levels of achievement the National Qualifications Framework aims to separate particular levels of achievement

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from an age at which they are expected to be achieved. It also aims to provide a basis on which the ‘standard’ of academic and vocational qualifications can be directly compared. Three routes were created: academic, general vocational and vocational. A further reform, ‘Curriculum 2000’, revised the definition of these three routes in order to strengthen the equivalence in standards between the routes. This established a pattern of qualifications at advanced level of: ■ Vocational and General Certificate of Education (VCE/GCE) Advanced Subsidiary levels. ■ The GCE A2 leading to a full GCE A level. ■ The VCE A levels and A level (double awards). ■ The new Key Skills Qualification. ‘Performance descriptions’ were developed to specify what students had to do to reach a particular grade on each route and we reproduce these in Boxes 4.3 and 4.4. A comparison of Boxes 4.3 and 4.4 shows that the two routes have a great deal in common. The difference lies in the repeated reference to ‘business skills’ in the applied route. However, the language used in these performance criteria seems to suggest that students on the applied route will need to demonstrate these skills in addition to the knowledge, understanding, analysis and evaluation that is required for the academic route. According to Ofsted (2004b), the design of applied or vocational A levels was not good. They complained that the AVCE qualification was ‘neither seriously vocational nor consistently advanced’ and was over-assessed (para. 7). They also felt that ‘in some subjects, moreover, course specifications lack vocational content and are therefore too similar to GCE A level’ (para. 7). They recommend that work experience be made a compulsory element of vocational A Levels. As 25 per cent of all entries for vocational A levels are in business (Ofsted, 2004b), these criticisms are particularly relevant for the BEE subject area. An extract from Ofsted’s judgement on business vocational A levels is presented in Box 4.5. Ofsted believe that the skills element that distinguishes the vocational A level ‘performance criteria’ from the academic A level is not being appropriately addressed in practice. This might be caused by a number of reasons. It could be that the pressure of written assessment is too great to allow sufficient time for skills development. It could be that teachers are not giving adequate emphasis to this aspect of the performance criteria. Alternatively, it could be that the definition of ‘business skills’ is not sufficiently developed. There is a long tradition of defining commercial skills in terms of occupational competencies and this can be found in the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). But to describe ‘business skills’ in terms of such competencies would result in vocational GCSEs and A Levels being no different from NVQs. On the other hand,

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BOX 4.3 PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTIONS FOR GCE A LEVEL BUSINESS STUDIES Assessment Assessment Assessment Assessment objective 1 objective 2 objective 3 objective 4 Assessment objectives

Candidates should be able to: demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the specified content.

Candidates should be able to: apply knowledge and critical understanding to problems and issues arising from both familiar and unfamiliar situations.

Candidates should be able to: analyse problems, issues and situations.

Candidates should be able to: evaluate, distinguish between fact and opinion and assess information from a variety of sources.

A/B boundary performance descriptions

Candidates characteristically: demonstrate knowledge and understanding of key business concepts contained in the AS specification, with few significant omissions.

Candidates characteristically: (a) apply effectively: relevant knowledge to business contexts in a way that demonstrates understanding and appropriate numerical techniques to

Candidates characteristically: analyse problems, issues and situations by: building up logical arguments using appropriate numerical

Candidates characteristically: (a) evaluate by: prioritising evidence and arguments, making reasoned judgements, presenting supported

business contexts; and non-numerical (b) cope with techniques. familiar and unfamiliar business situations. E/U boundary performance descriptions

Candidates characteristically: demonstrate knowledge and some understanding of business concepts contained in the AS specification.

Candidates characteristically: apply in part: relevant knowledge to business contexts in a way that demonstrates some understanding and appropriate numerical techniques to business contexts; (b) cope with familiar business

Candidates characteristically: provide partial analysis of problems, issues and situations by: building up arguments using appropriate numerical and nonnumerical techniques.

conclusions; (b) demonstrate elements of a critical approach, Candidates characteristically: partially evaluate by demonstrating one or more of the following: prioritising evidence and arguments, making judgements and presenting conclusions.

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situations.

Source: QCA (2003) (www.qca.org.uk/ages14–19/downloads/bus_pd.pdf). BOX 4.4 PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTIONS FOR GCE AS LEVEL APPLIED BUSINESS Assessment Assessment Assessment Assessment objective 1 objective 2 objective 3 objective 4 Assessment objectives

Candidates demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the specified content and relevant business skills.

Candidates apply knowledge and understanding of the specified content and relevant business skills.

Candidates use appropriate methods in order to obtain and select information from a range of sources to analyse business problems.

Candidates evaluate evidence to reach reasoned judgements.

A/B boundary performance description

Candidates characteristically demonstrate: (a) depth of knowledge and understanding of a range of key business concepts across the AS specification; (b) an understanding of the benefits of relevant business skills and how and when these can be used.

Candidates characteristically apply effectively: (a) depth of knowledge and understanding of a range of key business concepts across the AS specification; (b) relevant business skills to business contexts; (c) appropriate numerical techniques to business contexts.

Candidates characteristically: (a) select relevant and up-to-date information from a range of sources; (b) use appropriate numerical and/or nonnumerical techniques on the selected information to analyse business

Candidates characteristically: (a) demonstrate evaluation by: ■ prioritising evidence and arguments; ■ showing judgement in the selection and presentation of findings;

issues, problems or opportunities.

■ presenting supported conclusions; ■ making appropriate recommendations.

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significant omissions: (a) knowledge and some understanding of a range of business concepts contained in the AS specification; (b) an understanding of relevant business skills and when these can be used.

some understanding of a range of business concepts contained in the AS specification; (b) relevant business skills to business contexts; (c) appropriate numerical techniques to business contexts.

44

information from a limited range of sources; (b) use appropriate numerical and/or non-numerical techniques on the collected information to partially analyse business issues, problems or opportunities.

using some of the following: ■ prioritising evidence; ■ presenting conclusions; ■ making recommendations.

Source: QCA Performance Descriptions for GCE Applied Business (www.qca.org.uk/ages14–19/downloads/appbusinesspd.pdf). BOX 4.5 EXTRACT FROM THE OFSTED REVIEW OF VOCATIONAL A LEVELS Students show a good grasp of basic concepts and vocabulary. Assignment work in Year 13 more effectively links business theory to practice; in Year 12 a much greater emphasis is placed on business principles. Too much of the work set for students is overly descriptive with insufficient analysis and evaluation. Where an evaluation is undertaken by students, comments from teachers focus more on the activities undertaken rather than how far initial objectives are being met. Not all awarding bodies require students to declare that work submitted for assessment is entirely their own. Too many assignments in colleges are written at E-grade standard. As a consequence, pass rates in colleges are often low for the double award. Assessment focuses heavily on academic criteria such as knowledge and understanding at the expense of vocational skills such as problem solving and decision making, thus blurring the distinction between GCE AS or A-level business and the AVCE award. Some of the external tests place a strong emphasis on knowledge of economic theory at the expense of business practice. The assessment criteria encourage a descriptive approach since all of the E-grade criteria need to be covered before candidates can be considered for a higher grade. Assessment-criteria sheets are typically used to inform the grades awarded; assignments are often structured with stepped tasks, inclined in difficulty. Source: Ofsted (2004b). if the skills are described in terms of generic ‘key skills’ there is no difference from academic A levels and GCSEs, which are required to contribute to the development of social skills and problem-solving as well as numeracy, literacy and ICT skills. Until ‘relevant business skills’ are defined in a way that does not overlap with these two

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alternatives it will be very difficult for teachers to find answers to the problems that Ofsted identify. The difficulties facing teachers are equally apparent at GCSE level. In Box 4.6 we present a comparison of the aims, content and assessment objectives of GCSE Business and Applied GCSE Business Studies specifications. The differences are small. The Applied GCSE is only distinguished by references to skills at a few points (picked out in italics). A more detailed look at the specifications (in Box 4.7 we present an extract from the Edexcel specification) shows that the ‘skill’ element is hard to find. Instead what we find is an emphasis on description (picked out in italics). Students are required to compare two businesses, but this is essentially a descriptive task. BOX 4.6 COMPARISON OF AIMS, CONTENT AND ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES OF GCSE BUSINESS AND APPLIED GCSE BUSINESS STUDIES SPECIFICATIONS GCSE Business Applied GCSE Business Studies Aims

A course based on this specification should give students an understanding of the dynamics of business activity. The understanding must be rooted in current business theory and practice and must reflect the integrated nature of organisations and their decision-making processes.

Vocational GCSE specifications in business enable students to develop knowledge and understanding of business through the investigation of a range of business organisations. This will help prepare candidates for employment, further education or training.

Specification ■ The Business Environment content ■ Business Structure, Control and Organisation ■ Organising to Achieve Objectives ■ People in Organisations.

Unit 1: Investigating business Unit 2: People and business Unit 3: Business finance

Assessment objectives

A01 demonstrate and apply knowledge and understanding of the specified subject content using appropriate terms, concepts, theories and methods to address problems and issues; A02 plan and carry out investigations of issues by gathering, selecting, recording and analysing relevant information and

A01 demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the specified content; A02 apply knowledge and understanding using appropriate terms, concepts, theories and methods effectively to address problems and issues; A03 select, organise, interpret and use information from various sources to analyse problems

and issues; A04 evaluate evidence, make evidence; A03 evaluate evidence, make reasoned judgements and present reasoned judgements and present conclusions accurately and appropriately; conclusions. A05 present relevant information in a form that suits its purpose, use specialist terms appropriately and ensure text is legible and that spelling, punctuation and grammar are

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accurate, so that meaning is clear. Grade Grade F Candidates demonstrate criteria knowledge and understanding of some aspects of the specification content. They begin to apply this knowledge and understanding, using some terms, concepts, theories and methods to address problems and issues. They show some ability to select, organise, interpret and use simple information from a variety of sources to analyse problems and issues. They also make judgements and present simple conclusions that are sometimes supported by evidence.

Grade F Candidates will demonstrate and apply basic knowledge and understanding of some aspects of the business specification content. They will begin to apply their knowledge, skills and understanding using terms, concepts, theories and methods to address problems and issues. Candidates will show limited understanding of methods needed to plan and carry out investigations of issues by gathering and recording information from a limited range of sources. They will analyse information and evidence with limited accuracy. They will make judgements and present simple conclusions that are sometimes supported by evidence.

Grade C Candidates demonstrate knowledge and understanding of most aspects of the specification content. They apply this knowledge and understanding, using terms, concepts, theories and methods appropriately to address problems and issues. They select, organise, interpret and use information from a variety of sources to analyse problems and issues with some accuracy. They also make reasoned judgements and present conclusions that are supported by evidence,

Grade C Candidates will demonstrate and apply sound knowledge and understanding of most aspects of the business specification content. They will apply their knowledge, skills and understanding using terms, concepts, theories and methods needed to plan and carry out investigation of issues by gathering and recording information from a variety of sources. They will analyse information and evidence with some accuracy. They will evaluate information to make reasoned judgements and present conclusions that are supported by relevant evidence.

Grade A Candidates demonstrate in-depth knowledge and critical understanding of the full range of specification content. They apply this knowledge and critical understanding, using terms, concepts, theories and methods effectively to address problems and issues, They select and organise information from a wide variety of sources and interpret and use this information effectively to analyse problems and issues with a high degree of accuracy. They also evaluate

Grade A Candidates will demonstrate and apply thorough knowledge and understanding of the full range of the business specification content. They will apply their knowledge, skills and understanding using terms, concepts, theories and methods effectively to address problems and issues. Candidates will show a clear understanding of the methods needed to plan and carry out investigations of issues by gathering and recording information from a wide variety of

evidence effectively, making reasoned sources. They will analyse information and judgements and presenting conclusions evidence with a high degree of application.

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(www.aqa.org.uk/qual/pdf/AQA-3132- appropriate. W-SP-05.pdf). Source: AQA Specification for Double Award GCSE in Applied Business (2006) (www.aqa.org.uk/qual/pdf/AQA-3831-WSP-06.pdf). Format of 25 per cent coursework, 75 per cent assessment written paper.

There must be three equally weighted units, with one method of assessment per unit, with an overall weighting of one-third external assessment and twothirds internal assessment. A written paper will be set which covers the content for unit 3. The specifications should provide opportunities for developing and generating evidence for assessing the key skills.

BOX 4.7 EXTRACTS FROM A SPECIFICATION FOR AN APPLIED BUSINESS GCSE Specification content: finance Businesses need to manage all the money coming in and going out of the business. They also need to understand this information in order to plan what to do next. All businesses deal with: ■ preparing accounts ■ paying wages and salaries ■ obtaining capital and resources. You will need an overview of how the businesses deal with these aspects of finance. You will also need to understand how the work of finance affects other areas. (Note: a detailed understanding of the work of finance will be required in Unit 3.) Specification content: business communications As business people carry out their different tasks, they have to communicate with other people: ■ within their functional area ■ outside their functional area ■ outside of the business as a whole. In order to communicate well with others, business people might use: ■ oral communication (e.g. telephones, meetings, telephone conferencing) ■ video communication (e.g. video conferencing, Internet video link) ■ written communication (e.g. memos, letters, financial documents, advertisements, email attachments/documents) ■ graphical communication (e g production drawings on screen graphics graphics via

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the internet). You will need to find out about the wide variety of different methods of communication used by businesses and which method might be most appropriate for different business needs. Guidance for teachers on ‘delivery’: functional areas and communication Students should be able to research the main functional areas of organisations without great difficulty, progressing from simple to complex organisations. Case studies should illustrate these different areas for a range of organisations. Students may then be involved in the process of communication using a variety of methods and considering the suitability of each. Role-play and face-to-face meetings or presentations may be considered here as an opportunity to broaden students’ learning experiences. Finally, these two topics may be brought together to consider the part played by communication in supporting the work of functional areas, e.g. the use of platform observation cameras on the rail network to warn oncoming train drivers of platform overcrowding. Another example would be the use of optical character recognition technology to create tracking data enabling courier firms such as Federal Express to expedite global package handling. Extract from assessment criteria for top mark band Students will offer a thorough account of the purposes and activities of each organisation’s key functional areas, together with a detailed analysis of how the main techniques of communication support departmental work. To gain 11 marks, students will have shown comprehensive knowledge and in-depth understanding of the purposes of all the functional areas within each business, together with the activities undertaken by each of them. They will also be identifying the distinctive part played by communications techniques in supporting the work of each component part of the organisation in order to enhance overall performance. The distinctive feature of work at this level will be a clear understanding of the interdependence of all component functions in supporting the overall performance of the two main organisations studied. Source: Edexcel (2004). When students are asked to demonstrate a skill it is far from clear that this is distinctive. For example, in Box 4.8 we present an extract from an examiner’s report. The task of completing an invoice is a basic task that might be found in an NVQ qualification. The calculation task might equally have been found in the introductory part of a GCSE question. It appears, then, that the criticisms levelled by Ofsted at general vocational qualifications in general and business in particular are fundamentally due to the specifications rather than any inability of teachers to interpret the specification demands appropriately. So this leaves us

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BOX 4.8 EXTRACT FROM AN EXAMINER’S REPORT ON AN APPLIED BUSINESS GCSE EXAMINATION This question started by asking candidates to complete an Invoice. Centres can expect future papers to set similar tasks for candidates. There were two common errors/ the first of which was to choose the wrong invoice number. The other difficulty for many was in calculating the VAT and Total to Pay amounts. The mark scheme was designed to award candidates some credit (one mark) for calculating the three individual price totals: most could do this. Common errors were calculating VAT wrongly, thereby losing the one mark available for this plus a second mark for the correct total/ or subtracting the VAT, whether correctly or incorrectly calculated from the Sub Total above. There was evidence/ judging by rough work calculations in answers that a number of candidates appeared to come to the examination without a calculator. Centres are asked to remind candidates of the value in using calculators for complex (at this level) calculations. Centres can expect future papers to contain documents whose design and appearance will be broadly similar to this Invoice. One feature of this particular design was the lack of a pence column for candidates to complete. As a result, many candidates were content to enter round pounds rather than £ and p, and/or to abbreviate totals/ for example as £780.2 rather than £780.20. Centres are encouraged to continue working with their candidates on the accurate presentation of numerical answers. Source: Examiner’s Report for Edexcel GCSE Applied Business January 2004 (www.edexcel.org.uk/VirtualContent/ 50311/GCSE_Applied_Business_Examiners_Rpt.pdf). with the question of whether it might be possible to identify some ‘business skills’ that could provide a focus for a distinctive ‘applied’ qualification. One possible route forward would be to change from ‘applied business’ to ‘applied business enterprise’. The qualification could then be based on the skills of project management and evaluation. It is possible to identify ‘business skills’ in terms of planning the strategy for a project, risk assessment, monitoring progress in a project, identifying and evaluating marketing strategies, negotiating roles and responsibilities, and managing a budget. The root problem with the current definition of applied business is that it is not focused on carrying out business tasks; it is focused on finding out about business and this just does not provide an adequate basis for developing ‘business skills’. The way in which the outcomes of BEE are assessed Government regulation frames the character of school subjects through assessment regulations. The key areas of regulation have been: specification of core content and assessment objectives, maximum allowance for coursework, the use of tiered papers and the use of synoptic assessment. Table 4.2 provides a summary of requirements in 2004. The current pattern in specifications is that, while coursework is required in business studies courses, it is an option in economics courses. There seems to be no clear logic behind this difference. It reflects different traditions that have developed within the

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subject area. Likewise, the synoptic requirement for business and economics at A level is not required at GCSE level and again it is not entirely clear why this should be so. Nonetheless, these assessment regulations, together with the scrutiny of examinations conducted by the QCA, help to maintain comparable standards across examination boards. Even with this degree of regulation there are variations in standards between specifications. No doubt these would become greater without the degree of regulation currently provided.

Table 4.2 Assessment regulations for business and economics, 2004 Level

Subject

Coursework

Tiers

Other

Advanced Business

Maximum 30 per cent

None

Synoptic assessment through decision-making exercise, case study, business plan or coursework

Advanced Applied Business

66 per cent

None

Single or double award

Advanced Economics

Maximum 30 per cent

None

Minimum of 20 per cent synoptic assessment through extended case study or essay questions

GCSE

Business Studies

Maximum 25 per cent

Foundation and Higher

GCSE

Applied Business

66 per cent

None

GCSE

Economics

Maximum 20 per cent

Foundation and Higher

Coursework provided through portfolios (double award)

CONCLUSION Governments affect the development of subject areas through their overall policy on schools and through direct intervention in shaping the curriculum. In England the government has had a profound effect on the development of BEE in the last 20 years. This effect begins with the organisation of schooling. The tripartite system of grammar schools, technical schools and secondary modern schools entrenched an academic divide that fostered a complete separation between the teaching of economics and the teaching of commercial subjects that were later to be transformed into business studies. This system also created the context in which the designers of business studies as a school subject aimed to create it in an academic mould. In the 1980s the introduction of the National Curriculum and the exclusion of BEE created substantial problems for the development of the subject area. The growth of business studies as a GCSE subject was halted, an attempt to develop economic understanding as a cross-curricular theme dissolved in the government’s streamlining of the National Curriculum, and the subject area became divorced from the educational development and resources that were poured into the implementation of the National

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Curriculum. So there are ample grounds for viewing government influence on BEE as an example of ‘government failure’. However, there are also reasons for attributing the growth and development of the subject area to government policy. The past 30 years of government education policy can be viewed as an attempt to rid the system of the problems created by the grammar/secondary modern divide. The growth of comprehensive schooling and in particular the introduction of the GCSE examination aimed to break down the divisions that had been created. The growth of business studies was greatly stimulated by the introduction of the GCSE examination and this in turn has helped to bring the economics and commercial traditions in schooling much closer together. So much so that the 1990s saw the introduction of an economics and business joint A level and a business and economics joint GCSE. The work of the QCA (and its predecessors) has also promoted curriculum development in the subject area, not least through the development of assessment objectives and grade criteria. These developments have clarified what students and teachers should be aiming to achieve. It is reasonable to argue that this clarification and the monitoring that has accompanied it have helped to raise the quality of work in the subject area. This is one explanation for the steady rise in the proportion of students gaining higher grades. The big outstanding areas for development are ‘applied business’ and ‘enterprise’. As the Centre for Education and Industry (CEI/DTI, 2001) reported in their review of enterprise education, 20 years of government intervention in industry-education links and enterprise education have done nothing to clarify what students should learn through these activities. This disappointing outcome is in stark contrast to the clarification of assessment objectives and grade descriptions (notwithstanding the problems identified by Forrester (2004)) in GCSE and A level subjects. Likewise we have noted how the provision in the National Qualifications Framework for general vocational qualifications has not been matched by clarity in the learning outcomes that should distinguish such awards. In the case of applied business there has been a marked lack of clarity in the definition of ‘business skills’. The way forward proposed in this chapter is to use the applied business route as a vehicle for enterprise education. The enterprise focus provides a context for the definition of business skills and the examination framework provides a context for developing clear definitions of learning outcomes and ways in which these should be assessed. FURTHER READING Davies, P. (1999) The changing definition of business studies in the school curriculum, The Curriculum Journal, 10(1): 11–28. (This article draws on evidence from a small sample of schools to trace the way in which business studies developed between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s.) Goodson, I. (1983) School Subjects and Curriculum Change, London: Groom Helm. (This influential text presents an analysis of the way that subjects develop in the curriculum. We apply this analysis to the development of BEE in this chapter.) Hutton, W. (1996) The State We’re In: why Britain is in crisis and how to overcome it, London: Vintage Books.

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(Presents an analysis of the relationship between employment and well-being that offers a distinctive perspective on the implications of education for future divisions in society.) Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) (2004) Vocational A levels (London: The Stationery Office). Online. Available at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/%20index.%20cfm?fuseaction=pubs.displayfile&id=360 2&type=doc. (Presents the Ofsted verdict on the vocational A levels introduced by the Curriculum 2000 reforms.)

Chapter 5 Business, not-for-profits, higher education and teachers CONTESTING THE CHARACTER OF THE SUBJECT KEY THEMES ■ Although private-sector business has influenced the development of the subject area through many different routes, the sum total of this influence is not that great. ■ The influence of each stakeholder carries potential benefits and risks for the development of the subject area. ■ Teachers’ professional commitment to critical scrutiny can act as a balance to the influence of different stakeholders.

INTRODUCTION In this chapter we examine the way in which four interest groups—private-sector business, not-for-profit organisations, such as charities, higher education and teachers— have shaped the nature of BEE in schools. Private-sector business has sought to increase the emphasis on preparation for employability and on encouraging positive attitudes towards business. Not-for-profit charities have sought to promote interest in and commitment to particular causes, such as cooperatives, fair trade or environmental protection. Higher education has emphasised the acquisition of specialised knowledge and understanding and study skills. Many teachers initially have been attracted into the profession by the prospect of being able ‘to make a difference’ or ‘to pass on their own knowledge and experience’. These aspirations presuppose some freedom to shape the curriculum. Each of these interest groups exerts an influence that is in the interest of students. Students hope that their education will improve their chances of securing a job that will satisfy their aspirations. Schools that develop a ‘social conscience’ in their students make a positive impact on the future of communities. Many students want to progress to higher education, not only as a passport to employment, but as an experience in its own right. Teachers who are committed to creatively developing what they teach will help the profession to learn from and build on the accumulating experience of schooling. However, there is also a problematic side to the influence of each interest group. The promotion of an unquestioning positive attitude towards business or towards the aims of a pressure group can suppress a critical approach that is central to the development of citizenship (as discussed in Chapter 2). The demands of higher education have tended to

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promote narrow academic specialisation. As teachers accumulate experience in teaching particular subjects and syllabuses, they have a vested interest in the continuation of a particular definition of the courses they are used to teaching. The value of their ‘human capital’ depends partly on resisting substantial curriculum change. In this chapter we examine the influence of private-sector business, not-for-profits and higher education. In our final section we consider the influence of teachers and the role they might have in the face of these contesting interests. THE INFLUENCE OF PRIVATE SECTOR BUSINESS There is an inevitable tension in the involvement of business in education. Education has been described (Gardner, 1983; Lawton, 1996) as the process by which each generation equips the next to forge a future that draws upon the culture (ways of learning and thinking and values) that has been fashioned through the development of a society. The aim of such an education is to help each young person to develop into independent and fulfilled adulthood and to develop into a social being. The interests of business in education are narrower than this. Business is very interested in those aspects of preparation for adulthood that equip a young person for employment (CBI, 2000; Lea, 2002). In Lea’s words schooling should provide a ‘flexible and competitive workforce’ (2002:20). Business is also interested in developing positive attitudes towards business such that companies have a ‘licence to operate’ (Smithers and Marsden, 1992; Rogovsky, 2000). That is, transnational companies have paid increasing attention to supporting the schools in the vicinity of their key production sites. The rationale for this strategy has been to show commitment to local communities and gain support for any changes they might want to introduce in their activities. Businesses are also interested in attracting loyal consumers. The case for a malign influence of private-sector business is argued eloquently by Klein (2000) and Kenway and Bullen (2001). Their argu-ment focuses on brand image: corporate growth rests on creating highprofile brand images; these images insinuate themselves into consumers’ sense of identity; when corporations gain access to schools (through vending machines, sponsored activities and support materials) they do so to promote students’ identification with their brand images; and identity formation in terms of brand association is in conflict with the identity formation objectives of schooling in a democratic society. The idea that schools are a battleground in the formation of students’ identity has a great deal to offer. Teachers try to get students to think of themselves as ‘learners’, as ‘members of a cooperative community’ and sometimes as ‘independent thinkers’. Students’ self-image shapes what they think they can do (self-efficacy) as well as what they think it is appropriate to do in any given circumstance. Teachers who are trying to encourage students to take an independent, constructively critical, view of business face difficulties when students are committed to exclusively positive images of a brand through their own self-identity. Such students will find it extremely difficult to analyse the activity of this business from any perspective other than that of a committed consumer. They simply ‘know’ that these products are the best quality and the best value. However, there is no systematic evidence on which to base a judgement as to whether this problem is as serious in English schools as Klein believes it to be in the US. In fact,

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Monbiot (2000), who charts the rise of corporate influence on civic life through a series of compelling case studies, omits education from his agenda. In practice, the influence of private-sector businesses on the curriculum in England has been exercised through lobbying politicians, funding curriculum development, sponsoring schools and through published resources to support teachers’ classroom work. We now examine each of these processes in turn. Alison Wolf (2002) devotes a chapter of her book Does Education Matter? to the influence of business on the nature of education and training in England. She focuses on the way that private industry has lobbied for change in education. She identifies three main strands: the introduction of National Targets for Education and Training, the introduction of NVQs, and the inclusion of key skills in the curriculum framework. She describes the ways in which business influence on the structure of the curriculum was welcomed by UK governments in the 1980s and 1990s, with successive policy reforms aiming to implement an agenda mapped out by business interests and led by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). In her judgement, the overall impact of these three initiatives has been slight. Nevertheless, when teachers set and monitor performance targets for students, or include ‘key skills’ in their schemes of work, they are being influenced by policies initiated by pressure from business. Private industry has sponsored a series of initiatives in BEE. ‘Education-Industry Partnerships’ of one form or another have received significant financial backing over the past 25 years. For example, the Schools Curriculum and Industry Partnership and its successor, the Centre for Education and Industry at the University of Warwick, have received substantial and sustained backing from large corporate sponsors, such as Unilever and the NatWest Bank. The Economic Awareness Teacher Training Programme (1986–1996), based at the universities of London, Manchester and Swansea, received substantial funds from the Banking Information Service, BP and Unilever. BP also cofunded (with the Nuffield Charitable Foundation) the development of the Business and Economics GCSE award offered by the Edexcel examination board. Each of these initiatives involved collaboration between sponsoring industries, academics and curriculum developers. Inasmuch as the academics and curriculum developers were the ones designing and implementing these curriculum developments, it is arguable that the interests of the privatesector sponsors were relegated to a subordinate position. A distinct influence of private-sector sponsors is perhaps more evident in the Young Enterprise scheme and promotion of ‘financial literacy’. In a review of enterprise provision in 2001, the Centre for Education and Industry at the University of Warwick identified 32 private-sector providers of enterprise activities for schools and a further eight not-for-profit providers who focused on ‘community enterprise’ (CEI/DTI, 2001). In some cases (such as Barclays, Shell and the NatWest Bank) the companies funding the programme are immediately identifiable. In other cases (such as ‘Proshare’) the organisation offering the activities is constituted as a charity, albeit receiving its funds largely from private companies. Nevertheless, the CEI were not able to provide any estimate of the extent of take-up of these (or Business Education links) programmes, partly because some of the providers did not keep accurate records of the level of student participation. However, Young Enterprise reported that, in 2001/2002, ‘113, 847 young people have benefited from the enthusiastic leadership of business volunteers delivering high quality, tried and tested programmes of enterprise education’ (Young Enterprise,

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2004). The Young Enterprise scheme receives the majority of its direct funding through the government, but it is dependent on participation of individuals from companies. So there is a substantial, although as yet not accurately quantified, volume of activity in primary and secondary schools in England that is directly supported by private-sector business. What are students learning from these activities? The CEI concluded not only that we do not know what is learned, but also that the intended learning outcomes were generally not specified. It is conceivable that these activities are having no effect. This conclusion is consistent with Wolf’s overall assessment of industry’s impact. It is surprising that private-sector industry and government have so far not attempted to even devise a systematic way of evaluating the outcomes of these programmes, let alone discover what difference they are making to students’ learning. In the UK the Natwest Bank has played a leading role in encouraging the inclusion of ‘financial literacy’ in the school curriculum. In 2004, the parent Royal Bank of Scotland announced a further £1.2 million investment in financial literacy in schools (RBS, 2004). The process of shaping a definition of ‘financial literacy’ was propelled by a publication for the NatWest by Schagen and Lines (1996). They define financial literacy (p. 91) as: ■ an understanding of the key concepts central to money management; ■ a working knowledge of financial institutions, systems and services; ■ a range of [analytical and synthetical] skills, both general and specific; ■ attitudes which…allow effective and responsible management of financial affairs. The guidance offered for teaching 14–16-year-olds by the ‘Face to Face’ programme from the RBS/NatWest aims to help students to ‘understand the services that banks offer’ and ‘identify how people get into financial difficulty’. Other financial institutions have sponsored the development of the idea of financial literacy through the Personal Finance Education Group. They use a similar definition of financial literacy, but include the suggestion that students should understand the role of regulation and consumer protection in financial institutions e.g. find out about the ways in which consumers are protected either from bad financial advice or from the collapse of the institutions in which they have put their money. (PFEG, 2004) There is much to commend in these aims, but this definition of financial literacy does not refer to any critical appraisal of financial institutions. The responsibility for problems with personal debt is placed firmly on the individual. Given the financial scandals we noted in Chapter 2, this is hardly an even-handed perspective to adopt. It contrasts with the approach adopted by the (public) Federal Reserve Bank in the US, in which financial literacy is suggested as a means of reducing the likelihood of ‘abusive lending practices that target…vulnerable segments of the population…[and which] result in unaffordable payments, equity stripping and foreclosure’ (Greenspan, 2002:41). The Howard Davies (2002) Review of Enterprise and the Economy in Education, identifies financial literacy as one of three strands to be developed in schooling. The definition of financial literacy used in this review is presented in Box 5.1.

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This definition goes beyond that suggested by the financial institutions by including the phrase ‘questioning and informed consumer’. However, this phrase is not picked up by the definition of knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes. The more detailed shape of the financial literacy to be developed in schools remains to be revealed. However, the FSA has established a working group to oversee this development. The membership of this working group is drawn from financial institutions and the civil service. There are no teachers or academics in the group. Private-sector businesses have also exerted some influence on the BEE curriculum through the production of resources. Resources that are practicable and informative for teachers can influence what is included in the curriculum and what is not. They can also influence the messages that are conveyed through the curriculum. We illustrate this briefly through two examples. The first is taken from the NatWest’s Face 2 Face resources (Box 5.2). The extract in Box 5.2 suggests how materials provided by the NatWest’s Face 2 Face programme should be used to develop financial literacy as part of citizenship education. The stated objectives of the materials appear to service the aim of creating responsible customers for the financial system. There is no reference to the ‘questioning’ referred to in the Howard Davies Review. BOX 5.1 THE HOWARD DAVIES REVIEW DEFINITION OF FINANCIAL LITERACY The knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to become a questioning and informed consumer of financial services and the ability to manage one’s finances effectively. Financial literacy can be divided into three interrelated themes: ■ Knowledge and understanding—familiarity with a range of concepts such as money, credit and investment; ■ Skills and competence—budgeting, financial planning and personal risk management; ■ Attitudes—taking responsibility for the wider impact and implications of money and financial decisions on individuals, business and the community Source: Davies, H. (2002:18). BOX 5.2 RESOURCES ON FINANCIAL LITERACY PRODUCED BY THE NATWEST FACE 2 FACE PROGRAMME ‘The teaching of Citizenship should ensure that knowledge and understanding about becoming informed citizens are acquired and applied when developing skills of enquiry and communication, and participation and responsible action/ (National Curriculum Handbook, pl85). Face 2 Face modules can contribute to the teaching of Citizenship. For example: Basic Banking is a set of eleven activities that can be used within the normal lesson time for Citizenship and/or PS HE to help students: ■ Understand the services banks offer;

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■ Identify how people get into financial difficulty; ■ Develop money management skills. Cards and Card Services is a set of twelve activities to help young people use plastic cards sensibly. In particular, they help students to: ■ Identify the range of cards available; ■ Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of using plastic cards; ■ Consider the security issues. Tender, one of three simulations in the Face 2 Face programme, encourages the development of a number of key skills, including: ■ Working with others; ■ Communication—e.g. giving a short talk. Source: NatWest Bank (2003). Our second example is The Times 100 Case Studies. This resource is provided free to schools in hard copy and via the Internet. It is financed by the companies that provide the case studies. In the words of the front page of the web site: the case studies are a free educational resource for students, teachers and lecturers of business studies. The Times 100 brings business studies theory to life with case studies on real companies, written by leading business studies textbook authors and linked to all exam specifications. Each business case study expands on basic business studies topics using real world examples to help your understanding. (The Times, 2004) This is a rich source of case study material that is of great value to teachers. Information about companies’ strategies and experience in this summarised form provides useful data to use in lessons. However, the companies supplying the case study material obviously want to present themselves and their products in a good light. For example, a case study on Gillete states: Gillette’s overall emphasis is on providing premium performance via the best value for money shaving experience, whether this is a system razor for the discerning customer seeking the best in shaving technology, or a high quality disposable product for people looking for a good quality shave with the convenience of a disposable. This sounds very much like direct marketing. Another case study (Box 5.3) focuses on Kellogg’s launch of its Real Fruit Winders. This Kellogg’s case study is unambiguous in presenting the company’s strategy as successful and desirable. Indeed, as reported by the Guardian (2004), the strategy was put forward to the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising for one of its ‘effectiveness awards’ in 2002 on the grounds that Winders ‘entered the world of kids in a way never

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done before’, and managed to ‘not let mum in on the act’ (Guardian, 2004). There is a different view. The BBC reported that a parents’ survey by a food pressure group, The Food Commission, identified Kellogg’s Real Fruit Winders as one of the four worst foods, awarding a prize as the food containing the most sugar (47 per cent). The parents’ jury verdict was that ‘Kellogg’s Real Fruit Winders do contain real fruit, but have been processed and supplemented with sugar, hydrogenated fat and other ingredients with little nutritional value’ (Guardian, 2004). It might be argued that the promotion of products should not be regarded as a problem since consumers are able to make up their minds. However, since pupils up to the age of 16 are required by law to attend school, teachers are party to a system that takes the view that children are not always best placed to judge their own interests. Business sponsorship of resources for schools is inherently problematic. The creation of ‘specialist schools’ in England has provided another route for privatesector influence on schools. Secondary schools are required to raise £50,000 in sponsorship from private sources in order to secure specialist status. Potential sponsors are lured with the promises that financing a specialist school will ‘demonstrate corporate citizenship’, provide ‘innumerable and ongoing opportunities to raise the company’s profile in both the national and local media’ and be tax deductible (Technology Colleges Trust, 2004). By June 2004, there were 107 specialist business and enterprise colleges. However, many of these had only recently gained this status and the curriculum information displayed on their web sites did not suggest a significantly different curriculum from that offered by other schools. It remains to be seen whether the designation of ‘business and BOX 5.3 EXTRACT FROM THE TIMES 100 CASE STUDY ON KELLOGG’S REAL FRUIT WINDERS The Internet was chosen to communicate with the target audience because it is where children interested in games and technology are most likely to be found. The campaign aimed to grab the attention of opinion formers and trendsetters who would then tell their peers. The campaign is particularly interesting because it was based around a set of animated characters who speak their own language. Online games and competitions help remind consumers about a brand, but the difficult bit is how to persuade audiences to interact with these forms of branded entertainment in the first place; promotions such as animations, e-mail campaigns and sponsorships need to be developed. Note how precise the objectives are for the company’s first noncereal based product: become a Top 10 kids confectionery snack to generate annual sales of over £15 million and to be profitable within 2 years from launch. To achieve this level of interest, Kellogg’s went for: interactive animated advertisements placed on children’s websites and animated characters that used a secret language to give true ‘cool credibility’. Learning outcomes: ■ As a result of carefully reading this case study, students should be able to: ■ explain why marketing initiatives need to be targeted at an appropriate market group ■ understand the importance of matching the media used with the interests of a

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targeted age group ■ understand the importance of targeting marketing communications at ‘opinion formers’ ■ appreciate and explain the benefits of Internet based approaches to marketing ■ understand the importance of interactivity and games as key ingredients of web based marketing ■ know why business organisations need to match the available supply of products with customer demand ■ appreciate the importance of continually monitoring and evaluating the impact of marketing communications in order to make ongoing adjustments where appropriate. Source: The Times (2004). enterprise college’ does indeed lead to the development of a distinctive curriculum and, if so, whether the nature of the sponsorship makes a difference. One sponsor, the Cooperative movement, is setting out to support a distinctive kind of business and enterprise college, where the emphasis is on cooperation throughout the school. THE INFLUENCE OF CHARITIES AND OTHER NOT-FORPROFITS Like private-sector business, charitable organisations, such as Oxfam or the World Wide Fund for Nature, have a strong interest in conveying a particular view of the world. Their involvement in education is based on a desire to encourage young people to share their ideals. This is illustrated in Box 5.4 with Oxfam’s published view on the traits that a teacher should exhibit in order to be a ‘Global Citizen’. BOX 5.4 OXFAM VIEW ON TRAITS FOR THE EDUCATOR ASPIRING TO BE A GLOBAL CITIZEN As well as having a sense of humour and fun, a Global Citizen who is an educator: Feels empathy with others: ■ listens carefully to what pupils have to say and values their contribution and experiences; ■ promotes an understanding that throughout the world people have common needs and rights; ■ is compassionate and sensitive towards others; ■ tries to see the world through the eyes of others. Has an understanding of and active commitment to sustainable development: ■ is concerned about the amount of the world’s resources that are being used daily and finds ways of using less; ■ shows respect and concern for the environment and all life within it;

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■ considers the needs of future generations in relation to their present lifestyle; ■ encourages pupils to think creatively about their own vision for the future, and how it can be achieved. Has a sense of identity and self-esteem and promotes these feelings in others: ■ recognises the value of individuality in oneself and others; ■ acknowledges that we all make mistakes and that we can learn from them; ■ has high and achievable expectations of all pupils, and tries to ensure that each pupil fulfils their own potential; ■ praises pupils and creates an inclusive, secure and nurturing environment for them. Has an understanding of peace and conflict, and has the ability and willingness to behave cooperatively and resolve conflict: ■ encourages children to cooperate, share, take turns, and take responsibility for their actions; ■ ensures that there is a democratic class system in place, where pupils can share their problems and where grievances can be resolved, such as ‘circle time’; ■ has a clear and fair procedure for pupils and educator to follow if conflict erupts. Has an understanding of and active commitment to, social justice and equity: ■ is aware of causes of inequality in the world, deeply concerned by its injustices, and committed to changing things; ■ is aware of the educator’s own rights and responsibilities, and respectful of the rights of others; ■ behaves democratically within and outside school; ■ uses fairness as the basis for decision-making. Has the ability to think critically, challenge injustice and argue effectively: ■ is aware of their own opinions, but able and willing to challenge and change them in the light of convincing evidence; ■ is able to present an informed, persuasive argument based on reason; ■ does not generalise about peoples, countries, continents; ■ is able to recognise and challenge bias and manipulation of information in books, ICT and the media. Has an understanding of and respect for diversity: ■ treats pupils as different but equal; ■ enables all children to have equal access to education, whatever their needs; ■ is aware of issues related to diversity of race, gender, disability, religion and sexual orientation and is sensitive to the challenges faced by those who may be seen as ‘different’; ■ is actively anti-discriminatory.

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Has an understanding of globalisation and interdependence, and an active commitment to learning more about such issues: ■ is curious about the world and committed to lifelong learning in order to understand how it works in a variety of ways; ■ has a range of resources available in the classroom which enable pupils to gain information about the world and its issues; ■ recognises that global issues are complex; ■ realises that many areas of Global Citizenship have the potential to be contentious, but that this does not reduce the need to address them. Has a belief that people can make a difference: ■ has the confidence to act in order to improve situations; ■ is an active participant in their school and community and sees the two as interlinked; ■ promotes active learning.

Oxfam (2004) (CPD activity) (www.oxfam.org.uk/ coolplanet/teachers/globciti/profdev/activitylws.htm). Many of these statements are uncontentious, but some are open to disagreement. The commitment to democracy within the school and the active seeking to consume fewer resources are values that will not be shared by all. A resource provided on the ‘babymilkaction’ site (www.babymilkaction.org/spin/) offers ‘14 participatory style lessons’ called ‘Seeing through the spin’. The web site claims that these ‘lesson plans, case studies and a host of background material, will help students deconstruct public relations messages—from companies and their critics’. In fact, many of the resources provided by charitable organisations are focused on world development and trade. The Bized web site provided 167 links to data and resources on world development trade in June 2004. None of these were to private-sector business. Just under half were links to government (or international government) organisations, 58 were higher education links and 30 were to not-for-profit organisations. An example of the kind of classroom activity promoted by these not-for-profit organisations is presented in Box 5.5. These questions appear to be designed to challenge ideas that students may acquire during business studies or economics lessons. For example, the first question seems designed to question an assumption of economies of scale. The last question is explicitly encouraging students to think about what should be considered a ‘fair wage’ as opposed to the wage needed to attract workers. These resources do not encourage students to consider whether ‘low wages’ might foster development on the basis that they attract investment and if workers are prepared to work for these wages they might be assumed to do so because they are getting a better

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BOX 5.5 BRIEF FOR ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES PROVIDED BY CHRISTIAN AID Ask the students to read the stories of two people involved in fair trading, through Traidcraft (pages 52–53) and then use them as a basis for discussion and activity. Points for discussion could include the following. ■ Do you think that the larger-scale approach is necessarily more effective than the smaller-scale one? ■ Do you think that Sarah really is running a business? ■ Will a small specialist shop persuade people to change their buying habits in the same way that a supermarket might? ■ Fairly traded instant coffee currently makes up approximately two per cent of the market. How significant is this? How will it affect the lives of the producers and the attitudes of the consumers? ■ Ethical trade is about reasonable wages and decent working conditions. Does fair trade go beyond this? In what way? Activities might include acting out scenarios between Rosamund and her largely church congregation customers, and between Sarah and the various types of people who come into her shop. Sarah’s website (http://www.justfairtrade.com/) will suggest further activities. Source: Christian Aid (www.christianaid.org.uk/ learn/schools/secondry/priced/glearn/business.pdf). deal than would otherwise have been open to them. In other words, the problem for the teacher is just the same as when using a resource provided by private-sector industry. The resources provide excellent contextual information and may be designed in a way that really stimulates interest from the students. This is obviously of great benefit for the teacher. However, teaching should equip students to recognise alternative perspectives on a problem and this may require that the teacher finds a way of adapting the resource to make this possible. THE INFLUENCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION The influence of higher education on the nature of the subject has been felt in several ways: through the credibility of examinations, by direct involvement in curriculum development and through publications. Economics and business studies first established a foothold in the curriculum as A level subjects. To do so they needed to be credible as

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academic qualifications that could be considered for university entry. One particular concern was the level of numeracy and analytical depth. The content of A level economics was changed in the early 1970s (Davies, P., 2000) in order to address concern in higher education that syllabuses were giving too much weight to description and not enough to theory and analysis. This change was led by chief examiners (for the Joint Matriculation Board in particular) who were academic economists in university departments. The message was not lost on those who subsequently introduced business studies as an A level subject. The first syllabus to be accepted was designed by the Cambridge Business project and it intentionally emphasised numeracy in the context of decision-making models and data analysis. The influence of higher education on the definition of business studies and economics has been maintained, particularly in the case of economics, through chief examiners. In the case of economics this influence has been supplemented through curriculum development. The first major curriculum development project in economics was the Economics Education 14–16 Project, based at the University of Manchester. This was followed by the Economic Awareness Teacher Training Programme, based at the universities of London, Manchester and Swansea. These projects aimed to develop the role of economics education in compulsory education (up to the age of 16). The strategy was not to develop economics as a distinct subject in the curriculum, but to distil the key aims and ideas of an economics education and to support teachers across the curriculum in reinterpreting their work so as to achieve these aims. The underpinning ideas and leadership of these development projects came from academics in university departments of education. However, both projects depended on sponsorship funding from industry (notably BP, the Banking Information Service and Unilever) as well as charitable trusts, such as the Esmeé Fair bairn Trust, which provided sustained support for the subject association over many years. This pattern of collaboration between the economics education community and private-sector sponsors was continued with the Economics 16– 19 Project, which aimed to reinvigorate economics teaching in the sixth-form curriculum. Academics from university economics departments played a much more prominent role in this project through a committee that deliberated on the subject content that ought to be at the focus of A level teaching. A key publication from this project (McCormick and Vidler, 1994) was jointly authored by an economist from the University of Southampton. Higher education played a much less prominent role in the development of the NuffieldBP Business and Economics Project, but a similar alliance between private-sector funding and higher education played its role here as well. The third way in which universities exerted an influence on the emerging shape of BEE in schools was through the publications designed to support teachers’ work in the classroom. A scrutiny of the backgrounds of authors of the edited books on economics and business education (Lee, 1975; Atkinson, 1985; Hodkinson and Whitehead, 1986; Hodkinson and Jephcote, 1996) shows a strong presence from the higher education community. Academics in departments of economics, business and education have also produced a stream of articles, pamphlets and books that aim to update teachers’ subject knowledge, to make suggestions on teaching strategies and to change thinking about what should be taught in schools. The content of these publications has included textbooks (e.g. Needham and Dransfield, 1997; Needham, 2000), articles for teachers on specific content (e.g. Gough and James, 1997; Healey, 2000), magazines for students on subject

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content (notably the Economic Review and the Business Review, published by Philip Allan), case study resources (e.g. Abbott, 1999) and activities for students (e.g. Abbott and Dransfield, 1998). While some of this material may have enjoyed a very modest readership, the cumulative impact of this writing should not be underestimated. It has helped to provide teachers with a detailed understanding of what should be included in their schemes of work and has informed examiners to the extent that they refer to key texts for their specification. THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHERS In the previous chapter we analysed the ways in which governments have shaped the BEE curriculum through policies on school type, the core curriculum, the academic vocational divide and the qualifications framework. So far in this chapter we have looked at the role of private-sector business, not-for-profits and higher education. With all these influences, what scope is left for the influence of teachers and parents? With the added pressure of league tables and performance pay, teaching can sometimes seem like a job of implementing procedures and grinding out results. There are three important reasons why this scenario is not in the interests of pupils and why it is important that it is resisted. The first is that creativity and a measure of professional freedom are critical to attracting good teachers into the profession and keeping them in the profession once they have gained some experience. Learning to teach is not simply a matter of learning how to do the right thing at the right time. Learning to teach must involve learning how to look for ways of improving on what has gone before. The second reason is that each of the stakeholders (government, business, not-forprofits, higher education) discussed so far has a particular interest in shaping the curriculum in a particular way. Governments have an interest in students learning to become ‘responsible’, but not necessarily critical, citizens. Private industry has an interest in students developing an uncritically positive view of business. Charities want to foster commitment towards particular causes. Higher education has an interest in schools emphasising preparation for studying a degree rather than any other destination after schooling. Teachers are not able to claim any greater freedom from self-interest than any of these interest groups. However, it is in the interest of students that teachers retain a professional culture that values critical scrutiny. The most difficult aspect to this is that critical scrutiny will take in teaching as well. The third reason why teachers’ influence over the curriculum is important is that knowledge about what and how to teach is continually developing. Even in subjects where the curriculum has been relatively stable, such as A level economics, the demands of assessments today are quite different from those of 20 years ago. In BEE the pace of change has been and is likely to continue to be rapid. Over the past ten years, business studies has changed from having an exclusively managerialist perspective to one in which different stakeholder perspectives are considered. The sense of what it means to have an ‘applied business’ curriculum is only just beginning to develop. We have plenty of activity in enterprise education, but the learning outcomes are yet to be defined. Different versions of the economic element of citizenship education and the meaning of financial literacy are being promoted by different organisations.

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None of this will amount to anything unless teachers are able to work out what students are able to learn within the constraints of organised schooling. For this to happen, teachers need to be trusted with the responsibility for the task and supported in working together to develop the curriculum and to develop ways of teaching that will actually improve students’ learning. This does not negate the crucial role of government in monitoring schools or teachers, nor does it diminish the importance of teachers working with private industry, charities and higher education in their efforts to develop the curriculum. However, if teachers are seen as mere implementers of curricula, strategies and resources developed by others, then no one’s interests will be served. The curriculum will always be contested. Teachers need to be ready and equipped to be selfcritical participants in the contest. FURTHER READING The history of the influence of different stakeholders on the development of BEE has not attracted much attention from researchers or commentators. However, for more general reviews of the influence of private-sector business on education two good sources are: Kenway, J. and Bullen, E. (2001) Consuming Children: education, entertainment, advertising, Buckingham: Open University Press. Wolf, A. (2002) Does Education Matter? London: Penguin Books.

Part II The subject in school: learning and assessment

Chapter 6 Making sense of assessment frameworks KEY THEMES ■ Competence-based and assessment objective-based frameworks are competing for influence in BEE. ■ The choice of assessment framework has a major influence on how we think about the subject and it is important that assessment, teaching and learning are ‘constructively aligned’. ■ Although Bloom et al.’s taxonomy has exerted a major influence on public examinations in BEE it is erratically applied.

INTRODUCTION The focus of this chapter is on assessment, but we cannot decide how and when to assess pupils without thinking carefully about the relationships between assessment, learning and teaching. First, the form of assessment will have ‘backwash’ effects on the way in which learners approach their study and the way in which teachers approach their planning. Therefore, the format of the assessment should be chosen in order to encourage learners and teachers to adopt approaches that are more likely to lead to the desired outcomes. This is known as ‘constructive alignment’ (Biggs, 1996). This idea is more frequently voiced in higher education, as university teachers are able to choose the format of the assessment that students will face. However, it is equally applicable when we are evaluating the format of assessment adopted in the examination of school students. For example, higher-level courses frequently aim to develop students’ ‘holistic understanding’ of a subject. Therefore, the design of the assessment should encourage teachers and students to perceive this as a primary objective. If the form of the assessment focuses on individual parts of a specification, then teachers will train students to display a much more fragmented capability than the holistic understanding that is supposed to be the primary aim. Second, learners are more likely to make progress if they and their teachers have a clear idea of what students currently understand and what should be the next attainable level of achievement for which they should strive. This is the agenda of ‘assessment for learning’. ‘Constructive alignment’ and ‘assessment for learning’ require a clear sense of what is to be learned and this must be expressed in terms specific to a subject. Despite the importance of the interconnection between learning, teaching and assessment, it is useful to make a distinction between summative and formative assessment. The purpose of summative assessment is to provide an indication of what the student has achieved at the end of a course of study. This information can be used by potential employers and other educational institutions to decide whether to offer the

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student a job or a place on another course. The information from summative assessment can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the schooling that has been provided. The purpose of formative assessment is to provide information that will help the student’s future learning. This information may be used by the teacher, the student or both. While the purpose of summative assessment is to label, the purpose of formative assessment is to support future progress. In this chapter we concentrate on summative assessment and the basis on which frameworks for assessment have been designed. We begin with a review of current evidence about examination standards in England. If the summative function is to be carried out it is important that there is confidence in the grades that are awarded. We follow this with a review of two approaches to summative assessment. We focus initially on assessment of ‘competencies’ and this is followed by a review of the way in which Bloom et al.’s taxonomy has been used to define ‘assessment objectives’ for public examinations. SETTING, MAINTAINING AND IMPROVING STANDARDS The idea of educational standards has gripped policy makers in many OECD countries in recent years. In the UK the pained question ‘Are standards falling?’ gets asked every time examination results are published showing that more students have passed a particular benchmark. The question is rooted in a notion of examination grades as a sorting process, a way of distinguishing the ‘top 20 per cent’ from the rest. This was indeed the basis of the O level examination system operating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland until 1986. The notion of grades A-C being ‘pass grades’ at age 16 still persists from this era, having been reinforced by the way that examination grades are reported for GCSE. If examination grades are there to sort the ‘best’ from the rest, then an increase in the pass rate must mean that standards are falling. However, the GCSE and AS/A2 examinations are supposed to relate grades to particular levels of achievement. GCSE specifications for each subject set out the capabilities that students must demonstrate in order to achieve each grade. We might think this could act as a guarantee of standards by providing an unchanging benchmark. However, the language of these statements is open to a range of interpretations and this provides scope for actual standards for any given grade to rise or fall. As schools are under pressure to improve examination results, Heads of Department have an incentive to switch to a syllabus that requires lower standards for the achievement of high grades. In the case of economics, Tymms and Fitz Gibbon (1991) and Reilly and Bachan (2002) have found some evidence of different standards between examination boards. Reilly and Bachan estimated that, in 1998, candidates following the Edexcel syllabus were 5 per cent more likely than candidates with other boards to attain a grade A. They also note that 47 per cent of all candidates were entered for the Edexcel specification. This is consistent with evidence provided by Hurd et al., (1997) suggesting that Heads of Department in economics and business have been engaging in syllabus switching. We should therefore expect some downward drift in examination standards. One particular concern for teachers of business studies and economics has been the relative difficulty of examinations in the two subjects. There have been several attempts

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to quantify this difference and all the studies have concluded that economics was more difficult than business studies. Fitz Gibbon and Vincent (1994) concluded that, in comparison to other A Levels, students’ grades in economics should be increased by a quarter of one grade and students’ grades in business studies should be reduced by one half of a grade. A slightly later study by Skinner (2001) put the average grade difference between the two subjects at 1.4 grades. The methods used by these researchers from the University of Durham have been questioned (Goldstein and Cresswell, 1996). However, the broad pattern is confirmed by Reilly and Bachan (2002) using different methods. They estimate that, of the 57.9 per cent of students achieving grades A-C in business studies at A Level, only 35.4 per cent would have achieved a grade C or better in Economics. It is not surprising, then, that Ashworth and Evans (2000) found that ‘economists are grading students away from the subject’. This has nothing to do with whether economics is ‘better’ or even whether it is intrinsically more difficult than business studies. Examinations can always be made harder or easier by adjusting questions and mark schemes. All that we can conclude is that the balance of evidence in the 1990s showed that it was significantly harder for students to gain higher grades in economics than in business studies and that this provided a strong incentive for teachers to switch from economics to business studies. The available qualitative evidence shows that teachers were aware of these differences and that some of them responded to these incentives. COMPETENCIES AND PORTFOLIOS The outcomes of learning may be written in terms of competencies describing what the learner can now do. Lists of competencies are more associated with vocational than with academic courses in schools and colleges. For example, they are very apparent in the ‘commercial tradition’ in business courses (e.g. ‘office practice’, ‘administration’ and ‘business and communication’). However, even within this family of titles the competency approach in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is primarily to be found in NVQs. The variation in styles of competency statement can be seen in Appendix A. Candidates for the NVQ have to demonstrate their achievement through evidence of what they can do, using a detailed checklist. Candidates for the Applied Business GCSE are required to demonstrate achievement against generalised statements of capability (assessment objectives). To pass the NVQ the candidate must demonstrate that they can use specific methods of communication. The candidate’s achievement in the Applied Business GCSE is judged according to the quality of their commentary on the methods of communication used in business. Although the Applied Business GCSE is described by examination boards as a ‘vocational GCSE’, the assessment framework is identical to academic GCSEs and this makes the definition of learning outcomes very similar to that found in the the Business GCSE and quite unlike that found in NVQs. Some approaches to enterprise education seek to define outcomes in terms of skills. These definitions share the NVQ emphasis on doing as opposed to thinking, but they are much more open in their specification. For example, the Employability Skills Framework devised by the Australian Chamber of

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Commerce and Industry in 2002 includes a section on ‘Initiative and enterprise’ (see Appendix A). The broadly defined skills in this Employability Skills Framework highlight some of the benefits of narrowly defined competencies. It is much easier to determine whether an individual can make a telephone call than whether they can adapt to new situations. What kind of new situations are to be included in this definition? Is it really the case that, if we notice an individual adapting to one new situation, we can infer that they will be able to adapt to any other new situation? If an individual is creative in playing a musical instrument, will they also be a creative accountant? The assessment objectives of the level 2 award designed to accompany the Young Enterprise scheme (Box 6.1) are written much more in terms of intellectual capabilities. The most popular command terminology is ‘identify and assess’. This suggests thinking rather than doing. To interpret these command words we need to go back to an approach to assessment that springs from a publication in 1956. BOX 6.1 ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES FROM THE OCR CERTIFICATE IN ENTERPRISE (YOUNG ENTERPRISE) LEVEL 2 UNIT 2 1 Launching a Young Enterprise company (a) Identify and assess the way in which a Young Enterprise company is structured and launched. (b) Identify and assess potential products/services to be developed and delivered by the Young Enterprise company. (c) Identify and assess planning processes (e.g. importance of agreement on approaches to working, contributing to the business plan and mission statement, considering health and safety, raising capital). (d) Identify and apply aspects of the wider business context that underpin the launch of an enterprise company. 2 Monitoring the performance of a Young Enterprise company (a) Identify and assess issues affecting the day-to-day performance of a Young Enterprise company. (b) Identify and evaluate measures for managing financial performance. (c) Identify and apply aspects of the wider business context that underpin the operation of an enterprise company. 3 Winding up a Young Enterprise company (a) Identify and assess procedures for winding up companies. (b) Assess the success of a Young Enterprise company. (c) Identify and apply aspects of the wider business context that underpin the winding up of companies. Source: OCR (2002b).

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ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES AND BLOOM ET AL.’S TAXONOMY Examination specifications detail the outcomes that will be assessed in terms of assessment objectives. Each assessment objective describes a type of information processing that the learner will demonstrate in relation to the subject content identified in the specification. So how is one type of information processing distinguished from another? To answer this question we need to look at Bloom et al.’s taxonomy (Bloom et al., 1956). The earliest complete applications in BEE of this taxonomy are found in Maciver (1974), Ryba and Drake (1974) and Drake and Ryba (1975). This taxonomy suggests a scale of learning outcomes in which ‘knowledge’ is the most simple and ‘evaluation’ is the most complex (Box 6.2, pp. 90–91). This taxonomy has exerted a strong influence on the way that assessment objectives are written. This can be seen in the assessment objectives that have been devised for public examinations in business and economics (Appendix B). The assessment objective ‘Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the specified content’ is based on Bloom et al.’s (1956) objectives ‘knowledge and comprehension’. The assessment objective ‘Apply their knowledge and critical understanding to problems and issues arising from both familiar and unfamiliar situations’ uses Bloom et al.’s ‘application’ objective. The assessment objective ‘Analyse problems, issues and situations’ combines Bloom et al.’s objectives for ‘analysis’ and ‘synthesis’. The assessment objective ‘Evaluate, distinguish between fact and opinion, and assess information from a variety of sources’ uses Bloom et al.’s ‘evaluation’ category. It is therefore appropriate to consider how well these assessment objectives employ Bloom et al.’s framework. First, we should remember that Bloom et al. consider the objectives to be nested within a hierarchy. That is, an ability to evaluate requires the abilities to know, comprehend, apply, analyse and synthesise. This raises the question of whether each of these abilities is transferable or not. If we observe a student demonstrating an ability to evaluate ‘a use of elasticity of demand in market analysis’, can we assume that they can also evaluate ‘the application of a theory of motivation in a particular context’? The answer from Bloom et al.’s taxonomy is no, because evaluation is dependent on the acquisition of knowledge and understanding particular to that context. This is the essence of Bloom et al.’s assumption of hierarchy. On this basis we should think of the set of assessment objectives being applied to each part of the specification content. A student might be able to demonstrate application in relation to one part of the content and evaluation in relation to another, but only knowledge and understanding in relation to another. The correspondence between the assessment objectives at GCSE and AS/A2 level is very striking (see Appendix B). At AS/A2 in business studies students are required in AO2 to demonstrate a critical understanding, while at GCSE the word ‘critical’ is omitted. And in AO4 at AS/A2 level they are required to draw on a range of sources. The difference in demand between GCSE and AS/A2 must come from somewhere other than these minor differences in language. The increased complexity could come from subject matter to which these assessment objectives are applied: the range or complexity of theory and evidence might be greater at AS/A2 level. Alternatively, the complexity of the application, analysis or evaluation might be greater. This latter possibility falls outside the framework provided by Bloom et al.

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On the basis of Bloom et al.’s taxonomy, therefore, we should anticipate that students will demonstrate their achievement through the accumulation of marks as shown in Figure 6.1. The shaded bar shows the extent of the student’s achievement. The key assumption here is that the student cannot demonstrate achievement against the higherorder objectives in relation to any area of content unless they have also demonstrated achievement against the lower objectives in relation, to that particular content. In relation to evaluation Bloom et al. (1956) explain this point on pages 185–186. As far as they are concerned, an evaluation that is not fully underpinned by all the lower-order outcomes should be regarded merely as an opinion and not as an evaluation at all. Consequently, it would be impossible for a student to record a higher mark for a higher-order objective than for a lower-order objective. It is impracticable for examinations to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate the extent of their achievements against all areas of specified content. This gives rise to the problem that the questions set may advantage some students and disadvantage others given the knowledge base they have accumulated. In relation to each content area, however, there should be opportunities for each student to demonstrate up to their maximum capability. Given that higher-order outcomes are supposed to incorporate lower-order outcomes, problems will occur when students are not given an opportunity to demonstrate higher-order outcomes against any particular content area. If all the conditions are fulfilled we would expect each candidate to obtain progressively fewer marks against each level of outcome, but if insufficient opportunities are provided for high-level outcomes then there will be a sharper falling away of marks for the higher levels. Forrester (2004), in an analysis of the marks awarded for one GCSE Business Studies specification, found that on average the marks awarded for each of assessment objectives 1–3 were broadly similar, while the marks awarded for assessment objective 4 are very much lower. The low marks for assessment objective 4 are not surprising from the perspective of Bloom et al.’s taxonomy, but the consistency of marks across assessment objectives 1–3 is perplexing. We BOX 6.2 BLOOM ET AL.’S TAXONOMY OF EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES Category of Meaning outcome Knowledge

Most simple

1.1 Knowledge of specifics: terminology and facts. 1.2 Knowledge of ways and means of dealing with specifics: conventions, trends and sequences, classifications and categories, criteria, methodology. 1.3 Knowledge of universals and abstractions in a field: principles and generalisations, theories and structures. Command terms for questions: list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, name

Comprehension

Explaining how a process works, summarising a theory.

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■ understanding information ■ translate knowledge into new context ■ interpret facts, compare, contrast ■ order, group, infer causes ■ predict consequences Command terms for questions: Explain, interpret, contrast, predict, distinguish, estimate Application

Explaining the implications of a theory or set of ideas for a specific context that is unfamiliar to the learner. Answering questions on a case study such that you show how features of the case study relate to a given theory or procedure. Identifying similarities and differences. ■ use information ■ use methods, concepts, theories in new situations ■ solve problems using required skills or knowledge Command terms for questions: apply, demonstrate, show how, solve, discuss

Analysis

Identifying the key features in a set of information and showing how they Command terms for questions: analyse, explain, classify, compare

Synthesis

Developing a coherent account from different sources of evidence. Command terms for questions: Combine, integrate, modify, rearrange

Evaluation Most

Judging the quality or significance of a particular action or procedure ■ compare and discriminate between ideas ■ assess value of theories, presentations ■ make choices based on reasoned argument ■ verify value of evidence ■ recognise subjectivity

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■ recognise subjectivity Command terms for questions assess, rank, recommend, select, judge, discriminate

Figure 6.1 An application of Bloom et al.’s taxonomy to assessment objectives now look at the application of assessment objectives through an example GCSE question and mark scheme (Box 6.3). The stated relationship between the mark scheme and assessment objectives is that suggested by the examination board. The mark schemes for three of the questions (a), (c) and (d) suggest that ‘analysis’ is being assessed. However, the demand of these questions is different and this is best shown by a comparison of questions (a) and (c). The mark scheme for question (a) rewards candidates who link identified phrases in the text with an increase in productive capacity. Students are not required to identify which parts of the text are relevant to the problem and this means that the task is not ‘analysis’ in the sense that the term is used by

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Bloom et al. (1956). In terms of the taxonomy of educational objectives this task is probably best categorised as ‘application’ since the problem is distinctively new to the candidate. However, the simplicity of the task also makes it appear like a comprehension task (‘The ability to estimate or predict the consequences of courses of action described in a communication’ Bloom et al. 1956:96). The mark scheme for question (c) does require students to identify relevant parts of the data for themselves and this would be expected to place a higher demand on their thinking. However, the data are in a different (numeric) form and there are fewer data. The student is required to demonstrate the ability to ‘recognise which particulars are relevant to the validation of a judgement’ (Bloom et al., 1956:147). In this case the judgement is that there are cash flow problems for Velde Ltd. Now when we look at question (d) (i) we find that the demand of the question and mark scheme is identical to that of question (c). Students are required to demonstrate an ability to recognise particulars in the profit and loss account that are relevant to the judgement that John is a successful franchisee. Although the mark scheme refers to evaluation, this is not evaluation in the sense meant by Bloom et al.. According to Bloom et al., questions that ask students to identify supporting evidence for a judgement are examples of analysis. This contrasts with question (d) (ii), which asks students to evaluate on the basis of what Bloom et al. would term ‘internal criteria’. That is, the student is asked whether the evidence is sufficient as a basis for making a judgement about the success of John as a franchisee. Taking these three questions as a whole the mark scheme allocates the following marks to assessment objectives: AO2 (application) 2; AO3 (analysis) 7; AO4 (evaluation) 8. We would allocate the marks: AO2 (application) 4; AO3 (analysis) 11; AO4 (evaluation) 2 (with the proviso that the ‘analysis’ marks could arguably be better categorised as ‘comprehension’, which would fall within AO1). This analysis of sample GCSE questions indicates some of the problems with using Bloom et al.’s taxonomy and the difficulties that examiners face in trying to allocate marks according to assessment objectives. There are four particular problems to which we would like to draw attention. First, there appears to be some uncertainty about whether the assessment objectives should be regarded as a hierarchy or not. As we have noted, if the reasoning followed by Bloom et al. is followed, then assessment objectives ought definitely to be regarded as a hierarchy. The tendency for ‘evaluation’ questions to be placed (as in Box 6.3) at the end of a series suggests that examiners regard the assessment objectives in this way. However, the interpretation of the terms ‘analysis’ and ‘evaluation’ implied by the mark scheme in Box 6.3 does not subsume the lower levels of objectives in the way suggested by the hierarchy of the taxonomy of educational objectives. This leads us to a second problem. At GCSE at least, examiners seem to be using higher-order terms to refer to outcomes that would be

BOX 6.3 EXAMPLE OF A BUSINESS STUDIES GCSE QUESTION AND MARK SCHEME

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Velde Ltd Fredric Velde moved from Holland with his family in 1933 to live in the south of England. In 1936 he set up as a sole trader, making bread and selling it from a van. His business prospered until 1939 but then he needed to expand. He moved to a small factory and opened an on-site shop. In the mid-1950s, he purchased a fleet of bakery vans and employed a small team of drivers. The council decided on the compulsory purchase of the factory and bakery shop in 1968 in order to redevelop the site. Fredric Velde had to decide whether to take the money offered by the council and change direction, or invest the money to expand the bakery business. He decided to stay in the bakery business. The business became Velde Ltd, a private limited company, in 1970 and Fredric’s daughter, Sonja, became the managing director. A new, larger factory was opened and an automated plant installed. A further decision was taken to franchise the bakery vans. The business began to diversify into large-scale production of a broad range of bakery and confectionery products, supplying a wide cross-section of customers and clients. Since 1984, the company has had a contract for the distribution of Dutch cheese and biscuits throughout the year. This has assisted cash flow. The directors are now considering: further expansion; introducing new products; selling abroad. Bread and confectionery manufacturers are supported by trade associations such as The Association of Master Bakers. Question (a) Expansion has been an objective since Fredric Velde started business in 1936. Examples of this were the decisions to open the on-site shop; to develop new products; to employ more drivers; to open a new factory and install an automated plant; to franchise the bakery vans; and to offer frozen hampers. Choose FOUR of the decisions listed above and explain how they have helped the business to expand. (4) Mark Scheme (a) Choose FOUR of the decisions listed above and explain how they have helped the business to expand. Valid points could include: vans and drivers e.g. more deliveries; new factory and plant e.g. more production; franchises e.g. more outlets; new products e.g. more frozen hampers e.g. more customers 4 Relationship to Assessment Objectives: (A03−Analyse=4) Question (b) Each year a Profit & Loss Account and a Balance Sheet is prepared by an accountant for Velde Ltd. (i) Define the term ‘assets’. (1) (ii) Give TWO reasons why an annual Balance Sheet is prepared. (2) Mark Scheme (b) (i) Define the term ‘assets’. Valid points could include: what the business owns 1 (ii) Give TWO reasons why an annual Balance Sheet is prepared. Valid points could include: for the information of shareholders and directors as a legal requirement for government departments, IR/VAT 2 Relationship to Assessment Objectives: (A01−Demonstrate=3) Question (c) The accountant has drawn up the cash flow forecast for Velde Ltd for its next year of trading. Part of the forecast is shown below:

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Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

Income (£‘OOO’s)

1000

1250

1750

1750

1500

1000

Expenditure (£ ‘OOO’s)

1000

1500

2000

1500

1250

1000

Explain the problems this forecast is showing for Velde Ltd. (3) Mark Scheme (c) Explain the problems this cash flow forecast is showing for Velde Ltd. Valid points could include: no deficit/surplus in January; not enough income to cover expenditure for February/March; no overall surplus in the first 6 months of the year 3 Relationship to Assessment Objectives: (A03—Analyse=3) Question (d) John Newman was employed to sell bread for Velde Ltd. Two years ago, he took out a franchise with Velde Ltd. John’s Trading and Profit and Loss Accounts for the last two years are shown below. 1999 £

2000 £

£

£

Sales

50000

55000

Less: Payments to Velde Ltd for ice-cream products

12500

15400

37500

39600

7500

6600

30000

33000

Other expenses: Van running costs

50% commission to Velde Ltd

15000

16500

Net profit

15000

16500

(i) Using the above information, and any calculations, evaluate John’s success as a franchisee. (8) (ii Evaluate ONE of the limitations of the above information in helping John to judge the success of his business. (2) Mark Scheme (d) (i) Using the above information, and any calculations, evaluate John’s success as a franchisee. Valid calculations could include: sales increased by £5000; NP margin 30% (both years); cost of ingredients up £2900; running costs down by £900; net profit increased by £1500 2 Valid points could include: sales increased by 10% on previous year; NP margin is stable at 30%; cost of ingredients increased from 25% to 28% of sales (ie margin on sales down by 3%); running costs down from 15% to 12% of sales; net profit up 10% on previous year Level 3 candidate makes relevant judgements using calculations 5–6 Level 2

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candidate makes accurate judgements 3–4 Level 1 candidate makes limited judgements 1–2 (Opportunity for assessment of QWC) (ii) Evaluate ONE of the limitations of the above information in helping John to judge the success of his business. Valid points could include: only two years’ figures does not clarify the degree of risk; incomplete information (no balance sheet or cash flow information); may not wish to judge success on financial information alone 2 (Opportunity for assessment of QWC) Relationship to Assessment Objectives: (i) (A02−Apply=2; A04− Evaluate=6) (ii) (A04−Evaluate=2) Source: Edexcel GCSE Business Studies Specimen Examination Questions and Mark Schemes (1503) First Examination 2003. This question appeared in identical form in the Foundation and Higher Tiers. classified by Bloom et al. as lower order. This could be prompted by an intention to allocate 25 per cent of marks to each assessment objective, while not raising the demand of the paper in a way that would make it inappropriate for GCSE students. The high cognitive demand of the lists of abilities that Bloom et al. provide to illustrate their understanding of ‘analysis’, ‘synthesis’ and ‘evaluation’ appear to be well beyond the current expectations of most 16-year-old students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Third, there is a particular problem with the ability to evaluate. Bloom et al. reserve use of the term for the evaluation of ideas, evidence and argument. However, we may also speak of evaluating decisions or evaluating options faced by a decision maker. The use of evaluation in this latter sense is very common in BEE. Which product should be made? How should it be promoted? Which policy is socially optimal? This distinction may be characterised as the difference between ‘presenting an argument’ (e.g. for which social policy is optimal) and ‘evaluating an argument’ (evaluating the logical consistency, assumptions and values and evidence for an argument). The language of the assessment objectives is a little ambiguous as to whether both of these interpretations of the term ‘evaluation’ are intended. In GCSE Business Studies, students are required to ‘evaluate evidence’ and ‘make reasoned judgements’. In AS/A2 Business Studies, students are required to ‘evaluate, distinguish fact from opinion, and assess information from a range of sources’. The evaluation of decisions may be implied by ‘reasoned judgements’ at GCSE, but it is missing at AS/A2 for business studies. Moreover, the ability to ‘distinguish between fact and opinion’ is categorised as ‘comprehension’ by Bloom et al. (1956:96). In AS/A2 Economics, students are required to ‘evaluate economic arguments and evidence, making informed judgements’. The implications of this phrase depend on whether the final three words should be interpreted only as a qualification of the first five.

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One reason why this distinction is important is because it bears upon the earlier problem of whether the assessment objectives follow Bloom et al.’s taxonomy in viewing these outcomes in terms of a hierarchy. This position is consistent with the view of evaluation that is solely concerned with evaluating ideas, arguments and evidence in so far as this kind of evaluation can be thought of as requiring adequate abilities of analysis and synthesis. However, arguments can be presented that fall short of this demanding requirement. A student may argue a case based on the application of a single criterion with little supporting evidence. Our analysis of the questions in Box 6.3 suggests that confusion between types of evaluation may be problematic in setting questions and mark schemes and this cannot really be of much help to teachers and students. To these problems we may add a fourth that is endemic to any form of assessment that relies on written answers. Those students with better literacy skills are able to express their understanding in writing much more clearly than those with lesser skills. The organisation of schooling tends to systematically advantage such students. It is a matter of debate as to whether this simply reflects the society for which we are preparing students or the convenience of assessment in schools. TIERING Examinations that are targeted at a large part of the ability range face problems in making a sufficient proportion of the questions accessible to all the pupils. The questions that are suitable for some will be either too hard or too easy for others. For this reason many GCSE examinations have been split into tiers. Typically these comprise a foundation tier in which the examination questions allow for the award of grades C-G and a higher tier that allows the award of grades A*−D. This split creates a different problem. Teachers must decide which tier of examination is most suitable for each pupil. If they underestimate the ability of a pupil who is entered for the foundation tier, the maximum grade that pupil can achieve is a grade C. This is known as a ‘ceiling effect’. Pupils whose abilities are overestimated when they are entered for the higher tier can face an even more severe problem. The questions they face are designed for students who will achieve a high grade and this may make it more difficult for them to show that they are capable of a grade D than if they were entered for the foundation paper. A ‘safety net’ is now provided to make it possible for pupils to be awarded a grade E rather than no grade at all in order to take account of this problem. In the light of our earlier discussion of Bloom et al.’s taxonomy we might expect that the weighting of the different assessment objectives would be different for the two tiers. However, the standard weighting in business studies is 25 per cent for each of the four assessment objectives in both tiers. This clearly implies that the hierarchical conception in Bloom et al.’s taxonomy is being rejected. However, an analysis of the specimen questions provided by examination boards can give a different impression. For example, the specimen questions for the OCR Business Studies A (2002a) include 27 per cent of questions targeted at the ‘evaluation’ capability at foundation level and 45 per cent of questions targeted at the ‘evaluation’ capability in the higher tier.

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CONCLUSION In order to understand the assessment procedures for public examinations it is important to understand the basis on which the assessment framework is designed. There are two major competing traditions. Assessment based on the demonstration of competencies is based on behaviourist psychology and associated with vocational education. Assessment based on achievement against assessment objectives is strongly influenced by the work of Bloom et al. (1956) and reflected in the design of assessment for GCSE and A Level examinations in England and Wales. The tension between these two approaches is very apparent in the shifts in government policy that have affected the design of assessment for business studies. Despite the long-standing use of Bloom et al.’s taxonomy in the design of assessment schemes for public examinations, it appears that the interpretation of the taxonomy in practice in business studies is still rather uncertain. The hierarchical nature of the taxonomy seems to be inconsistently recognised and the definition of ‘evaluation’ is fuzzy. Students and teachers would be much better served if the distinction between ‘making a judgement’ and ‘evaluating the quality of evidence and argument’ was more consistently recognised. FURTHER READING Biggs, J.B. (1996) Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment, HigherEducation, 32(3), 347–364. (Explains the idea of ‘constructive alignment’.) Bloom, B.S., Englehart, M., Furst, E., Hill, W. and Krathwohl, D. (1956) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: the classification of educational goals. Handbook I: cognitive domain, New York: Longmans, Green. (This text has had a major influence on the use of assessment and learning objectives and it is illuminating to go back to the original source.) Drake, K. and Ryba, R. (1975) Educational objectives in economics education, in N.Lee (ed.), Teaching Economics, 2nd edn, London: Heinemann Educational Books. (This chapter evaluates the application of Bloom et al.’s taxonomy in economics education.)

Chapter 7 Choosing and using different types of assessment KEY THEMES ■ The techniques used by examiners at GCSE and A level are designed to produce the kind of evidence required by the assessment objectives based on Bloom et al.’s taxonomy. ■ These techniques have been steadily refined through innovations based on professional experience. ■ Assessment for learning has great potential for improving students’ attainment, but this is limited by the current assessment frameworks.

INTRODUCTION In this chapter we provide a comparative review of different strategies used in summative and formative assessment in BEE. We are not aiming to duplicate the valuable advice provided in publications such as the Business Review and the Economics Review. Our focus here is on the rationale and evidence for using different styles of assessment. We focus on three assessment techniques: data collection and analysis through coursework, data response questions (including case studies) and multiplechoice questions. In each of the next three sections we refer to examples of practice with each of these techniques and examine how these techniques are designed to produce the information required by assessment objectives. In the second half of the chapter we turn our attention away from summative assessment on to formative assessment. We summarise the principles of assessment for learning, provide some examples of practice in BEE and examine how emerging work on the psychology of learning could provide a stronger base for assessment for learning in the future. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Coursework typically accounts for 25 per cent of available marks awarded at GCSE and up to 15 per cent at A Level. Coursework accounts for a substantial part of students’ independent study and the accumulated burden of course work to be completed for different subjects can become substantial for some students. Does this do any more than assess willingness to labour? The rationale for the inclusion of coursework is that it enables the examiners to assess some capabilities less easily assessed through examinations. However, a scrutiny of how marks are awarded in relation to different assessment objectives shows that examiners do not believe that there are any assessment

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objectives that can only be assessed through coursework. The significance of coursework is usually signalled by a higher proportion of marks being awarded in relation to an assessment objective referring to the selection and organisation of information. The skill of selecting information lies in recognising what information is relevant to a particular question. This presupposes that the coursework is designed to try to answer a particular question. We also suspect it requires a high level of contextual knowledge and understanding of data collection and analysis. In practice this capability is often carefully guided by the teacher, particularly at GCSE. The capability to organise information in coursework also requires a high level of ability. The student must be able to relate relevant information to a leading question, then they must choose appropriate methods of analysing the data so that they reveal key characteristics of the data that reflect back on the question. Then they must interpret these data in the light of relevant theory and finally they must present a conclusion that sums up the extent to which their data analysis provides an answer to their question. Understanding how these steps relate to each other demands a great deal of students. As coursework tends to extend over a period of weeks, it may be hard for many students to keep in their mind what the whole piece of work should add up to. It can easily dissolve into a sequence of activities in which they have to describe a visit to a place, produce some charts, work out some percentages, write about what the percentages mean etc. The whole idea of a conclusion becomes problematic when they have lost sight of the starting questions. Guidance from the teacher on how to make these links therefore has a great bearing on the quality of students’ final work. Strategies that may be especially important are: making sure students are trying to answer clear memorable questions; a constant visual reminder in the class of what those questions are; involving students in decisions on how those questions should be answered; and frequent referring back to the questions when interpreting evidence that has been collected. We detect the importance of teachers’ guidance in the comments of an examiner presented in Box 7.1. The examiner specifically praises teachers and refers to an improvement in the overall quality of coursework. Is this because teachers are getting better at preparing students for independent work or because teachers are becoming more careful in BOX 7.1 EXTRACT FROM AN EXAMINER’S REPORT ON GCSE COURSEWORK It is essential that centres emphasise to their candidates that research must be for a clear purpose. Little credit can be given for simply collecting leaflets or data. Candidates should make reference to their research in the body of their assignments. Carrying out questionnaires is not the only form of primary research. Candidates can obtain primary information through interviews and observation. It was pleasing to see fewer assignments of a descriptive nature. Marks were more readily available for those candidates who went beyond merely describing what they had found out and were willing to explain and analyse. Little credit is given for copying large sections from other primary sources, such as textbooks and leaflets particularly when the relevance of these items was suspect

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Similarly, writing generally about the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of business ownership is not a good example of the skill of application. To score well on this assessment objective the candidates must be able to explain how this material applies to the issue that they are studying. Those candidates who made few references to business concepts, ideas and terms put themselves at a disadvantage. In this respect many centres over-marked Assessment Objective 2 (Application). As in previous years a small number of centres set classroom based assignments, for example, Retail Centres—maps of area, types of shops etc. These types of assignment have very little emphasis on problem solving and therefore disadvantage students in accessing the highest marks. A few centres attempted to use fictitious situations, which often resulted in very descriptive pieces of work…. Candidates continue to use research techniques more thoughtfully in considering the set problem and were more critical about the possible solutions. Particularly high marks were achieved when the problem being considered was presented as a question or hypothesis. This approach clearly aids candidates in achieving good marks. Candidates and their teachers deserve praise for the standard of coursework. Teacher annotation and comments were often excellent and extremely helpful to the moderation. Source: AQA GCSE Business Studies A June 2003 Examiner’s Report. guiding students while they are carrying out their coursework? In Box 7.1 we have underlined comments that relate to our first point regarding the importance of teacher guidance in making the coursework a search for an answer to a question and supporting students’ selection of relevant information. We have used italics to indicate phrases we take to refer to the quality of students’ organisation of their coursework. Examiners’ problems with coursework are exacerbated by the growing number of web sites offering off-the-peg coursework or even bespoke coursework writing for students. There is currently no available evidence that allows us to judge the extent to which the distribution of coursework marks reflects the abilities of teachers to guide students and the extent to which students have managed to get away with using web-based support to fool examiners. There may come a time when a supplementary oral examination is required to check students’ understanding of what they have written. DATA RESPONSE QUESTIONS The ability to analyse data may be examined through data response questions as well as through coursework. Referring specifically to economics, Hamlin (1996:82) suggests that these questions may be designed to assess six capabilities: ■ apply and develop economic ideas in unfamiliar contexts; ■ adopt a critical perspective, recognizing different approaches and viewpoints; ■ select ideas and information relevant to a specific problem; ■ deploy numerical skills in support of analysis; ■ develop an extended discussion, synthesising a range of arguments; ■ recognise the limitations and possible biases of arguments.

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These statements amplify assessment objectives 2–4 in Appendix B. Given the similarity of the assessment objectives in business and economics we could swop the term business for economics with reasonable ease. Hamlin (1996) provides some contrasting examples of data response questions, but we will concentrate on one distinction that we regard as particularly important. First, there are questions that present students with two or more sets of data. One of these might be in the form of text, and another might be a table of figures. Second, there are questions that just use one piece of data, often in the form of text, and we present two examples of these in Appendices C and D. The advantage of questions that use more than one piece of data is that they provide an opportunity to ask more probing questions that really require the students to analyse the data and examine links between different types of data. The advantage of questions using just one piece of data is that they are shorter and they make it easier for an examiner to set a series of questions focusing on different parts of the specification. See Surridge (2003) for a commentary on one student’s answer to the question in Appendix C. A comparison of these questions shows strong similarities. Each question is subdivided into many parts, with each part picking up a small element of the data. Frequently, the student is directed to the relevant part of the data and asked a question that is stimulated by the language used, e.g. ‘Cafédirect pays growers 60% of the price of the coffee when placing an order. Outline one financial benefit to coffee growers that may result from this action.’ The economics paper in Appendix D adds additional information into the question and asks students to respond directly to the additional cited information, e.g.: Chessington’s World of Adventures attracts an average of 15 000 visitors per day. Each visitor pays an average ticket price of £15. Research by the company indicates that the estimated price elasticity of demand for visits is (–) 0.4. What is price elasticity of demand and what does an estimate of (–) 0.4 mean?. For questions like these the original data provides a context that may help the student to recognise the correct answer. However, in terms of Bloom et al.’s categories these are low-level questions because the actual processing demand is fairly low. Broader questions, such as ‘Why is it so hard for theme parks like Chessington’s World of Adventure to make a profit?’ or ‘Evaluate Cafédirect’s marketing strategy for increasing their market share’, would place a higher demand on students because they would have to analyse the data. That is, they would have to distinguish which parts of the data were relevant to the question and show how these different pieces of data help to answer the question. To some extent these issues can be addressed by weighting a higher proportion of ‘high cognitive demand marks’ in the A2 (second year) of the A level course, but then this looks somewhat strange when there is allegedly an equal weighting at GCSE. An important variation on the data response theme is the ‘pre-issued case study’. The innovation here is that the information is provided in advance of the formal examination and this makes it more feasible for the examiner to provide a richer set of data. The students can make themselves familiar with the data in advance and then they attempt to answer questions revealed on the day of the examination. Marcousé (2002) sums up the

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distinctive demand of pre-issued case studies as testing ‘joined-up thinking’ and testing the precise grasp of definitions and theory and the ability to write evaluative conclusions. The procedural problem with this assessment strategy is that it encourages questionspotting by teachers and students. A teacher who correctly spots a question that aims to test analysis or evaluation can turn it into a question that only demands recall of a practised answer. As yet there is no publicly available systematic evidence of the extent to which the advantages and disadvantages of pre-issued case studies are realised in practice. MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS Multiple-choice questions come in various forms that present the students with a set of optional answers that they have to choose between. One answer is right and the rest are ‘distractors’. The difficulty of the question depends partly on the abstraction of the idea being tested, partly on the way that the question is worded and partly on the plausibility of the distractors. Some examples from an economics examination are presented in Box 7.2. Each question has a simple format in which students have to choose one out of four options (A, B, C or D). Examiners have experimented with more complex versions of multiple-choice questions, but there is a suspicion that these test students’ ability to work out the structure of the question as much as their subject understanding. The answers of a cohort of students are analysed to work out the difficulty (‘facility’) of each question in terms of the percentage of students who correctly answered the question. The answers are also analysed to identify whether the students who answered each question correctly tended to do well on other questions as well (‘discrimination’). A question that is as likely to be answered correctly by a student who gets 20 per cent overall as by a student who gets 80 per cent overall does not discriminate well. The examiners reported that 89 per cent of candidates chose the right answer (D) for question 18 (Box 7.2). This may well be because this answer prompted students to think of a simple diagram they had learned and the distractors were not very plausible. Question 20 proved to be more difficult. Only 37 per cent of candidates chose the correct answer C for question 20, while 36 per cent chose the distractor A, and this time the discrimination was focused on the relationship between price elasticity and revenue. This evidence suggests that many students have misunderstood the relationship between price elasticity, revenue and income. Another question (12) in the same examination paper also tested students’ understanding of elasticity and this question also was only answered correctly by 36 per cent of the students. Students were given a statement indicating that ferry owners had put prices up to make up for lost revenue from the abolition BOX 7.2 EXAMPLES OF MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS IN ECONOMICS 12 Cross-channel passengers are, this year, facing average fare increases of 25% as ferry operators try to make up for lost revenue from the abolition of duty free shopping

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(Source: Independent on Sunday, 28 May 2000) We may conclude from the statement that ferry operators assume that the price elasticity of demand for channel crossing is A positive and elastic. B positive and inelastic. C negative and elastic. D negative and inelastic. 18 An economy is productively efficient when A it only produces private goods. B all externalities are eliminated. C all firms experience economies of scale. D it operates on its production possibility boundary. 20 The table below shows the world prices ($/tonne) of various grains for a 2 year period. Year 1 Year 2 Wheat

120

85

Barley

160

115

Oats

95

82

Maize

170

130

Which one of the following is supported by the data? A The earnings of wheat producers will have decreased between Year 1 and Year 2 if demand for wheat is price elastic. B The trend in the price of barley between Years 1 and 2 will encourage producers of barley to increase output. C Spending on maize will fall between Years 1 and 2 if the demand for maize is price inelastic. D Oats has the lowest price elasticity of demand. Source: AQA Economics A Level June 2002. of duty-free shopping. The questions asked students to identify the assumptions being made about the shape of the elasticity of demand for ferries. Over three-quarters of the students recognised that this implied an inelastic demand curve (compared with the 36 per cent who correctly distinguished between price elasticity and price inelasticity in question 20). However, half of the students who rightly identified inelastic demand in question 12 thought that the relationship was a positive one rather than a negative one and this was the major cause of students getting this question wrong. Thus, the low pass rates were for different reasons. Each of these questions was testing knowledge and understanding of a different aspect of elasticity of demand. The examiner’s report does not tell us about the correlation between students’ answers to these two questions, but the

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comparison does suggest that different questions apparently testing the same understanding can produce very different sets of responses. The key advantages of multiple-choice questions are that they are reliable and cheap to mark. There is only one right answer and this can be checked by a computer. The concept of reliability refers to the likelihood that another marker would award the same mark. In the case of multiplechoice questions this is clear-cut and the computer-based marking is much cheaper than marking written papers. The problem with multiple-choice questions lies in their validity. Validity refers to the degree to which an assessment actually measures the outcome that is being examined. One of the problems with multiple-choice questions is constructive alignment. By their nature, multiple-choice questions require students to understand small ‘bite-sized’ chunks of subject content. This may encourage students to adopt an approach to their learning that treats the subject as a fragmented set of ideas to be accumulated rather than a systematic approach to a particular set of problems. Another validity problem that has frequently been observed in multiple-choice questions is related to gender bias. Males tend to outperform females in multiplechoice questions in economics. This may not be regarded as an inherent problem if the difference is being generated by an aspect of performance that the assessment is designed to measure. When students’ achievement is measured by extended writing there is a tendency for females to outperform males in school examinations. However, there is widespread evidence that females are more likely than males to offer no response at all to multiple-choice questions (Davies, P. et al., 2005). In these cases the greater willingness of males to opt for an answer they are not sure about will on average gather more marks than the reluctance of females to offer any response at all. In these circumstances the difference in marks is not created by a difference in achievement that the assessment is designed to measure. DESCRIPTIONS OF OUTCOMES The outcomes of learning may be described at a variety of levels of generality. As we have seen, specifications of examination courses describe learning outcomes in terms of assessment objectives that are very general. They also describe outcomes in terms of the qualities that will typically be exhibited by the work of a candidate who is awarded a particular grade. These are the ‘level descriptions’ that can be found in award specifications and that are laid down for each subject by the QCA. These level descriptions are very broadly defined but they do begin to suggest ways in which one level of performance is to be distinguished from another. We therefore begin this section with a brief analysis of some level descriptions. We then take a broader look at how the ‘assessment for learning’ agenda may be applied in BEE and we conclude this section with an introduction to the idea of ‘threshold concepts’. Level descriptions The grade descriptions for the Edexcel Business and Economics GCSE are set out in Appendix E. The second part of the figure presents the criteria in the form of a table to highlight the differences between the grades. These criteria suffer from severe

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drawbacks. They do not tell us what we can expect the work of an A grade candidate to look like, because an A grade will be achieved by summing marks achieved against each of the different assessment objectives. Forrester (2004) shows that the marks students achieve for the assessment criterion ‘evaluation’ are typically much lower than those achieved for the other assessment criteria. Second, the differences between the grades are conveyed by adjectives that amount to not a great deal more than ‘better than the grade below’. The levels are typically distinguished by use of terms such as ‘some’, ‘simple’ and ‘effective’. These are purely subjective terms and teachers and students can only know what examiners mean by these terms by observing how they are used in practice. It is not easy to see how such descriptions can help in ‘raising standards’. Assessment for learning When the purpose of assessment is to find out how best to support students’ learning it can be described as ‘assessment for learning’. The assessment may be carried out by the teacher or the learner, but its focus is on the learner’s development, rather than deciding what grades should be awarded. A recent study has shown how the use of a wide range of such strategies can lead to significant improvement in test grades by, on average, half a GCSE grade (Black et al., 2003). Where learners are aware of their own learning (what they do and do not know and understand; their own most effective ways of learning; and their current personal learning objectives), they are more able to take responsibility for their learning and to direct their efforts where they will be most useful. Knowing that you have really learnt something can be both a source of satisfaction and a strong motivation towards further learning. The QCA suggest ten principles of ‘assessment for learning’ which can be accessed on the QCA web site. These principles are underpinned by research evidence that is summarised by Black and Wiliam (1998). However, their implementation is far from straightforward. If teachers are to ‘recognise learners’ achievements’ they must have some criteria to use in order to carry out this identification. One way in which teachers can partially achieve this is through setting clear lesson objectives in terms of ‘learning outcomes’ that they check on during the lesson. However, this is a very limited interpretation of ‘assessment for learning’. What should teachers and learners do with the evidence they gain through this activity? If the learner has not achieved the objective then the teaching could be adjusted and repeated, but what should be done if the objective has been achieved? Assessment for learning is far more likely to play an important role in learning and teaching if teachers have a clear idea of steps that learners will progress through in their understanding and if they are able to communicate these steps to students. But what would these steps look like? They would not look like lesson objectives because these are too specific to the content that is being taught in this lesson. Next lesson the class will have moved on to something else. They would not look like assessment objectives that are provided in examination specifications because they are too general. They must lie somewhere in between. One attempt to provide criteria of this kind in BEE is presented by Davies, P. (2004) and reproduced here in Appendix F. These may be compared with the differences in quality of judgement described in the grade criteria for business studies (Appendix E). The differences between the descriptions of levels in these two appendices is partly attributable to the way in which these descriptions have been generated. The

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descriptions in Appendix F were derived from an analysis of students’ writing viewed from the point of view of the economic elements of citizenship education. The descriptions of different qualities of argument in Appendix F can be used by teachers and students in a wide range of arguments. The arguments might be about taxation, wages or environmental policy. As teaching moves on from one topic to another, students have new opportunities to improve the quality of their work. However, in order to do this, students need to understand the statements in the first place and this will require a careful introduction by the teacher. Some suggestions are provided in Appendix G for introducing students to the levels of argument described in Appendix F and for helping students to use these statements in evaluating their own work This process of helping students to become more independent in evaluating their own work may be viewed as an example of ‘scaffolding’ (Tharp and Gallimore, 1988). This idea comes from the ‘Vygotskian’ view of learning, which we examine in more detail in Chapter 9. In the first stage students are assisted by teacher direction to perform beyond their independent capacity. In the second stage they take over responsibility for directing and assisting their learning and in the third stage their performance is thoroughly internalised and more or less automatic. In the first stage students cannot understand the level of quality to aim for without the teacher’s assistance. Usually assistance will take the form of modelling the level of quality that is being aimed for. However, this needs to be related to the context of the topic that the student is currently learning. In Appendix F general qualities of arguments are related to the context of recycling. The challenge for formative assessment is to make quality criteria intelligible and realistically achievable for students (Black and Wiliam, 1998:54). A key indicator that a student has progressed to Tharp and Gallimore’s second stage is their ability to take responsibility for their learning by applying ideas appropriately in a range of contexts. DEVELOPING THE QUALITY OF STUDENTS’ NARRATIVES Once students have a conception of extended writing as argument, their capacity to follow that conception through depends on their literacy. Many students, particularly in Key Stage 4, find extended writing difficult and produce brief insubstantial answers as a result. It may be that, by varying the kind of support we give to these students, we can enable them to improve the quality of their writing in BEE. Davies, P. et al., (2003a) devised some strategies to help Key Stage 4 business studies students to improve their writing. These strategies were based on trying to help students to recognise and use the principles of story grammar in their writing. Story grammar (Stein and Glenn, 1979; Merritt and Liles, 1987, 1989) (Box 7.3) breaks narratives down into their component parts. Each story may have more than one narrative sequence, but the completeness and intelligibility of each piece of narrative depends on its completeness. Davies, P. et al., showed the writing of lower achieving students could be improved by helping them to recognise these components and relate the components in their writing. The strategy used by Davies, P. et al., to encourage students to link the components of their narratives together was to provide a marking grid that specified how many marks students would receive for the inclusion

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BOX 7.3 STORY GRAMMAR: THE COMPONENTS OF STORIES Component Example (from Wall, 1996:106) (Merritt and Liles, 1989) (a) setting information Terry is one of two shareholders who own and manage W.H.Bence Coachworks Limited. The company converts vans and lorries into mobile libraries, exhibition units, specialised ambulances and any other vehicle the customer wants. (b) an initiating event

Terry received an order from a Saudi Arabian prince to convert six trailers into luxury mobile palaces. The contract, lasting six months, would be worth over £1 million.

(c) an internal response

Landing a big order like this can cause problems and Terry hesitated about accepting it. He would have to gaze into his crystal ball. How much money would he need and where would he get it from?

(d) attempts to resolve Terry entered the details into the company’s spreadsheet showing the the situation cash coming in and going out over the next six months. He then knew he could not wait six months before he received any money from the prince. (e) direct consequences

However, he managed to get the prince to give W.H. Bence fortnightly staged payments of £100,000 each. After this, Terry went to his bank to see if they would extend his £200,000 overdraft.

(f) reactions of the character to the consequence

Terry renewed the contracts of two employees. (not In original case study)

of different connectives in their writing (Figure 7.1). Correct use of connectives secured positive marks and inappropriate use of a connective led to marks being subtracted. The length and quality of writing of less able students improved significantly when these strategies were employed. The grid in Figure 7.1 relates marks to very specific criteria that students can follow. If students cannot clearly relate marks to criteria there is evidence that they will look at the marks and pay little attention to any supporting feedback provided by the teacher (Black and Wiliam, 1998). This suggests that, if an essay is provided back to a student with a mark of 14/25 and numerous comments to show how the student could have improved the essay, then most students will not take serious notice of the comments. This problem is most likely to arise when students see marks as judgements of their capability rather than applications of marking schemes that they could understand and use to improve their performance and their understanding of the subject. Black and Wiliam’s prescription is to provide qualitative feedback but no marks. An alternative position would be to provide marks only when students can see exactly how these marks were gained.

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Temporal

Causal simple

Causal hard

When*

If*

However*

After*

Because*

Despite*

Before*

So*

Nevertheless*

During* While* Appropriate

1 Point

2 Points

3 Points

Inappropriate

−1 Point

−2 Points

−3 Points

Figure 7.1 A marking grid focused on connectives

THRESHOLD CONCEPTS Threshold concepts are a relatively new idea developed by Meyer and Land (2003) and applied to economics by Davies, P. (2003) and Reimann and Jackson (2003). The notion of threshold concepts in accounting has also been explored. They offer a potential way of describing levels of understanding in a subject that could be used in assessment for learning. Meyer and Land define threshold concepts as having five characteristics. First, they should be transformative, in that once acquired they should shift perception of the subject. Second, they should be irreversible. Once an individual has begun to perceive the world in terms of a threshold concept it should be inconceivable that they would return to viewing it in a more primitive way. Third, a threshold concept is integrative. Meyer and Land (2003) describe this as the capacity of a concept to expose the previously hidden interrelatedness of something. Fourth, a threshold concept is bounded. That is, it helps to define the boundaries of a subject area. If a threshold concept is relinquished thinking begins to move outside or beyond the scope of the subject itself. That is, a threshold concept may be counter-intuitive, or lead to knowledge that is inherently counterintuitive. In grasping a threshold concept a student moves from common sense understanding to an understanding that may conflict with perceptions that have previously seemed self-evidently true. A number of possible threshold concepts have been suggested for economics: opportunity cost, elasticity and economic systems as ‘nonzero-sum games’. If this analysis is correct then there are important implications for assessment and learning. First, assessment of a subject should focus on finding out whether students have really grasped these threshold concepts, since they are the binding ideas that together represent the ability to think in the way expected of an expert in the subject. It will be especially important not to create assessment formats in which students can appear to have understood the subject when they have only a very partial understanding. Since the idea binds understanding of a subject, failure to understand the concept will prevent the

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learner from having access to the real meaning of content that is taught later in the course. Second, the threshold concept should not be introduced before students have acquired knowledge of a range of contexts in which the concept may be used. That is, if the concept is introduced early in the course the student can only learn it in a partial sense because they cannot integrate it with a wider understanding. In Figure 7.2 we present a suggestion of how threshold concepts might be understood. The first three columns of the diagram refer to the three layers of reality suggested by critical realism (Lawson, 1997; Downward, 2003). Critical realists believe that there is an actual reality that exists beyond human experience, but it is not possible to directly experience this reality. Nevertheless, within this reality there are ‘generative processes’ or patterns that create the phenomena that we do experience. Working backwards, we experience things we call ‘prices’ and these ‘prices’ are generated by processes that we do not directly experience but which we approximate through our reasoning. We may, for example, refer to these processes as ‘supply’ or ‘demand’, but we do not directly experience a ‘demand curve’ or an ‘equilibrium’. The actual reality that gives rise to these processes lies a step further removed from our experience, essentially unreachable, but that does not mean that we are not influenced by its nature. Columns 3–5 are split into two pairs of rows that depict two ways of conceiving the relationship between experience of phenomena and our thinking. Row 3 focuses on the individual’s experience of an individual

Figure 7.2 A critical realist approach to variations in students’ conceptions phenomenon, such as the price of a particular product at a particular time. The way in which the individual conceptualises this phenomenon may be thought of as a relationship between the individual’s mind and the phenomenon (hence the double-headed arrow). The experience gives rise to the conceptualisation, but the conceptualisation also frames the experience as soon as it begins to be formed. As soon as I begin to think of someone as a salesperson I start to interpret their actions in ways that are consistent with the way I have begun to think about them on the basis of my prior experience. The ‘outsider’ (depicted in column 5) can then try to find out the different ways in which a particular phenomenon may be conceptualised. Although this process is sometimes presented as ‘revealing the variation in conception’, it is hard to see how anyone can avoid drawing on their own preconceptions in deciding how to categorise the different conceptions that are

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displayed by students. This approach to thinking about the relationship between experience and conceptions is known as ‘phenomenography’ (Marton, 1981, 1992; Marton and Booth, 1997). We continue our description of phenomenography in Chapter 9. In rows 5 and 6 we have a different depiction of the relationship between experience and conception that begins with variation in experience of sets of phenomena rather than experience of an individual phenomenon. For example, an individual might connect their experiences of choosing a school with their reading about others’ experience of choosing schools, their experience of buying concert tickets and their experience of the growth in shops selling mobile phones. What would make an individual connect this set of experiences and observations? They might connect them if they had developed a particular way of seeing the world that encouraged them to use an integrating idea that helped them make sense of the world in a holistic way. In this case, they might hold an idea about the relationship between choice and individual and collective welfare that led them to see outcomes of individual choice as either a zerosum game (as in tickets for a particular concert) or a non-zero-sum game (as in buying a mobile phone) depending on the circumstances. If an individual does not think about relationships between individual and collective choice in this way they are unlikely to connect up their understanding of these phenomena. ‘Integrating ideas’ of this kind are typically the product of communities of thought and in schooling we are particularly concerned with those communities that are academic disciplines, such as accountancy and economics. We are seeking to get students to see the world in a particular way by making connections that common sense would miss. In accounting we want them to think in terms of double-entry book-keeping and in economics we want them to see relationships between individual and collective choice that at first sight seem counter-intuitive. The readiness of an individual to take on this distinct way of integrating their view of the world depends on how they position themselves in relation to the community of thought—or discipline—that has developed the integrating idea. These two accounts of the relationship between experience and conceptions have important implications for assessment for learning. The outcomes of phenomenographic research could be used to help students to work towards more sophisticated conceptions of key phenomena such as price. Threshold concepts could likewise be used as a focus for assessment for learning, whereby students are supported towards new ways of integrating their thinking about phenomena and, thereby, learning what it means to be ‘inside the subject’. These ideas hold considerable promise for sharpening the use of assessment for learning in BEE. At present, the degree to which they can be applied is limited by the extent of current research into students’ understanding. CONCLUSION Current forms of assessment are used within the frameworks for thinking about assessment that we examined in Chapter 6: either a competencybased model derived from behaviourist psychology or an assessment objectives model based ultimately on Bloom et al.’s taxonomy. In the first half of this chapter we have reviewed different methods that

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can be used to provide the kind of evidence required by these assessment frameworks. Through the ingenuity and professional expertise of examiners, these assessment tools have been steadily refined to maximise the likelihood that advantages will be secured and disadvantages will be limited. However, the limitations of these frameworks are evident when we try to express assessment in terms of levels of attainment. This is not a serious problem if our aim is only to provide summative assessment. The efficiency of the process of awarding examination grades is not impaired by the inadequacies of these criteria. However, if we want to provide formative assessment then we have a serious problem. The benefits of assessment for learning have been demonstrated by a substantial body of research (Black and Wiliam, 1998). But assessment for learning requires that teachers are able to articulate what students should aim for in their learning in a way that the students can understand and work with. At the moment the examination system does not provide the tools for this job. Criteria that can be used in assessment for learning need to be developed through analysis of variation in the way that students understand BEE. Learning is specific to a subject, so the criteria we use with students to describe stages in their learning should be subject-specific too. In this chapter we have described two approaches that may provide the tools necessary for this task: phenomenography and threshold concepts. At present, the scale of the development work using these theoretical frame-works is at a relatively early stage. Work in the phenomenography tradition has been going on for some time and it played a major role in the Economics 16–19 Project. The idea of threshold concepts is very new. In this chapter we have provided some illustrations of the kind of approach to assessment for learning that might be adopted, as subjectspecific criteria that we can use become more clear. Yet, for this to become central in our teaching, the assessment frame-work must shift its basis. The principle of ‘constructive alignment’ (Biggs, 1996) suggests that the intentions of teaching, learning and assessment must be consistent if the process is to be effective. A system of summative assessment that is based on one psychology of learning and a system of assessment for learning based on another psychology of learning are bound to sit uneasily together. Research has shown that even in these circumstances assessment for learning improves attainment as measured by standard examinations. However, for the full potential of assessment for learning to be realised, the best basis for assessment frameworks needs to be reviewed. FURTHER READING Black, P. and Wiliam D. (1998) Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education, 5:7– 74. (A systematic and compelling review of the evidence for the benefits of assessment for learning and the characteristics of effective assessment for learning.) Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B. and Wiliam, D. (2003) Assessment for learning: putting it into practice, Milton Keynes: Open University Press. (A book that explains the principles of assessment for learning and exemplifies interesting practice.)

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Hamlin, A. (1996) Assessment by design for A Level Economics, in S.Hodkinson and M.Jephcote (eds), Teaching Economics and Business, London: Heinemann. (Includes a useful review of the rationale for and practice of data response questions in examining.) Meyer, J. and Land, R. (2003) Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge 1: linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the disciplines, in C.Rust (ed.), Improving Student Learning: ten years on, Oxford: OCSLD. (Explains the idea of a threshold concept’ and how this idea is related to previous work.) Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) (2004) Ten Principles for Assessment for Learning. Online. Available at www.qca.org.uk/ages3–14/afl/907.html. (A checklist of guidelines to follow when implementing assessment for learning.)

Chapter 8 Learning through doing DESIGNING TASKS AND TYPES OF PROCESSING KEY THEMES ■ The behaviourist strategy of breaking learning down into small chunks has some merit in teaching competencies, but it is problematic if we want students to understand. ■ The design of a task (the data used and the questions set) will determine the kind of processing demand that we place on learners. ■ While learners might ‘prefer’ one style of processing (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic etc.) they are more likely to develop a good understanding through using more than one type of processing.

INTRODUCTION People sometimes distinguish between ‘practical teaching’ and ‘abstract theories of learning’. ‘Practical teaching’ reflects the professional knowledge teachers build up through their experience in the classroom. It is tacit knowledge because it shows itself when a teacher just knows what is the right thing to do on the spur of the moment. This tacit knowledge builds up through different experiences and the ways in which teachers interpret those experiences. However, given the same situation, one teacher may think one action is right while another teacher thinks it is wrong. Sometimes this difference simply reflects what is right for them, given their personality, strengths and weaknesses. However, each teacher’s sense of what is right assumes some kind of theory of how students learn. It is just as much a theory when it is tacit as when it is explicitly stated. By looking more closely at the main general theories of learning we can become aware of just what we take for granted in our teaching practice and discover some alternative ways of teaching. In addition to reflecting on the underpinnings of our own teaching we can also reflect on styles of teaching that become typical practice for teachers of a particular subject. When we observe others teach we are not simply tuning into their particular way of doing things; we are also, to a greater or lesser extent, observing how teaching is carried out in this subject at this moment in time. By reviewing the theoretical basis of different strategies we hope to make assumptions about teaching and learning more explicit. In this chapter we concentrate on two theories of learning. The first part of the chapter examines the implications of adopting a behaviourist approach to learning and the remainder of the chapter looks at information-processing theories. These approaches to teaching and learning more or less ignore any structure in an individual subject. We have summarised key characteristics of each approach in Box 8.1. This provides a reference point that you may find useful to return to as you read the

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chapter and consider implications for your own practice. We end the chapter with some suggestions for how you might apply some of the ideas in your own teaching. A BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH TO LEARNING Behaviourist theory provides very clear guidance for how learners should acquire new competencies and knowledge. The process of learning should be broken down into very small steps and the learner should receive positive reinforcement on the first few occasions when they have succeeded in making each new step. This idea is derived originally from experiments with animals. Among the most famous of these are Pavlov’s dogs and Skinner’s (1968) pigeons. In both cases the animals were taught new and unusual behaviours (salivating on the sound of a bell, walking in a figure of eight) through a procedure known as ‘operant conditioning’. Animals in these instances do not know that they have ‘got it right’ when they have successfully learned the correct behaviour, but they have been conditioned to act in a certain way in a certain circumstance and will continue to do so even when the rewards that stimulated their learning have been reduced to a very infrequent level. This approach to learning can be easily applied to training individuals to acquire specific competencies that are relevant to the workplace. For example, if we want to train a young person how to write a business letter we can list all the features of a good business letter and this forms our checklist of competencies. We then introduce each feature one at a time. The students are shown how to reproduce this feature, attempt it for themselves and receive a reward when they have successfully carried out each new procedure. In animal experiments the reward is invariably food and this can work with humans too, as anyone who has been promised some chocolate if they carry out a particular task can testify. BOX 8.1 AN OVERVIEW OF BEHAVIOURIST AND INFORMATION-PROCESSING THEORIES OF LEARNING Key theorists Behaviourist theory Information processing Gagné, Bloom et Skinner, B.F. al., Gardner The Important assumptions about learners

Learners change their behaviour in response to the environment they are in.

The Implications ■ Break new information, for how to teach tasks and ideas into simple, easy to digest steps.

Learning occurs when new information and ideas are processed and stored in the mind. This processing can be at different levels of complexity—according to the volume and variety of the new data and the way in which the learner transforms the new information. ■ Set tasks for students by presenting them with data (figures, pictures and text) and an activity that requires them to manipulate the data.

■ Reward learners when they ■ Alter the difficulty of the task to match the take the step you want. readiness of the learner by varying the amount of data and the complexity of what you ask

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them to do with the data. When this approach is likely to be useful in teaching BEE

When teaching vocational courses such as NVQs and also when teaching ICT skills.

When teaching any applied or academic course that has assessment objectives written in the form of ‘Apply…’, ‘Analyse …’ etc. The command words used by the taxonomy are helpful to use in writing learning objectives. Use this approach to prompt suggestions for different kinds of task that demand a variety of capabilities of learners.

The key limitations

This approach discourages learners from taking a holistic view. Do not expect them to piece together a complete picture from the small fragments they have been taught.

This approach treats all learning as the same: it takes no account of differences in students’ prior experience or the particular difficulties created by concepts in a subject.

However, this is obviously not practicable as a routine reward. Approval from the teacher can be a powerful motivator, for most individuals if they are committed to successful performance in the context in which they are working. This is why the individual’s attitude towards their workplace or school is so crucial for this kind of training to be successful. This approach to motivation ignores the individual’s sense of what they are capable of achieving (their self-efficacy—a concept we examine in the next chapter). It is immediately obvious that this approach to learning becomes problematic when the teacher has responsibility for a whole class of learners. How can they be available to make sure that every learner is rewarded for each successful performance and to direct each learner on to the next step after each success? If learning is broken down into small steps surely there is simply too much for the teacher to do to keep the class of learners on task. Observers of ICT lessons will recognise this problem, which becomes evident in a forest of hands from students who want to know what to do next or how to carry out this step because they ‘have got stuck’. The answer of behaviourist theorists to this problem is to provide ‘programmed learning’ in which the directions for each new step, guidance on how to carry out the step and a reward for successful completion are designed into written support materials. The quality of these materials may then be judged through the degree to which the teacher’s attention is required during the lesson. One of the problems faced in the design of these materials is that different students need different-sized steps. Some learners will find it difficult to take more than the tiniest step at a time and they will need very explicit guidance on what to do. Others will become frustrated at having to work through guidance which they find very obvious. So it is difficult to produce support materials that do not have shortcomings for some students. Nevertheless, the production of support materials of this kind is a routine part of the ICT teacher’s job and this illustrates the applicability of behaviourist theory to training students to acquire competencies. The influence of behaviourist theory can be detected in the design of many worksheets used in BEE. Classic examples of this can be found in many ‘break-even’ exercises (Box 8.2). A department that is well stocked with such worksheets can feel equipped to support

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the needs of different learners. After all, with this support each learner can proceed at their own pace. Students may be able to give answers to questions 1(a), 2(a) and 3(a) on the basis of a previous ‘question and answer’ session led by the teacher or by identifying the sentences in the support materials where each term is defined. The remaining parts of questions 1, 2 and 3 require students to make simple calculations based on these definitions and information provided in the support materials. Having made these calculations they can complete two columns in the table in question 4 and this shows them how to complete the remainder. On completion of the table students are asked to translate their understanding into a graph, a template for which is provided. The degree of support for each step is very high and this makes it more likely that students will be able to complete the task without additional support. Now we come to the problem. If all we want to do is to condition behaviour so that performance of one step successfully triggers the individual to perform the next step then this approach to learning is fit for purpose. Acquiring and internalising skills, which are carried out successfully without having to think ‘What should I do next?’, may well fit into BOX 8.2 A TYPICAL BREAK-EVEN WORKSHEET You are running a stall at a fête selling cans of soft drinks. You will be charged £10 by the fête organisers to run the stall. You are selling cans of drink for 50p and you are able to buy the cans from a wholesaler for 30p. 1 (a) Write down a definition of fixed costs. (b) If you sell 10 cans how much would your fixed costs be? (c) If you sell 20 cans, how much would your fixed costs be? 2 (a) Write down a definition of variable costs. (b) If you sell 10 cans, how much would your variable costs be? (c) If you sell 20 cans, how much would your variable costs be? 3 (a) Write down a definition of total costs. (b) If you sell 10 cans, how much would your total costs be? (c) If you sell 20 cans, how much would your total costs be? 4 Look carefully at the table below and complete it by working out the costs. Customers per week Fixed costs

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

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Fixed costs Variable costs Total costs

5 Use your completed table to draw a graph showing how total costs vary with the number of cans sold. this category. But if we want learners to be able to make sense of the whole procedure or to apply their thinking about the procedure to an entirely new context then we are likely to find that learners simply cannot do it. They have learned to carry out the steps we have taught them and nothing more. The pigeon that has walked through a figure of eight does not know that it has marked out a figure ‘eight’. Likewise, the learner who has been successfully trained to perform a series of steps will not necessarily understand what these steps add up to. This does not mean that it is wrong to use worksheets. It does mean that there are inherent problems. Some questions to ask yourself when you have designed a worksheet are: ■ Does the worksheet provide a sequence of steps that build on each other? ■ Is each step appropriately small for the capabilities of the students I am teaching? ■ Is the guidance for students adequate to enable them to carry out each step successfully? ■ How will I follow up the worksheet with an activity that asks the students to think about how the steps fit together? ■ Is there a follow-on activity that requires students to apply their understanding of the whole sequence of steps to a different kind of context? One way of thinking about the behaviourist theory of learning is that a high degree of support (scaffolding) is provided throughout the process of learning. If we want learners to progress to more independent, selfdirected capability, then we will need to gradually reduce the degree of scaffolding. This idea is followed up in the next chapter. INFORMATION PROCESSING The information-processing theory of learning uses the metaphor of a computer to describe the human brain. Information is the input, the brain carries out a particular type of processing and the output is knowledge and understanding. This approach to learning focuses attention on the kind of processing that is carried out by the brain. The work of Gagné (1985) and particularly Bloom et al. (1956) forms the basis for descriptions of

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different levels of complexity in the type of processing. Bloom et al.’s taxonomy of learning outcomes has had considerable influence on the definition of learning outcomes in economics and business, particularly through its impact on assessment objectives in examination courses as considered in Chapters 3 and 4. A second way of classifying the type of processing is to distinguish between different kinds of information (e.g. visual, auditory, kinaesthetic) and the types of processing required by each. This distinction leads to a focus on the process (or style) of learning and this is frequently associated with the theory of multiple intelligences put forward by Gardner (1983). Bloom et al.’s taxonomy is useful when planning lessons because it helps the teacher to think about the ‘cognitive demand’ of questions and tasks. This is not the same as thinking about the difficulty of questions and tasks. Questions requiring the demonstration of specific knowledge, such as ‘How do you calculate decreasing balance depreciation?’, are extremely difficult to answer unless you already know the answer. However, the process of constructing an answer is simple. The correct answer has to be recalled from memory in a verbatim form. The cognitive demand increases as the process of constructing an answer becomes more and more complex, largely because more pieces need to be assembled into a coherent whole to answer the question. Progression in learning requires the student to build more complex connections between different pieces of knowledge. Therefore, the higher the cognitive demand of the processing task, the more powerful the learning that is expected by the task. However, if the cognitive demand is greater than the student’s capacity for learning then the task will be a failure and the student’s motivation will be damaged. This theory of learning implies that the teacher should be aiming to balance the cognitive demands of tasks so that students are stretched but not overstretched, while also seeking to build their capacity to learn by improving their ‘higher-order skills’. We can now look at the types of task that may be associated with different kinds of cognitive demand. Tasks focused on knowledge and comprehension A ‘cloze procedure’ is an example of a task design that focuses on knowledge and comprehension. In this procedure certain words are missed out from a piece of text and students have to match the right word to the right space. An example is provided in Box 8.3. In Box 8.3 the missing words have been chosen because they are the key subject terms upon which students’ attention is to be focused. The difficulty of tasks like this varies according to students’ familiarity with the meaning of the missing words and the number of words omitted from the text. One problem with a cloze procedure is that it favours students with strong literacy and it is generally possible for students to complete most of a cloze procedure by relying on their understanding of the form of language. For example, the first space in Box 8.3 requires a verb and this immediately narrows down the missing words that might be included. However, if the objective of the lesson is to contribute to literacy at the vocabulary level this might be seen as an advantage. The difference between tasks focused on knowledge and comprehension may be illustrated through another typical style of task in classroom learning: a series of questions set in relation to a piece of text given to students. The text in Box 8.4 refers to

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an issue that received widespread international interest, the fate of the Shell oil platform ‘Brent Spar’. BOX 8.3 CLOZE PROCEDURE: HOW CAN I AVOID GETTING INTO DEBT? Debt is a problem for many people these days, but if you follow some golden rules you can avoid getting into trouble. Try not to ________. One of the most common forms of debt is caused by spending too much on _______ cards. If you can’t trust yourself, don’t use them. If you feel that you can manage a credit card, try to get one with a low ________ rate. What rate should I be paying on my credit card? Most people pay too much for credit. If you look carefully at what is offered on the ________ you can usually get a better deal. Some places offer rates of interest only a little higher than the Bank of England base rate at 3.5 per cent. Many customers pay close to _________. As a general rule avoid _________ unless you can pay off your __________ within the interest-free period. The rates are much higher than normal credit cards. Should I consolidate my debt in a loan? Some companies offer a tempting ‘quick-fix’ solution to debt—you take out one loan to cover all your repayments. This may sound like a dream, but debt advisers will tell you to steer clear. This is because the interest rates charged are normally much _________ than you get in the high street. They often come with payment protection insurance with ________ terms, which may not cover you if you lose your job or pick up an illness. They are also ‘secured’ loans, which means that if you cannot keep up repayments you will ________ the roof over your head. Missing words: overspend, credit, interest, market, 20 per cent, store cards, balance, higher, unfair, lose Questions 1 and 2 require students to identify the relevant sentence and extract the information that answers the question. They are concerned only with the accumulation of knowledge. Question 3 asks for something more. The text does not use the term ‘long-run effect’ so the student has to interpret what this might mean and relate this to the language used in the text. Some of the long-run effects are directly suggested by the language in the text. For example the phrases ‘no oil BOX 8.4 DATA ON THE BRENT SPAR CASE In 1995 environmentalists from Greenpeace occupied the Brent Spar oil platform in the North Sea. They were aiming to stop Shell going through with their original plan to dispose of the platform by sinking it in the ocean. It was estimated that the destruction of the rig on land would cost Shell £43m in total, compared to the £4.5m cost of dumping at sea. When the plan to sink the structure in the Atlantic Ocean became publicly known it caused an outcry.

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As well as Greenpeace’s occupation of the rig off the Scottish coast, many people boycotted Shell products, a campaign the company said lost it millions of dollars. One Shell station in Germany was firebombed, an action condemned by Greenpeace. The publicity led the oil company to drop its plans in 1995 and no oil structures have been dumped at sea since then. In July this year European nations agreed to ban the dumping of offshore steel oil rigs at a conference on sea pollution attended by environment ministers from 15 countries. Eventually Shell changed its mind and agreed to dismantle the rig on land. Energy minister John Battle has said the plan to dispose of Brent Spar is an ‘acceptable environmental solution’. Greenpeace oil expert Jan Rispens is delighted with the plan. ‘This is the best possible solution of what to do with the Brent Spar/ he said. ‘It protects the oceans, it creates jobs and it reuses the material/ Brent Spar had been used as a loading buoy and storage tank for crude oil for 15 years, until it was decommissioned in 1991.] Questions 1 What was the name of the oil platform that was at the centre of an] environmental campaign in 1995? 2 What did the oil company Shell want to do with the oil platform? 3 What long-run effects resulted from this environmental campaign? 4 What were the benefits and costs of the decision not to dump the oil platform at sea? structures have been dumped at sea since then’ and ‘European nations agreed to ban the dumping of offshore steel oil rigs’ combine to give the student one answer to the question that is fairly easy to identify. However, there are other possible answers. The phrase ‘a campaign the company said lost it millions of dollars’ tells us that the financial position of the company was affected and this would have implications beyond 1995. Students might also understand from this that there might have been serious effects on Shell’s image with customers. There are other answers that are not mentioned in the text at all. Most notable of these is the damage to the credibility of Greenpeace when it emerged that some of the arguments they had employed were based on false information (such as the amount of oil allegedly contained in the platform). So the best responses to this question ought to recognise that any answer is partial and provisional. New information might lead to a revised judgement about the long-run effects. This question is therefore asking for more than the accumulation of knowledge. It is asking the student to think about how the data should be interpreted. Question 3 is therefore an example of a comprehension question. Question 4 has some similarities with question 3. The text does not use the terms costs and benefits so the student has to think about the meaning of these words and try to identify what in the text might relate to these terms. The information that ‘the destruction of the rig on land would cost Shell £43m in total, compared to the £4.5m cost of dumping at sea’ and the quotation from the Greenpeace representative, ‘it protects the oceans, it

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creates jobs and it reuses the material’ are both relevant. The student also has to decide which of these is a cost and which is a benefit. The identification of costs and benefits involves evaluation, but, as we noted in Chapter 4, this is not the kind of evaluation referred to in Bloom et al.’s taxonomy. Question 4 asks students to evaluate a decision, but Bloom et al.’s taxonomy reserves ‘evaluation’ for the critical appraisal of statements and arguments (e.g. ‘Is there sufficient evidence and weight of argument to support this assertion?’). Question 4 only asks students to identify costs and benefits. It does not require students to justify their identification of a cost or a benefit or to justify any assertion about the overall level of costs relative to benefits. Bloom et al.’s taxonomy has sometimes been wrongly taken to imply that ‘evaluation’ in terms of ‘making a judgement’ is inherently more difficult than knowledge and understanding. However, students can make simplistic judgements or they can base their judgements on complex reasoning. We can illustrate this by a comparison of the following judgements: ‘I think recycling is good because it saves money’; ‘Recycling is good because it saves money as fewer raw materials are needed and it is good for the environment’; and ‘Recycling is good for the environment unless you use up more resources in recycling than you gain by not dumping the products’. The last of these statements presents the most complex judgement of the three. The examples used in this section have also indicated a second problem with the way in which Bloom et al. taxonomy can be used in teaching. The boundaries between the categories begin to look rather fuzzy when you start using them in practice. For example, how can we categorise the demand of a task as comprehension or application? If we ask students to refer to an example does this mean it is application? If so, what does it mean to comprehend a principle without being able to relate it to an example? In addition, Bloom et al.’s taxonomy seems to imply that there is only one level of comprehension and one level of evaluation etc. Tasks focused on application and analysis Leaving aside the difficulties in distinguishing between comprehension and application, we now concentrate on tasks that explicitly require students to examine patterns in data. In application students are required to show their ability to match principles to examples using data that have already been broken into constituent parts. In analysis students are required to carry out the decomposition and pattern recognition for themselves. An example of application through a matching task is shown in Box 8.5. This task was designed to follow a break-even activity (of the kind in Box 8.2), which showed a hairdresser making a loss. The kind of matching in Box 8.5 is structurally the most simple because as each pair is matched the number of possible matches for the remainder is reduced. Matching tasks of the kind in Box 8.6 are more complex because they allow a greater range of possible matches and some of the possible matches are not certain. For example, opening up the ‘Saturday in-store service’ will probably increase fixed costs in so far as more equipment will need to be purchased to allow this service to be offered. The text in Box 8.7 is aimed at a US audience and includes a number of phrases that will be difficult for students in other countries to interpret. The language could be rephrased or the specific US terms explained for other audiences. The extract describes a

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marketing strategy focused on extending the places where the products are made available: through licensing agreements with other companies and through the Internet. Students should identify that licensing and using the Internet are the same type of strategy. They should also identify that none of the other ‘Ps’ are suggested (the only change in price contemplated is an increase and this is rejected). The text in Box 8.7 draws our attention to the processing as well as the cognitive demand of data. The processing demand increases with the quantity and unfamiliarity of the data. In the case of text we can measure the BOX 8.5 A MATCHING TASK INVOLVING ONE-TO-ONE MATCHES Match each example in column (a) with one term in column (b) (a) Options Jackie is considering in order to boost her profits

(b) Type of marketing strategy

An offer of ‘One free child haircut with every one adult haircut’

Place?

Increasing the service by opening up an ‘in-store hairdresser’ on Saturdays in a large department store

Price?

Paying for a local celebrity to come for a haircut, which is then featured as a photo-opportunity in the local newspaper

Product?

Giving the hairdressing parlour a complete make-over using cool relaxing colours

Promotion?

Introducing new hair replacement service

Packaging?

quantity demand in a number of ways: the reading age, the number of words and the degree to which students will be familiar with specific terms and names cited in the text. For example, there are 97 words in Box 8.5 and 174 words in Box 8.7. The text in Box 8.5 is also broken into small segments. As a result, even though each segment is quite long, it is structurally quite easy to read. Box 8.5 has an average of 20 words per sentence and Box 8.7 has 21.7. Box 8.5 has slightly more long words, but these words, such as ‘celebrity’, ‘opportunity’ and ‘decoration’ will be familiar to most students aged 14 and above. The trade names ‘Lunchables’ and ‘Cap Toys’ and technical terms such as ‘licensing’ and ‘co-ops’ in Box 8.7 are more likely to pose problems for students. Comparative data like these are calculated automatically by word-processing packages, although you may have to use an Options to make the facility operational. Microsoft Word calculates reading difficulty in terms of average grade level. Box 8.2 is rated at 12.0 and Box 8.7 at 10.2. On this basis, there is little between the boxes, but both of them will be too difficult for 14–16-year-old students whose reading age is significantly below their actual age. Box 8.8 shows how the calculated reading age can be reduced by revising the text.

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BOX 8.6 A MATCHING TASK INVOLVING MULTIPLE POSSIBLE MATCHES Options Jackie is considering in order to boost Which of these will be affected by her profits each strategy (each strategy may affect more than one) An offer of ‘One free child haircut with every one adult haircut’

Fixed costs

Increasing the service by opening up an ‘in-store Variable costs hairdresser’ on Saturdays in a large department store Paying for a local celebrity to come for a haircut, which is then featured as a photo-opportunity in the local newspaper

Total sales revenue

Giving the hairdressing parlour a complete makeover using cool relaxing colours

Break-even point

The text in Box 8.8 is rated at a reading age of just below Grade 6 so it should be fine for all but a very small minority of 14–16-year-old students. Through comparing Boxes 8.7 and 8.8 you will see that the most striking difference is that many sentences have been divided into two. Shorter sentences and reducing the number of long words are key ways to reduce the reading demand of a piece of text. The tasks posed in Boxes 8.7 and 8.8 require students to break down the text into relevant and irrelevant elements, categorise the relevant components and recognise what is missing. This is a ‘higher-order’ capability than the extraction of specific information from a text or the interpretation of particular data. This higher level of demand poses problems. What if a significant number of students cannot cope with this demand? The prospect of class management problems may persuade a teacher that it is inappropriate to set a task like this. This pressure is reinforced by the tendency for business studies students to be taught in classes that include a wide range of students with different abilities. This leads us to ask whether students’ analytical abilities can be developed and, if so, how? The answer suggested by Bloom et al.’s taxonomy is to make sure that within each piece of work there is a steady progression BOX 8.7 AN ANALYSIS TASK ON MARKETING STRATEGY Task: From this evidence analyse the current emphasis in the US marketing strategy of M&M/Mars Ltd M&M/Mars also has licensing agreements with Oscar Mayer Co., which includes Snickers in its Lunchables, a pre-made lunch product, and with Cap Toys, which manufactures candy dispensers. ‘The licensing concept is growing very fast we’re looking at more of

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these kinds of deals,’ Tuffin tells Professional Candy Buyer. ‘These are new ways to sell candy.’ Tuffin adds M&M/Mars also is looking at a really new way to sell candy—on the Internet. He says web sites already exist for M&Ms, Snickers and Milky Way, but more to the point, Tuffin talks of co-ops through which Internet users can shop from home, logging on to place orders that will later be delivered to the cyber-shopper’s door. These co-ops provide a shopping list to consumers, and potential savings, he says, and it’s happening now. What isn’t happening, and what Tuffin doesn’t see happening in the near future, is a trend toward price increases. Source: Professional Candy Buyer (www.retailmerchandising.net/candy/reports/chocolate.asp). of tasks from knowledge to comprehension through application to analysis, so that students are well prepared for the more demanding tasks. However, in addition to this we might aim to focus directly on students’ analytical ability by getting them to reflect on the way they are approaching analysis tasks and thinking about how they might improve their approach. Students’ reflection on their approach to analysis tasks is an example of ‘metacognition’ or ‘thinking skills’. If teaching can help to improve a student’s approach to analysis it should have an impact throughout their work. If teaching can improve a student’s ability to think about their own thinking then an even deeper level of change may be achieved. This is the rationale for taking time out of ‘teaching content’ to try to improve students’ capacity to make sense of new data and to analyse it for themselves. One kind of task that may be used to do this is a ‘living graph’. The idea of a living graph (Chandler and Leat, 2001) is that variation in one variable is shown in a graph (e.g. Figure 8.1) and students are BOX 8.8 A REVISED VERSION OF THE TEXT IN BOX 8.7 Task: Look at the evidence below. Analyse the marketing strategy of M&M/Mars Ltd M&M/Mars has agreements with the other companies who sell M&M/Mars products. Oscar Mayer have agreed to include the Snickers in a pre-made lunch product called ‘Lunchables’. Cap Toys sells M&M/Mars products in its automatic vending machines. The licensing idea is growing very fast. M&M/Mars are looking at more of these kinds of deals. They are also looking to sell sweets on the Internet. Web sites already exist for M&Ms, Snickers and Milky Way. They also want Internet users to shop from home. Customers can log on to place orders that will later be delivered to their door. The company has no plans to increase prices.

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Figure 8.1 Example of a living graph task asked to match different events to points along this graph. In this case the variable is change in sales as represented in a product life cycle. The typical format for one of these activities would be: 1 Ask students to match the event items to a point on the graph (obviously the events would not have the dates included when given to the students). Typically students would work in small groups on this task. 2 Have a class discussion to review the decisions that students have made. It is useful to have the graph displayed on a screen at this point. 3 Ask students to think about how they set about the original task (working in the same groups). Did they go through the events in order? Did they try to group them? How did they decide how to group them and match them to the graph? 4 Discuss with students the way they approach the task. It is at this point that the teacher is able to work directly on students’ approach to analysis tasks. For example, working through each event in order is not the most effective way to approach the problem

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because the events are linked. The way in which the events are categorised affects the ease with which students are able to match them appropriately to the graph. We might also approach the design of analysis tasks in the way that is frequently confronted in preparation for teaching. The topic and the learning objectives are specified by the course and the scheme of work. If we intend students to analyse data then we need to search for some relevant data. Sources such as Mintel and SECOS can be excellent in this regard, especially for the 16–19 curriculum. An example is presented in Table 8.1. Having selected some relevant data we need to frame the task for students in the light of what we know about their current capabilities. Three questions that are relevant in framing an analysis task are: ■ Who or what is the reference point for the analysis? ■ What are the levels of analysis that might be used in relation to these data? ■ How well are the students currently equipped to carry out these levels of analysis? The analysis can be framed with reference to the student themselves (e.g. ‘Pick out three pieces of information that you think are interesting’ or ‘Pick out three differences you find interesting in these figures’). The analysis might also start from the point of view of a particular stakeholder (e.g. ‘Pick out three differences that would be of interest to a snack-food

Table 8.1 Most popular after-school snacks eaten by 7–16-year-olds, by demographic sub-group in the UK, 2003 Base: 629 young Crisps people aged 7–16 %

Biscuits %

Chocolate %

Fruit %

Sandwiches %

Sweets %

Chips %

All

60

42

37

27

22

22

21

Male

60

44

38

24

26

24

24

Female

59

40

37

30

18

20

18

7–10 years

62

47

46

38

16

23

19

11–14 years

62

44

39

30

22

23

21

15–16 years

47

19

17

16

14

10

11

7–10

62

54

37

29

27

29

20

11–14

60

37

41

22

23

23

27

15–16

57

33

30

13

31

11

27

Girls aged

Boys aged

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AB

55

41

30

24

19

21

13

C1

54

37

34

30

21

24

19

C2

66

52

39

30

25

23

21

D

61

39

46

22

19

18

30

E

71

39

39

27

32

23

29

Source: Mintel.

manufacturer’). Or we might ask students to consider alternative frames of reference (e.g. Pick out one difference in these figures that would be of particular interest to each of these stakeholders: (a) the manager of a local general food store; (b) the marketing manager of a large snack-food manufacturer; and (c) a parliamentary committee investigating ‘snack-foods and the health of young people’). The importance of learning to relate analysis to stakeholder interests and perspectives is identified in business studies specifications as particularly important to learning the subject. In the words of the aims from one specification for business studies at AS/A2 level students should ‘be aware that business behaviour can be studied from the perspective of a range of stakeholders’ (AQA, 2003:9). The levels of analysis that are possible with these data vary according to the capabilities of the students. For example, we can distinguish between the following levels: 1 (A comprehension task) Translating individual figures into text (e.g. ‘a majority of 7– 16-year-olds eat crisps after school’). 2 Identifying differences between two figures (e.g. ‘15–16-year-old girls are less likely than 15–16-year-old boys to eat sandwiches after school’). 3 Quantifying difference between individual figures (e.g. ‘15–16-year old boys are twice as likely to eat sandwiches after school than 15–16-year-old girls’). 4 Identifying differences between sets of figures (e.g. ‘15–16-year-old girls eat fewer snack-foods after school than 11–14-year-old girls’). 5 Quantifying differences between series of figures (e.g. girls’ consumption of snackfoods after school seems to roughly halve between the ages of 14 and 15’). 6 Specifying the statistical significance of difference between series of figures (e.g. in the case of these figures it would be appropriate to use a chi-squared test, which could be carried out manually or by using the ‘CHITEST’ function in Excel). There are some interesting age and gender differences in the data in Table 8.1. The consumption pattern of girls changes enormously when they reach 15. Up to that age there is no difference between boys and girls. In terms of social class, there is no statistically significant difference between adjacent groups (using a chi-squared test) but there is a difference between non-adjacent groups (particularly between AB and E).

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Synthesis Synthesis tasks require students to integrate different sources of evidence to produce a complete picture. The difficulty of a synthesis task tends to increase with the quantity, variability and complexity of the data. Some examples are shown in Box 8.9. In designing a task requiring synthesis the teacher has to break information about a problem or a topic into component parts that students will have to fit together. When doing this it is useful to think in terms of different viewpoints on a problem and different aspects of a problem. The components may be complementary or conflicting. For example, in Box 8.10 we can see comments from different members of a Young Enterprise group who have set up a tuck shop at break times to sell sweets to younger members of the school. The statements are BOX 8.9 VARIATIONS IN THE DIFFICULTY OF SYNTHESIS TASKS Quantity of data Variability of data Complexity of data Two short pieces of text (e.g. about 25 words each)

One short piece of text and a small table of figures

Specific and familiar examples

Two pieces of long text (e.g. One short piece of text, a about 120 words each) table of figures and a picture Three pieces of mediumlength text (e.g. about 80 words each)

A medium-length piece of text, a graph and a table of figures

Four pieces of mediumlength text (e.g. about 80 words each)

A long piece of text, three tables of figures and a graph

Abstract and unfamiliar, generalised data

based on views expressed by members of one group of students. Each statement is 50–60 words long and the reading level is pitched quite low to make each element easy to understand. Several different kinds of synthesis task could be set on this data. We could focus on the viewpoints with the following task: ■ At the end of the discussion four of the students voted to reduce the price to 40p and two disagreed. Which of the six do you think agreed and which disagreed? ■ If you had been given the chance to vote, which way would your vote have gone and why?

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We could also focus on one of the themes in the data and set a task focused on this theme: ‘Use the statements in Box 8.10 to write a 100word summary on the theme of profit. In your summary identify the different factors that affect profit and explain how these factors are related.’ An alternative way to approach this second type of task is through a diagram. You could ask students to underline up to ten words or brief phrases in Box 8.10 and ask them to produce a diagram showing how these elements are related to the theme of profit. They could produce this diagram on a large sheet of paper for display to the rest of the class. Students could then be asked to choose which of the displays gives the BOX 8.10 THE PRICING DECISIONS OF A YOUNG ENTERPRISE GROUP Student 1 ‘If we keep the price of our sweets at 50p we will make more profit because we are buying them from the wholesaler for 25p. That gives us 25p profit per sweet which has got to be better than selling them at 40p and only getting 15p profit per sweet.’

Student 4 ‘It is wrong for us to be ripping the kids off by charging them 50p for sweets that are bad for them anyway. If we are going to sell them let’s sell them at 30p and at least we are not exploiting them. We ought to be trying to sell them stuff that is better for them at a fairer price.’

Student 2 ‘What are we going to do about the other Enterprise group who are talking about setting up a tuck shop as well? They have been to see Mr Hawkins and said that they ought to be allowed to run the tuck shop one week and us the next in alternate weeks. We came up with the idea first’

Student 5 ‘How can we be ripping them off if they are willing to pay the price? We are still getting them to queue up every break time and we are selling all the sweets we get from the wholesaler. We should be buying more from the wholesaler and thinking about putting up the price if you ask me.’

Student 3 ‘I don’t think we are getting as many kids coming along to buy stuff as in the first two weeks we were running. I’ve been looking after the queue and there have been complaints about the price of the sweets from some kids. They’ve been complaining that the price is higher than they get charged at Costcutter.’

Student 6 ‘If we want to make more profit we should put the price down and then we’ll sell more. The more we sell the higher the profit we will make. That makes obvious sense. If the price is lower they’ll keep coming back to buy more sweets and the other group will think that we are making less profit than we are.’

most effective representation of profit and this would provide a stimulus for a class discussion. Tony Buzan (2002) is a very strong advocate of the use of visual representations of patterns and he suggests that learners should aim to produce diagrams in the form of ‘mind maps’. He suggests seven characteristics of a mind map: ■ Start in the centre of a blank page turned sideways. ■ Use an image or picture for your central idea. ■ Use colours throughout. ■ Add branches coming out of the central image and then add second and third level branches so that the diagram begins to resemble branches of a tree. ■ Make the branches curved rather than straight.

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■ Use one key word per line. ■ Use images throughout. (Buzan, 2002:28–31) He presents two main arguments for believing that this kind of activity will be effective for learning. First, he puts a strong emphasis on the power of visual representation for stimulating brain activity in general and memory in particular: hence the emphasis on using images, few words and colours. Second, he assumes that the network representation of associations in a mind map reflects the way in which the brain stores information and therefore this facilitates the creation of association links in the brain. In Figure 8.2 we present the type of mind map that a student might develop on the basis of Box 8.10. The figure illustrates the web-like character of a mind map and this format encourages students to link one idea to another. However, it also suggests some problems that students may run into in creating mind maps. The order in which new ideas are linked affects the overall sense that a mind map generates. In this case the ‘first-level’ association between profit and price is pre-emptive. The effect of price on profit is mediated by other factors, so if price is recorded as a first-level connection it becomes difficult to follow the appropriate lines of causation. Second, the structure of the diagram does not help students to see connections between different ideas at the same level. For example, in Figure 8.2 we find ‘Make more money’ at a particular point

Figure 8.2 A mind map focused on a tuck shop enterprise activity in the diagram associated with ‘Higher prices’, but it could also be associated with ‘Lower prices’. These problems indicate that the process of reviewing a mind map is likely to be at least as important as the task of producing one in the first place. The review should concentrate on the implied lines of causation (from third level to second level to first level) and whether there are missing connections between levels. We might also use ‘presentation to an audience’ as a device for encouraging students to synthesise the data. For example, we could set either of the following tasks:

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1 You are writing a short piece on Young Enterprise for the school magazine and you are using this group as a case study. Write an article that is no more than 150 words long and which includes three short quotes from Box 8.10. Choose your own title for the article. 2 You have been hired as a consultant by this Young Enterprise group. Provide the group with some feedback using a brief Powerpoint presentation. Your presentation should consist of only three slides. The first slide should be titled ‘Problems’, the second ‘Alternative solutions’ and the third ‘My advice’. Prepare to give an oral presentation of no more than five minutes to accompany your slides. This final approach introduces the scope for the use of ICT in synthesis tasks. An alternative to the use of Powerpoint would be to use a wordprocessing package. The benefits of word processing for learning lie mainly in the editing process. Students can be given two pieces of text, each of about 100 words, and asked to produce a final version that integrates the two pieces of text with an overall length of 100 words. A synthesis task may also provide a way of helping students to understand a sequence of events. In this case the ‘whole picture’ is not a moment in time but a process of related events. This kind of understanding is particularly important in economics, where students are expected to learn how cause and effect ripple through an economic system. Sequencing tasks provide students with the elements of a sequence and ask them to put these elements into an appropriate order. The difficulty of the task increases sharply as the number of elements increases and as the elements are made more abstract. Box 8.11 compares two approaches to a sequencing task. In the middle column students are given no idea as to where to start. In the final column the starting point is provided and this makes the task considerably more accessible. LEARNING STYLES AND ACCELERATED LEARNING There is a large body of evidence to support the division of information processing into distinct types: e.g. visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. It BOX 8.11 SEQUENCING TASK Expected sequence Jumbled sequence

Jumbled sequence with starting point identified

The value of the pound against The quantity of UK exports the Euro falls by 10 per cent bought in Europe falls

The value of the pound against the Euro falls by 10 per cent

UK companies that keep their export prices the same receive 10 per cent fewer pounds for the same quantity of sales

UK companies that keep their export prices the same receive 10 per cent fewer pounds for the same quantity of sales

UK companies that keep their export prices the same receive 10 per cent fewer pounds for the same quantity of sales

UK companies put their prices up by 6 per cent to try to reduce the fall in their export income

Overtime opportunities reduced in UK firms

Overtime opportunities reduced in UK firms

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The quantity of UK exports bought in Europe falls

The value of the pound against The value of UK exports to the Euro falls by 10 per cent Europe is less than originally but more than if UK exporters had raised prices fully to cover the fall in the exchange rate.

The value of UK exports to Europe is less than originally but more than if UK exporters had raised prices fully to cover the fall in the exchange rate

The value of UK exports to The quantity of UK exports Europe is less than originally bought in Europe falls but more than if UK exporters had raised prices fully to cover the fall in the exchange rate

Overtime opportunities reduced in UK firms

UK companies put their prices up by 6 per cent to try to reduce the fall in their export income

UK companies put their prices up by 6 per cent to try to reduce the fall in their export income

also appears that different individuals have different relative strengths in different types of processing. Some individuals rely greatly on translating their reading into images, while other individuals tend to rely more on the sound of the words to make sense of what they read. Smith (1998:187–189) provides a questionnaire that can be used to distinguish between ‘preferred learning styles’. These differences are most evident when children have significant problems with one type of processing, but are able to use other forms of processing quite comfortably. Dyslexia is a classic case in point. But what are the implications for teaching of these differences in processing ability? Different analyses of the problem lead to different answers to this question. One popular suggestion is that teachers should vary their style of teaching to give appropriate opportunities for learners who prefer each different style of learning. Following the definitions established by neurolinguistic programming (NLP) (O’Connor and Seymour, 1995), this approach concentrates on visual, auditory and kinaesthetic (VAK) processing. Visual learners ‘enjoy communicating through pictures, graphs and visual artefacts’. Auditory learners enjoy ‘communicating with and learning by…discussion, audio tape, radio programmes, lectures, debates, orals’. Kinaesthetic learners prefer to learn through ‘experience, movement, modelling’ (Smith, 1998:147). Smith claims that roughly a third of learners prefer each of these styles. This implies a direct rejection of the saying attributed to Confucius: ‘I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand’. The NLP approach tends to emphasise the way in which differences in learning are ‘hard-wired’ in the brain through the connections that have been established between cells. This may lead to the interpretation that ‘learning style preferences’ are innate and teachers should make sure that their ‘input’ over a period of time makes equal demands on each of the VAK types of processing. Opportunities for kinaesthetic learners can be provided through simulations and role plays (e.g. Jones, 1998): production simulations such as the survival game (Stuart, 2002), world trade games (e.g. ‘Just Trade’ produced by Traidcraft) and production line simulations. Students can also be asked to construct displays and diagrams (e.g. Hale, 1999). Visual learners may be helped by good use of videos (e.g. ‘Spilling the Beans’ from Oxfam) and displays around the classroom (Hammond, 2002) as well as through the

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use of diagrams, photographs and artefacts in the course of teacher explanations and tasks for students. Some topics in BEE lend themselves more readily to these kinds of teaching strategies and this suggests that it is important to be alert to those opportunities when they are presented. However, an alternative view of the nature of differences in preferred learning styles leads to quite different implications for teachers. This view is associated with the work of Alan Baddeley (1993, 1994), who treats differences in processing as aspects of working rather than long-term memory. Long-term memory can be thought of as similar to storage of information on the hard disk of a computer. It will still be there tomorrow, barring some catastrophe. You may not know quite where to find the file you saved, but as long you saved it, it is there somewhere. Working memory is temporary storage while data are being processed. While you are working on a Word document the data are being stored temporarily and visible on your screen. But, if the file is not saved, the data are lost. The study of individuals who are able to remember the immediate past but not the distant past and others who are able to remember past events but find it difficult to remember much of the immediate past provides strong evidence of a real distinction between long-term and working memory. Baddeley divides working memory into three parts: linguistic (a ‘phonological loop’), spatial and visual (a ‘visual spatial sketch-map’) and ‘central executive’, which manages the relationships between working memory, our senses and long-term memory. Studies of working memory emphasise its limited capacity (7 +/− 2 bits of visual/spatial information and only 2 seconds’ linguistic material). Learners are disadvantaged if they are not able to get information in and out of working memory quickly and speed of connecting information to long-term memory is crucial in this respect. This approach to preferred learning styles associates differences between individuals with their capacity to get different kinds of information into and out of working memory, rather than the way in which information is stored in long-term memory. Baddeley and colleagues (such as Hatcher, 1994) who have focused on language development have argued that the way in which learners achieve connections into long-term memory is through multi-sensory or multi-modal learning. That is, rather than aiming to help each learner learn in their preferred style teachers should aim to get all learners to use different kinds of processing in learning a particular idea. Influenced by this reasoning, multisensory learning has become accepted as most appropriate to helping learners with dyslexia. But the principle is applicable to all learners. Thinking about differences in learning styles can, therefore, usefully inform the selection and design of classroom activities. However, Gardner’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences encourages a more radical reappraisal of how education should be conducted. Gardner draws attention to the way in which different societies value different types of processing. Societies where practical activities such as fishing have a dominant role in sustaining the community organise their education in ways that make strong demands on learners’ kinaesthetic processing. That is, in addition to thinking about the learner’s preferences we should also think about what is to be learnt. In a modern society logical, linguistic and mathematical processing is at a premium, so schooling ought to prioritise improvement in these processing capabilities. Yet we might also argue that schooling has generated traditions of preferred types of processing that suit the organisation of teaching in classrooms. There is little doubt that teaching of business and

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economics has traditionally given much more emphasis to auditory than any other kind of processing. This contrasts strongly with typical patterns of teaching in ICT (and the commercial tradition), where practice in particular activities (using a database or word processor, filing and typing) has been dominant. So what kind of processing is demanded by the adult life for which BEE is preparing students? Some advocates of industry and enterprise education have tended to emphasise the importance of kinaesthetic learning. It is in this context that the Confucian saying ‘I do and I understand’ has tended to be repeated. In contrast, HMI have tended to remain strong advocates of the kind of linguistic and spatial processing traditionally developed through schooling and they have consequently been sceptical of the work-related focus that has failed to develop students’ ability to express conceptual understanding in linguistic or spatial reasoning. A report from the QCA (2003a) on work-related learning offers the following statement on what is required for students to learn ‘for work’: The Davies report viewed employability as: The knowledge and understanding, skills, attitudes and qualities that young people will need to thrive in their future working lives. For everyone, the challenge to maintain and update employability lasts through life.’ A Review of Enterprise and the Economy in Education (Howard Davies, February 2002, page 17) The report highlights three main components of employability: ■ Enterprise capability ■ Financial literacy ■ Economic and business understanding. The six key skills (communication, application of number, information technology, problem solving, working with others and improving own learning and performance) are also recognised as important components of employability. (QCA, 2003a: 9) This statement gives a nod in both directions. It emphasises skills that might be more readily associated with kinaesthetic learning, but it also refers to knowledge and understanding that are more easily described as the outcomes of traditional schooling. The six ‘key skills’ bear some relationship to definitions of multiple intelligence. Gardner cites communication (through language), application of number (in terms of spatialmathematical reasoning) and ‘working with others’ (interpersonal skills) as distinct intelligences. However, he also explicitly rejects any notion of a generic ‘problemsolving’ as disproved by the accumulated evidence of different intelligences. We conclude this section with the observation that, while work on different styles of information-processing (or learning styles) has generated useful insights for teaching, our theoretical knowledge does not yet give us tremendously secure grounds for being confident about which insights are more valid. It may be that some of the implications for teaching turn out to be valid, but not necessarily for the reasons advanced in their current form. We also observe that current knowledge leaves room for plenty of uncertainty about how best to define different processing skills. Nevertheless, the list currently

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promoted by the QCA reminds us of the importance of aiming to develop processing skills. Gardner emphasises the importance of remembering the ‘plasticity’ of intelligences. Processing skills in language, mathematics, music and so on can be improved and teaching that explicitly aims to do so may make a much more significant impact on outcomes for students than helping them to acquire this or that subject-specific concept. CONCLUSION Behaviourist and information-processing theories of learning are capable of generating many strategies for teaching. An understanding of underlying theory makes it easier to recognise alternative possible strategies that could be employed and the assumptions that the teacher is making when they are used. For example, designing a worksheet so that learners work through a sequence of easy steps that cover the required content seems a sensible strategy in terms of ‘breaking things down so that students can understand’. However, this approach to teaching and learning assumes that what matters is rehearsed performance in very specific tasks and, if students are given slightly different tasks, they may be completely unable to carry them out. If we think explicitly of this kind of teaching as an intention to generate a sequence of automatic responses from students when faced with particular situations, we are more likely to be sceptical of the breadth of its application and alert to situations when it is more applicable. For example, if we are developing skills for business, we may want to train students to respond to customers in a particular way. We may want them to answer the telephone in a way that gives the caller confidence and a sense of being made welcome. We have noted some of the problems of applying behaviourism more widely in teaching and learning. If BEE is framed as a subject that teaches young people how to think about situations, then behaviourist approaches will not be sufficient for the task. The information-processing theories we have reviewed suggest a menu of teaching strategies that are intended to use and develop students’ capacity to process information. The latter has been traditionally associated with measures of ‘intelligence’ and this can lead to some students being regarded as ‘intelligent’ and others not. When teachers develop expectations of this kind, the effect on pupils can be profound and in some cases very damaging. The work of Gardner (1983) and others leads us to take a very different view of ‘intelligence’. First of all, there are multiple intelligences and, second, these intelligences or processing capabilities can be developed. This raises two questions for the framing of a subject: Given the desired learning outcomes in this subject, what kinds of intelligence or processing are most relevant in this subject? and What opportunities are there for developing students’ intelligences in this subject? At present, lists of ‘key skills’ tend to be regarded as beyond the boundaries of a subject such as BEE. The analysis of Gardner suggests they should be seen as integral and this presents an important challenge for all teachers of the subject. The work of Gardner acts as a bridge between this chapter and the next. Most approaches to information-processing are focused on the individual receiving and reworking information. However, learning a subject requires students to understand the structure of a discipline. BEE is not a jumble of disconnected ideas and facts. Ideas are

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related in a structure and evidence has to be related to the structure of these ideas. In the next chapter we will look at theories of learning that pay stronger attention to implications for learning of the structure of disciplines. In addition we will look at the implications of the social nature of learning and the importance of learners’ sense of who they are in relation to others. For example, Bouffard et al., (1998) show that students who believe that their strategies and efforts exert a strong influence on their performance are more likely to interpret feedback on learning opportunities as a guide to future learning. Students’ sense of self matters and we need to be aware of how this is affected by our teaching and the way we construct our subject. APPLYING THE IDEAS DISCUSSED IN THIS CHAPTER You might consider each of the following activities and reflect on relevant parts of the chapter: 1 Create a mind map on the theme ‘processing tasks’ to show how different types of task could be designed for use in a scheme of work of your choice. 2 Review the ideas about learning implicit in a task that you have designed. You might use as prompts the questions: Does it break down the content into very small steps? Does it help students to develop a holistic understanding? What level of demand does each part of the task present for students? and Does the task help students to improve any of their processing abilities? 3 Revise a task that you have designed so that students initially process one type of data (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic etc.) and then try to integrate the outcomes of this processing with their processing of a different kind of data.

FURTHER READING Gardner, H. (1983) Frames of Mind, New York: Basic Books Inc. (This book carefully presents the case for Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. Gardner’s work appears frequently in popular references to learning styles and is often misrepresented. It is an illuminating book and well worth the effort of going back to an original source.) Garnham, A. and Oakhill, J. (1994) Thinking and Reasoning, Oxford: Blackwell. (This is an authoratitive review of theory and evidence. It is very well organised and it is easy to dip into sections on questions that you want to follow up. It is relevant to the contents of Chapters 8 and 9 in this book.) Smith, A. (1998) Accelerated Learning in Practice, Stafford: Network Educational Press. (This is a book packed with stimulating ideas from an excellent communicator. Don’t expect any careful justification of the basis for the ideas and read it with a critical eye, with reference to some of the original sources referred to in this chapter. Don’t confuse his use of the term ‘accelerated learning’ with the way that Adey and Shayer use the term—as discussed in Chapter 9.)

Chapter 9 Learning through thinking THE ROLES OF EXPERIENCE AND CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING KEY THEMES ■ Students should be helped to integrate their learning in school and their learning from experience of the world beyond the school. ■ Learning a school subject involves learning to think like a member of a particular community, so the learner’s sense of identity is central to their readiness to learn. ■ The sequence in which a subject is taught matters: the sequence in teaching can help students to learn from experience and move from simplistic to more complex understanding of a subject.

INTRODUCTION The theories of learning discussed in the previous chapter tend to present subjects in terms of ‘content’ to which various skills such as ‘understanding’, analysis’ and ‘evaluation’ can be applied. The theories of learning that we examine in this chapter put more stress on the individuality of students’ experience of the world and the particular character of the concepts in a subject for study. These theories do not deny the importance of information-processing. They either explicitly incorporate processing information as a stage in the process of learning or imply that information is being processed without explicitly stating it. But there is a difference in emphasis. The teaching strategies suggested in the previous chapter imply that there is nothing unique about teaching one subject compared to another, apart from the relative emphasis on the skills of numeracy and literacy. In the next section we examine a theory of learning that emphasises the development of students’ conceptual structure. Then we switch our focus to the influence of students’ experience on the development of their understanding. These differences of emphasis are very important in their implications for teaching. In the following section we are prompted to think carefully about the sequence in which we introduce concepts and the way we help students to move from a developmentally more simple to a more complex understanding. Later we are prompted to plan to provide appropriate experiences for students and to help them to review their previous experiences. The final section of the chapter looks at an approach that aims to combine thinking about students’ experience and the conceptual structure of the subject by focusing on the social context in which learning takes place. The insights that are generated by each of these theories sometimes conflict, but many can be combined to produce a richer view of how to teach BEE. Box 9.1 provides an overview.

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LEARNING AND APPLYING CONCEPTS It is fairly easy to think of teaching as the job of trying to get students to acquire new ideas or concepts. In BEE we try to help students to understand concepts such as ‘product life cycle’, ‘authoritarian leadership’, ‘elasticity of demand’ and ‘externalities’. When we think of teaching in this way two further questions are prompted: In which order should we teach concepts? and How do students learn concepts? The theory of learning most associated with the ‘acquisition of concepts’ comes from the work of Jean Piaget. In this section we outline some key aspects of Piagetian theory and then we discuss the way that Piagetian theory has influenced practice in BEE. Levels of conceptual development According to Piaget (1991) learners progress through four stages in their ability to acquire new concepts. Children up to two years of age learn through interaction with their physical environment without any use of representation of objects through symbols and language. Between the ages of two and seven, children learn through using symbols, including words. This allows them to refer to objects when they are not visible and they can represent situations through toys and play. They can form objects into classes. At about the age of seven or eight children are able to manipulate classes of objects by focusing on key aspects of the class (‘concrete operations’). For example, they can recognise that, when the gaps are increased within a line of ten counters, there are still only ten counters even though the line is longer. They can tell that the important aspect of the line of counters is not the physical space but the number of counters in the line. They can link relations (‘if A is bigger than B BOX 9.1 AN OVERVIEW OF EXPERIENTIAL, NEOPIAGETIAN AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORIES OF LEARNING Experiential learning Neo-Piagetian theory Social constructivist theory Key Theorists

Kolb

Biggs and Collis, Adey and Vygotsky, Wood Shayer

The important Learners change their assumptions ideas in response to about learners their experiences, but only in so far as they reflect on these experiences.

Each learner has a developmental threshold that limits the sophistication of their understanding. In each new area of learning they can understand concepts up to this threshold level.

Learners construct new ways of understanding through their interactions with teachers and other learners,

The implications for how to teach

■ Teaching should aim to correct students’ misconceptions by helping them to replace current

■ Identify the level of thinking that is just beyond students’ current understanding,

■ Always start from students’ experience.

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■ Follow a sequence of experience— reflection— generalisation. ■ Provide new experiences when students have insufficient prior experience of a topic.

124

■ Help them to become independent in each new area by ■ Students will be reluctant to gradually withdrawing relinquish their ‘everyday’ support (scaffolding), reasoning and will need to be ■ Provide plenty of challenged to do so. opportunities for students to express and review ■ Learning can be accelerated by helping students to move to a higher threshold level in their thinking.

their ideas through dialogue with others.

When this approach is likely to be useful in teaching BEE

Has most frequently been used as a basis for the design of teaching in workrelated learning and enterprise education; also provides a basis for design of teaching with role plays and simulations.

This approach is applicable whenever teaching is focused on helping students to acquire new concepts. This means it has more frequently been used in academic learning.

Could be used in a variety of academic or vocational courses in schools or the workplace depending on which type of community learners are being inducted into.

The key limitations

Encourages the misapprehension that all students will experience situations in the same way and therefore it does not provide an adequate explanation of variation in students’ learning.

Does not provide an adequate account of the influence of students’ experiences or their sense of identity as learners; treats learning as an individual rather than a social activity.

Depends for its full implementation on teachers and learners being able to identify current levels of students’ understanding, the best next step and the speed at which the learner can proceed; this is asking a lot in the typical classroom.

and B is bigger than C, then A is bigger than C’). By the age of about 12 children’s reasoning is no longer restricted to directly observable objects. They can reason through hypotheses (‘formal operations’). The Piagetian distinction between concrete and formal operations can be illustrated with reference to accounting (Table 9.1). Recognising the negative cash flow in January but a positive cash flow over the three months together is an example of reasoning that can be carried out in ‘concrete operations’. The relations (between income and expenditure) are between objects (£5,000 and £5,500) not classes. This should make cash flow easier to understand than financial ratios. Understanding financial ratios requires interpretation of a comparison of one class (e.g. current assets) in proportion to another (e.g. current liabilities). Although these

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classes may be represented by single figures they need to be understood in terms of classes of objects (types of asset or liability) and this makes the relationship more abstract and therefore more complex. Bruner (1960, 1966) adopted Piaget’s theory of the development of children’s understanding and applied it to the design of syllabuses. He did this by suggesting that we should think of understanding subjects in a developmental way. That is, he suggested that each subject could, at its most fundamental, be encapsulated in a few core concepts. Students need first to understand these concepts in their most fundamental form and then they can develop a more complex understanding of the subject as they apply these concepts in different contexts. This way of thinking about syllabus design was taken up very enthusiastically by economics educators in the 1960s and 1970s. The hunt for core concepts in economics led to numerous suggestions (e.g. Lumsden and Attiyeh, 1971; Scottish Education Department, 1978; Holley and Skelton, 1980), with scarcity, choice, opportunity cost and the margin being the most frequently cited candidates. However, when reading this literature it is often difficult to tell whether these authors imagined what they were doing as ‘identifying the basic concepts that students have to learn first’ or ‘identifying the fundamental ideas from

Table 9.1 Cash flow example January

February

March

Income

5,000

4,500

4,500

Expenditure

5,500

3,000

3,000

Cash flow

−500

1,500

1,500

1,000

2,500

Cumulative cash flow

which the rest of the subject can be logically deduced’. The first approach focuses on the way in which humans develop their understanding, while the second focuses on the logical structure of a discipline. Writers in this tradition often seem to treat these two things as one and the same. Standard economics texts begin with chapters on ‘the economic problem’ in which the ideas of scarcity, choice and opportunity cost are introduced as fundamental ideas. This reflects the way in which mainstream economics has come to be defined in terms of neo-classical economics. But the language of ‘core’ or ‘fundamental’ concepts provides a vocabulary and a justification for teaching the subject in this way. Applying concepts This approach to the design of programmes of teaching has encouraged a notion of teaching as ‘getting students to understand and apply concepts’. Good examples of this approach have been developed by the National Council on Economics Education in the US (NCEE, 2004). For example, students might be introduced to the concept of elasticity and then given repeated problems in which they are expected to apply their understanding. Elasticity might be introduced through a numerical example, but this will be an abstract example from which all potential ‘real life’ complications have been

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removed. In one sense this is a simplification. In another sense it makes understanding more problematic because it creates a distance between students’ acquisition of theory and their experience of the world. This problem becomes evident in the difficulties that teachers face in getting students to apply their theoretical understanding (Lee, 1986; Levačic, 1987). Teachers are left to struggle with students’ ability to see when it is pertinent to use an idea to make sense of a situation. They may describe this as a weakness in ‘analysis’ or ‘evaluation’ if using the terms suggested by Bloom et al.’s taxonomy (as in Chapter 8). Although this problem has been most evident in economics teaching, business studies is far from immune. There is little difference between a student who thinks all supply curves slope upwards and a student who thinks all product life cycles have five stages (or is it four or seven?). There have been two notable attempts to overcome this problem while retaining Bruner’s notion of conceptual development. The first of these is found in the US, where economics educators developed a carefully structured decision-making framework to try to develop students’ ability to apply theoretical ideas they had learned: ■ Define the problem or issue. What are the important facts? What questions of choice are raised? Where are we in relation to where we want to go? ■ Identify the personal or broad social goals we want to attain and assign some rough order of priority to them. Which of the goals apply to this problem or issue? What are the relative weights that should be assigned to each goal? ■ Look for the principal alternative ways of attaining these goals in view of the limited resources available and other restrictions imposed on our freedom of action. What are the possible solutions? Which of the alternate solutions seem to be most feasible? ■ Identify the pertinent economic concepts needed to understand the problem or issue and then use them to explore the effects of the various alternatives. Which of the concepts are most useful for grasping the essentials of the problem? Which concepts are most useful in exploring the effect of each of the various alternatives? ■ Analyze with the help of these concepts the consequences of each of these alternatives for the attainment of various goals. How can the concepts be used to analyze the effects of alternatives? How can they shed light on the attainment of the various goals? ■ Evaluate which alternative is best in the light of its consequences both for the attainment of the various goals and for the importance of the different goals. What are the trade-offs among the different goals? How much has to be given up in attainment of one goal to increase the attainment of another goal? (JCEE, 1977:4) We can illustrate how this decision-making framework might be applied by referring back to the data on the Brent Spar case in Box 8.4 on p. 127. Using the decision-making framework we might devise the following sequence of tasks for students:

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1 What are the most important facts in Box 8.4? 2 Put the following desirable outcomes from the disposal of the platform in your order of preference: minimising disturbance to the natural environment; minimising use of resources; greatest efficiency in terms of social cost and benefit; maximum benefit to the oil company. 3 What were the options available for disposing of the platform? To what extent is each option likely to satisfy the different goals? 4 Produce a list of no more than five economic concepts that could help in analysing which alternative disposal method is best. For each concept try to suggest one way in which it might help (e.g. opportunity cost could help in working out the costs of each option in terms of what is foregone by not opting for the next best option). (At this point a class discussion would be used to discuss which concepts are going to be most useful in analysing the problem.) 5 Use the concepts to analyse the ways in which each option for disposal would or would not meet the goals outlined in task 2. 6 Drawing on your own preferences present a case for choosing one option rather than another and point out what has to be foregone in choosing this option. A comparison with the processing questions at the end of Box 8.4 shows how using the decision-making framework leads to the design of a different set of tasks. Through repeated use of this kind of procedure the teacher would hope to develop students’ independent capacity to follow this approach to evaluating options. However, this is a complex procedure for teachers and students to work through and it is not one that has received much attention in the UK. An alternative, more straightforward approach was suggested by Hodkinson and Thomas (1984), but this too appears to have had little lasting impact on practice. These generic approaches to economic investigation can be compared with the ideas of ‘geographical enquiry’ that have become embedded in routine practice in geography and that have been endorsed by the National Curriculum. It remains unclear why this approach has not caught on in business and economics when it has been so successful in geography. The second approach to ‘applying concepts’ has been to use Bruner’s idea of a ‘spiral curriculum’ (e.g. Edexcel, 2004:3). Students following a spiral curriculum will keep returning to the fundamental concepts in progressively more complex contexts. This approach was systematically applied in the design of economics curricula in Scotland in the 1970s (Scottish Education Department, 1978) and more recently it has been used as the basis for the design of the Nuffield business and economics courses. According to the designers of the Nuffield business and economics syllabus, ‘in the early stages of the course students’ understanding of some concepts will be quite elementary. When they later encounter the same ideas again, and as they see them appearing in different contexts, their understanding deepens’ (Wall, 1996: xi). For this assertion to make sense it must be possible to understand a concept at several levels of complexity. That is, we would not say that a student does or does not understand a concept such as ‘price’ or ‘depreciation’. We would say that either they understand it in this way, that way or another way. We examine what this means in practice in the next section. Neo-Piagetian theory

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The validity of these approaches to curriculum design is undermined by the criticisms of Piagetian theory. Piaget’s view of a strict developmental pattern that can be associated with particular age groups has subsequently been shown to be inaccurate (Donaldson, 1978) and there is great scepticism as to whether it is supported by empirical evidence (Garnham and Oakhill, 1994). However, the idea that learning about particular contexts (such as financial accountancy) typically follows the sequence suggested by Piaget has been espoused by ‘neo-Piagetians’ (e.g. Case, 1985; Biggs and Collis, 1982, 1991). These writers argue that, as individuals face new subjects or contexts, their learning progresses through the Piagetian stages. To begin with, they learn to represent the situation through symbols (usually words) that identify important features of the situation. For example, they learn to use the words asset and liability in appropriate ways. They understand what it means for the assets of a business to increase or fall. Then they learn to manipulate classes such as assets and liabilities. They might learn how the value of total assets rises and falls as the value of different assets changes. Then they learn how to interpret changes in the proportion of assets to liabilities. This sequence might be followed within an individual lesson. Neo-Piagetian theory does not assume that all students go through particular development stages at a particular age, so it has some different implications for the sequencing of the curriculum. It retains the idea that each developmental stage is a threshold. That is, there is no point in trying to teach a seven-year-old how to interpret financial ratios because, no matter how carefully you follow a sequence of ‘learn the symbols’, ‘manipulate the classes’ and ‘investigate relationships between classes’, they are not yet capable of thinking about anything in the way required by the more advanced stages. However, once a student has developed a capability for thinking at a particular level they can then progress up to, but not beyond this level when being taught about each new context or idea. It follows from this reasoning that, if you can help students to break through to a higher stage of development in one context, you make it possible for them to think about other contexts in a way that was not possible before. This is the reasoning that underpins the Cognitive Acceleration in Science project (Adey and Shayer, 1994; GTCE, 2004). Adey and Shayer have developed a particular approach to trying to help students to develop the potential for the type of reasoning that characterises Piaget’s fourth stage: formal operations. They refer to the first step in the process as ‘concrete preparation’ (Box 9.2). This involves making sure that students really understand the terms being used. Rows A and B in Box 9.2 identify teaching strategies that might be described as traditional Piagetian theory. Teaching should prepare students for more complex work by progressing through the standard Piagetian phases and should aim to challenge the current constructions in students’ ways of thinking about the world. Rows C and D present complementary strategies that reflect ways in which neo-Piagetians have tried to build on Piaget’s theory by borrowing from other theoretical standpoints. BOX 9.2 STRATEGIES FOR COGNITIVE ACCELERATION Strategies for ‘Cognitive acceleration’ Exemplification in BEE (price, revenue and (Adey and Shayer, 1994) profit)

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A. Concrete preparation: making sure that Students need to understand that revenue=price students understand the terms that are used times sales in the problem (symbolic stage) B. Cognitive conflict: Posing students a problem that they cannot solve without using the way of thinking that is characteristic of formal operations. Asking students to choose between alternative explanations—one of which is the kind of simple explanation they use already and one of which is the higher level of reasoning you want them to understand.

Problem: A cinema has seating for 120 people. It costs the same amount to open the cinema no matter how many people turn up. The films it shows attract the same number of people whatever the film.. Until last month it charged £5 a seat and it attracted 100 people on average. This month it has reduced its price to £3 and it has filled the cinema for each performance. Should it keep the price at £3 for next month? What is the best price to charge?

C. Social construction: Students work together to try to make sense of the problem and to choose between competing explanations.

Students are asked to work in small groups to try to solve the problem. It is clearly better for the cinema to charge £5 than £3 because £5 gives a revenue of £500 compared to only £360 for £3. The point is that it is not always best to sell all that you have available. A calculation based on elasticity of demand would suggest that the cinema ought to charge £7.50.

D. Metacognition: Encouraging students to articulate the steps they are taking to try to solve the problem and to analyse the effectiveness of the way they have approached the problem by comparing this with the way that others have approached the same problem.

Once the students have finished the original task they would be asked to discuss how they set about trying to solve the problem. What steps did they take? Did they change their approach? What did they try to work out and why?

Summary Piagetian (and neo-Piagetian) theory suggests a number of implications for teaching BEE. First, it encourages us to think of conceptual understanding in terms of levels of understanding rather than ‘understanding/ not understanding a concept’. When a student does not seem to understand an idea in the way we want them to it is more helpful to think ‘so in what way are they understanding it?’ not ‘they do not understand so I will have to explain all over again’. Second, it implies that it is really quite difficult to shift an individual from one level of understanding to another because the different levels of understanding reflect profound structural differences in ways of thinking. Third, it is suggested that teachers can significantly increase students’ understanding over the long term by increasing the threshold level at which students are able to understand anything. This is the agenda of the Cognitive Acceleration in Science project. Fourth, teachers can increase the likelihood that students will understand something at the highest level of which they are capable, if teaching allows students to develop their understanding of each new topic or idea by working through the Piagetian stages of: directly experiencing the phenomenon, making sense of the phenomenon through language—classifying it and understanding new terms, identifying and manipulating key characteristics of each new

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classification, and finally manipulating relationships between classifications (Row A in Box 9.2). Fifth, in this process of helping students to move from one level of understanding to the next it is important to challenge the adequacy of the way of thinking with which they currently feel comfortable (row B in Box 9.2). LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE Introduction Many commentators (e.g. Wood, D., 1997; Ekpenyong, 1999; Gibb, 2002) have argued that meaningful learning in BEE must draw upon students’ direct experience. One source of support for this contention comes from research spanning decades [which] shows that individuals do not predictably transfer knowledge to everyday practice. They do not predictably transfer school knowledge to everyday practice. They do not predictably transfer sound everyday practice to school endeavours, even when the former seems clearly relevant to the latter. (Berryman and Bailey, 1992:46) If what students learn in school is not connected to their experience outside school then it will have little or no impact beyond the school gates. To be successful in any terms teaching must help students to integrate the ideas learned in school with the sense they have already made of their personal experience. This principle may be thought of in terms of the information-processing model described in the previous chapter. Students develop ideas about business, the economy and enterprise on the basis of their experience and the knowledge and ideas developed through this experience are already stored in students’ long-term memory. If what they learn in school is to have any impact on their thinking outside school then students must be taught to reappraise their existing knowledge and understanding in the light of what is presented in school. However, there are different perspectives on what it means to ‘learn from experience’. The three main standpoints that we examine are ‘experiential learning’, ‘phenomenography’ and ‘social constructivism’. Experiential learning Experiential learning has been frequently cited in writing on work-related learning. The theory of experiential learning is often traced to David Kolb (1984). He suggested that learning is a cyclical process that begins from students’ experiences (Figure 9.1). According to Kolb et al.: concrete experiences are the basis for observations and reflections. These reflections are assimilated and distilled into abstract concepts from which new implications for action can be drawn. These implications can be actively tested and serve as guides in creating new experiences.

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(2001:3) For example, students may have experience of a payment system (piece rates, hourly rates, overtime, bonus payments) through part-time work. Through this experience they will have some awareness of how a payment system operates, some awareness of motivation at work and some awareness of the organisation that employed them. Through reflection (Figure 9.1, box 2) on their experience, students can bring each of these aspects of their experience into their current consciousness. This reflection can be sharpened by asking them to review whether their experience is best described by one of several categories. Which of these types of payment system best describes their experience? How does the way in which they are paid affect their motivation? How does the organisation that employed them decide how they should be paid (who, why)? Students may then be encouraged to generalise (Figure 9.1, box 3) about relationships between

Figure 9.1 Kolb’s ‘learning cycle’ payment systems, motivation and the organisation of work. That is, they seek to answer the question ‘Is my experience typical or unusual?’. A natural way in which students may answer this question is by comparing their experience with others. The breadth of their generalisation may then be improved by reference to other sources of data. Students will then be expected to draw upon their new generalisations in their future actions (Figure 9.1, box 4) in this field of experience and these actions will generate new experiences that can form the basis of future learning. This theory of learning has proved attractive to teachers responsible for work-based learning and to industry/education specialists who have emphasised the value of providing teachers and students with direct experience of business practice. It fits neatly with the circumstances in which these teachers are working. The theory also has clear implications for teachers in schools and colleges who are working with groups of students in classrooms. In these circumstances the teacher should ask ‘What experiences do the students have that are relevant to the topic I am about to

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teach?’ The example of payment systems illustrates how this question may be answered. However, 14–19-year-old students’ experience of business is necessarily limited. Much of their experience is as a customer of business and this may be one of the reasons why they tend to find marketing a particularly attractive part of learning business studies. It is tempting to use their experience of school as an organisation as a basis for developing their thinking about businesses as organisations. However, it is important to remember that the experience of school as a student is very different from experience of school as a teacher and the theory of experiential learning argues that it is the individual’s personal experience that is the starting point, not simply the context in which that experience was gained. For these reasons teachers who have accepted the experiential learning theory have tended to promote the virtues of providing students with new experiences that can form the basis of their learning. These new experiences can be divided into two kinds: direct experience of business and simulations of business experience. Direct experience of business may be provided through work experience or organised class ‘field trips’. ‘Enterprise activities’ lie somewhere in between direct and simulated experience. They are direct in so far as young people are expected to set up and run a business, but they are simulated in that some costs (e.g. for accommodation and labour) are not strictly accounted for. According to the QCA (2004b) students learn through work experience: About the diversity and function of business, and its contribution to national prosperity; Enterprise and employability skills and an understanding of their importance in the workplace; About the relevance of work in school or college to the world of work; About the day-to-day expectations of employees and about work practices, environments, rights and responsibilities; About the range of progression and career opportunities available and the qualifications and skills and attributes required; Career management skills. The available evidence suggests students do learn from work experience, but they do not learn ‘about work’ in the way that this statement confidently asserts. HMI reported in 2001 that the extension of opportunities for work-related learning ‘was positive although it varied very widely’ (p. 9). They judged that the major positive impacts were on student confidence and social skills. They also report that GCSE business studies and applied courses that include a strong business element, such as office administration, featured highly in schools’ attempts to link work experience to qualifications. HMI judged the impact of work experience on students’ understanding of business as weak: ‘Pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the broader aims of business organisations and how they function were rudimentary. Only a small minority of pupils was able to discuss the company aims, structure and objectives. Where established, this broader understanding improved pupils’ awareness of enterprise, the careers, occupations, tasks and roles within an organisation. (2001: para. 63)

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These views are backed up by Hughes et al., (1999), who conclude on a basis of a review of outcomes reported in the literature and their own study of five programmes that workbased learning is not associated with improved academic skills but that it does promote ‘non-academic’ outcomes. A similar picture emerges from reviews of the outcomes of enterprise activities. The gap between the expectations set out by the QCA and the accumulating evidence can be explained in terms of Kolb’s learning cycle. First, students may not be gaining the kind of experience that offers them insights into the operation of businesses and the exercise of entrepreneurial skills. Second, they may not be gaining the kind of support required for careful reflection and generalisation. Two key difficulties in providing students with rich experiences of business are (1) that much of the information that would be of real value for learning is highly sensitive (e.g. pricing strategies and strategies to improve workers’ motivation); and (2) that students cannot be trusted with the responsibility to undertake tasks that would reveal much about entrepreneurship and practice in business. An answer to this problem may be sought through specially designed enterprise activities or simulations of business. At first sight these strategies seem to offer the prospect of being able to design experiences that will be sufficiently rich to put students in the kind of decision-making role that will show them how business works. The rapidly increasing popularity of these activities in the UK (Young Enterprise, 2004) looks set to be further boosted by the implementation of the recommendations of the Howard Davies Review (2002). However, it is difficult to set up these activities in a way that enables students to distinguish between those aspects of their experience that reflect business and those that do not. At the moment we lack evidence of the actual learning outcomes of these enterprise activities. This is compounded by uncertainty about what the desired outcomes should actually be. Simulations of business and economic behaviour have also been used to provide students with experiences that are intended to make them act as if they were operating in a real business or economic context. Classic examples of business and economic simulations are production games (as referred to in Chapter 8), planning decisions (e.g. ‘Should a second runway be built at this airport?’) and negotiations. One difficulty in using these simulations is that it usually takes a substantial amount of time to complete the activity. As a result there is a tendency for the time for learning from the activity to be squeezed. Instead of the simulation being an initial experience in a cycle of learning it becomes regarded as the learning activity itself and this is difficult to justify. A further problem with simulations is that students may regard the activity as disconnected from the real world. Computer simulations are particularly prone to this problem (Davies, P., 1994b). Simulations that are relatively simple are more likely to be regarded as unrealistic, while simulations that are more complex are difficult to manage and it becomes very difficult for students to identify cause and effect when so many variables are in play. Kolb also argues that each learner has an intrinsic bias in their learning style such that they are more strongly orientated towards some of the stages in Figure 9.1 than towards others (1984). Students who are more strongly orientated towards stages 1 and 2 Kolb refers to as ‘divergent’ learners, while students more strongly orientated towards stages 3 and 4 he terms ‘convergent’ learners. Students strongly orientated towards stage 1 may be

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characterised as ‘concrete’ learners, while students strongly orientated towards stage 3 may be referred to as ‘abstract’ learners. In the same tradition, Honey and Mumford (1995) suggest four different types of learner, each of whom prefers one part of the experiential learning cycle (Figure 9.2). A comparison of Figure 9.2 and the approach to learning styles discussed in Chapter 8 shows that different theories of learning lead to different definitions of learning styles. This should lead us to be cautious about accepting any one view of learning style as a complete picture of individual differences in learning preferences. As with VAK distinction

Figure 9.2 Honey and Mumford’s typology of learning styles Source: Following the representation used by James Atherton and accessed at www.dmu.ac.uk/~jamesa/learning/experien.htm. associated with information-processing, you can use a checklist of questions to determine differences in learning styles using the Honey and Mumford model. The Honey and Mumford model has two main implications for teachers. First, teachers may tend to emphasise the style of learning that they prefer in their own learning. Some teachers may like to emphasise concrete experience, while others emphasise abstraction in their own learning. This can produce a bias in teaching that is unhelpful according to the experiential learning model. Second, as learning is viewed as a ‘cycle’ it is important to help students to progress through each of the four stages and not

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to get stuck at any one point that they might tend to emphasise. This is different from some simplistic representations of the information-processing approach to learning styles, which encourage teachers to try to match teaching to individuals’ preferred learning styles. However, it is somewhat similar to Baddeley’s emphasis on the importance of helping students to integrate different types of processing by getting them to translate information between visual, diagrammatic and auditory forms. Although we do not have a sufficiently complete picture of learning to allow us to see fully how different theories relate to each other, we can begin to detect some parallels. Phenomenography Phenomenography provides a different way of thinking about the relationship between experience and learning. This approach to learning (Marton, 1981, 1988, 1992; Saljo, 1988) suggests that each individual experiences a phenomenon in one of a limited number of ways. For example, when asked to explain why a car is moving at a particular speed one person may suggest this is because the force of the engine is driving it along, whereas another person may suggest that the force of the engine is just sufficient to balance the force of the wind resistance working in the opposite direction and the force of gravity pulling downwards on the car. These two people are experiencing their observation of the car in two different ways. The difference would become more obvious if we asked the two people how things would be different if they were observing a spacecraft moving in space. The first person would be likely to expect the spacecraft to be using its rocket engines to force it forwards, whereas the second person would be likely to say that the spacecraft would keep moving at the same speed in the same direction with no need for rocket power until it came into the gravitational field of a planet. Two people apparently in the same place doing the same thing may have different experiences. This difference arises not simply because one person notices some aspects of the situation that the other person ignores, but because the two people interpret what is happening in different ways. The experiential learning model discussed in the previous section does not provide an adequate account of this subjective element of experience. Phenomenographers have attempted to uncover the different ways in which individuals experience phenomena through identifying qualitatively different ways in which they understand those phenomena. For example, they have found that, while some university students think that learning means trying to work out what things mean (‘deep learning’), other individuals think that learning means accumulating a stock of knowledge (‘shallow learning’). ‘Deep learners’ tend to be more successful in their university studies than ‘shallow learners’. For example, ‘shallow learners’ are more likely to drop out in their first year of studying economics at university (Shanahan and Meyer, 2003). Phenomenographers have also studied students’ understanding of price (Dahlgren, 1984; Pong, 1997) by posing questions such as ‘Why does a bun in the canteen cost X pence?’ The question is posed in a way that aims to encourage talk about the way that a particular phenomenon (in this case price) has been experienced. The conclusion of these studies has been that some students experience price as an intrinsic characteristic of the product that they associate with how much the bun costs to make. Other students experience price as the outcome of the interaction between supply and demand. The powerful insight that

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has emerged from these studies is that these different ways of experiencing price seem to have persisted even after students have completed a degree in economics. Dahlgren (1984) found that, apparently, students had acquired an ability to use supply and demand sufficiently well in their academic writing to pass a degree in economics, but when they were asked about their experience of price they used a much more primitive idea. The persistence of this more primitive conception of price is associated with a tendency towards surface learning and it increases the likelihood of failing the first year of an economics degree (Shanahan and Meyer, 2003). These findings provide a coherent explanation of why students seem to forget so much of what they have apparently learned. If they have adopted a shallow approach to their learning they are likely to have acquired a collection of pieces of knowledge that are unconnected with the way they interpret their day-to-day experience. That is, they have not reinterpreted what they have habitually thought about the phenomena they meet from day to day, whether through direct experience, watching television or reading the paper. School knowledge is activated when students come into the classroom, but it is put to one side when the student goes home. This way of thinking about learning has an implication for teaching that goes beyond the insights from information-processing discussed in the previous chapter. The information-processing approach to learning suggests that teachers should help students to make connections between new and previous learning. This provides a rationale for beginning lessons with a ‘recap’ of what was learnt in the previous lesson. However, phenomenography suggests that the more important connections for students to make are between their interpretation of their everyday experience and the ideas that they are expected to learn in school. If we were to plan a lesson on the basis of the insights of phenomenography, we would begin by thinking about the variation in students’ understanding of a particular phenomenon (Pang and Marton, 2003). For example, we would start planning a lesson on price by thinking about how we were going to help students who think price is an intrinsic quality of a product to think about price in terms of supply and demand. The lesson would have to make the difference between these two conceptions really clear to the students themselves. It would also have to begin from an example of price that students have experienced. However, since we know that students have already formed an explanation of prices they have experienced we have a bit of a problem. How can we get students to look differently at something they are already used to seeing in a way that we want to change? We have to draw students’ attention to aspects of the phenomenon that they have previously neglected in their explanation. For example, we might initially focus on the way that the price of cans of fizzy drink varies from one retail outlet to another. But students who think of price as simply a reflection of cost would explain this difference in terms of differences in the costs faced by the different retail outlets. For example, they would explain lower prices in supermarkets in terms of ‘bulk selling’. So we need to go beyond this to events that might be less consciously observed. For example, would students change their decision on where to buy fizzy drink if the local store increased its price from 50p to 80p? Would they change how much fizzy drink they bought at the local store if a new fast food outlet opened locally offering fizzy drink at a 50 per cent reduction with any fast food meal?

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These questions do not seem far removed from those that any teacher might think to ask in any case. Can this kind of questioning be sufficient to make a profound difference in the way a student thinks about price? It may be that teaching needs to give students much more space and time than is given in question and answer sessions to work through the implications of these questions. Barnes (1976) certainly thinks that students need plenty of time to work out implications of a problem through dialogue with their peers. Wood, D. (1997) is also very sceptical of the value of the kind of teacher-dominated question and answer sessions that occur in many lessons. He draws attention to the importance of giving students time to work out an answer rather than simply responding quickly to the teacher with an answer that pops straight into their head. Alternatively, students may need to work through several examples of this kind before the generality of the more complex understanding of price becomes really embedded in their thinking. A suggestion of how this approach might be put into practice is shown in Box 9.3. This interpretation of what is required to enable students to develop new and more complex ways of thinking about phenomena such as price has been strongly promoted through the Economics 16–19 Project (McCormick and Vidler, 1994; EBEA, 1995). The authors of this project dubbed traditional modes of teaching ‘theory-first’. They used this term to refer to a style of teaching that introduces theories in a simplified but abstract form. Once the theory has been introduced, students are asked to work through examples that illustrate various aspects of the theory. The problem with this approach to theory has been that students seem to have great difficulty in actually applying the theory. They can learn the principles of the theory and answer multiple-choice questions, but they seem to have great difficulty in recognising when and how the theory applies in practice. The Economics 16–19 Project proposed that this sequence should be reversed, with students being asked first to make sense of an example that was chosen to highlight those aspects of a phenomenon that would be likely to encourage them to see the inadequacy of a simple understanding and the virtues of a more complex understanding. There are, however, some difficulties in using phenomenography as a guide for practice in teaching and learning BEE. First, careful phenomenographic method has only been used so far to identify variation in students’ understanding of a small number of phenomena (e.g. price and gains from trade). Teachers wishing to apply this approach in business studies and enterprise education will need first to spend time discovering the variation in students’ understanding of relevant phenomena. Second, phenomenographic method tends to gloss over the role of disciplines in distinguishing between ways of experiencing phenomena. Although people experienced prices in the eighteenth century, it would not have been possible to categorise their experience of price in terms of supply and demand because this way of understanding prices had not yet been developed. We cannot separate the way individuals experience phenomena (or the way we can classify those ways of experiencing phenomena) from the development of disciplines of thought. Finally, phenomenography presents a big challenge that it will be difficult for formal schooling to respond to. Although we know that most students forget most of what they learn in school fairly soon after they have learned it, it is difficult to imagine formal schooling changing to acknowledge this fact. That is, current curricula currently demand that students display knowledge and understanding of a large volume of facts and ideas. It may well be the case that this display is more easily

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BOX 9.3 A STYLE OF LESSON THAT AIMS TO MOVE STUDENTS FROM ONE CONCEPTION TO ANOTHER Student activity Rationale 1 Students are given information showing that an identical can of fizzy drink is being sold by a local supermarket for 45p, three local shops and fast food outlets for 60p and on trains going through the local station at 75p. Working in groups they are asked to suggest as many possible reasons as they can for these prices.

The lesson begins with examples of phenomena that are within the students’ experience in order to help them to relate the content of the lesson to their existing thinking. The range of examples is chosen to highlight differences that should challenge simple explanations. By asking the students to work in groups the teacher creates opportunities for them to articulate their reasoning to each other, while giving themselves the opportunity to go round the groups checking the kind of reasoning that is being used so they are well prepared for a follow-up discussion. Note that students start with an example, not a principle (as argued by the Economics 16–19 Project).

2 Participate in teacher-led class discussion on possible reasons for the prices. Teacher uses the board to keep track of reasoning in which for each possible reason students are asked how this reason exerts its influence.

The board is used to open out the range of possible reasons each student might consider. The emphasis on how each reason exerts its influence is included to try to expose the reasoning more clearly. For example, students who refer to bulk buying might explain the lower price in terms of getting a reduced price from the supplier without referring at all to the need to be able to sell to a higher number of customers. It is when these partial lines of reasoning are exposed that it is easier for the teacher to help the students to build more sophisticated links.

3 Students are asked to explain why each This task is included to try to make it almost of the retail outlets does not sell the drink unavoidable for students to consider the role of revenue as well as at 45p a can and what may happen If they did.

cost. As in Task 1, students are asked to work in small groups to encourage dialogue and to give students time to work out considered answers (following the arguments of Wood and Barnes).

4 Students are presented with three alternative explanations of why all the retail outlets do not sell the drink at 45p a can. One explanation only refers to costs, one refers to costs and revenue and one refers to costs, revenue and competition. Each is the same length. They are asked to choose which of the three is the best explanation and whether their own explanation could be used to improve on the best of the three.

Explicit alternatives are presented to help students to distinguish sharply between alternative qualities of explanation. The alternatives are carefully chosen to reflect what is known about alternative conceptions of price formation. The part of the task in which students relate one of the conceptions to their own explanation is included to encourage them to work through the connections between the category and their explanation.

Learning through thinking: the roles of experience

5 Teacher-led class discussion in which the categories are related first to revenue and costs at the level of the individual firm and then supply and demand in the market by reference to the three outlets charging the same price. Teacher assesses pupils’ conceptions through the dialogue.

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The meaning of the theoretical categories and the way of thinking about price in general is based upon the thinking about the examples.

achievable if teachers and students largely adopt an ‘accumulation of knowledge’ approach to learning in schools. If we really want teaching and learning to develop ‘deep understanding’ then assessment has to be designed that rewards deep but not shallow understanding. This is the principle of ‘constructive alignment’ coined by Biggs (1996). Social constructivism: the social setting of learning In the previous two sections of this chapter we have outlined the way in which conceptual development and experience are strongly featured in different theories of learning. In this section we investigate an approach to learning that tries to combine both elements. Social constructivism recognises that learners are being introduced to ways of interpreting the world that have been constructed by academic disciplines or ‘communities of practice’. Ideas such as ‘depreciation’, ‘break-even’ and ‘externalities’ are not simply the product of individual interaction with the environment, but ways of thinking about business, the economy and enterprise that have been developed over time by communities of scholars. As such they are necessarily removed from the experience of an individual student. If students are to learn to use these ideas in their thinking they will need the support of an expert teacher who understands the idea to be taught and also understands the way in which that idea fits in with other ideas in the subject. However, unless the student can relate the new idea to the way they have constructed their understanding of the world it will have no impact on their day-to-day thinking. A division will remain between ‘school knowledge’ and ‘everyday knowledge’ (Barnes, 1976; Rogoff, 1984, 1994; Carraher et al., 1985). While everyday reasoning may be prone to all manner of errors (Perkins, 1989), it will continue to be used unless teaching leads students to revise (rather than add to) their current thinking. We might succeed in helping a student to get a good examination grade, but they will not use their school knowledge to any practical effect and will forget it soon after they leave. In addition, social constructivism suggests that students learn principally through their social interactions. That is, we should not expect them to learn simply by putting them in an environment (e.g. through work experience or a business simulation) that creates opportunities for learning. They will learn through social interaction with others in which they try to make sense of the experience they have had. These ‘others’ might be teachers, individuals with substantial business experience or other students. The point is that their learning is not a reaction to their environment (as in behaviourist theory) or simply an absorption of ideas presented by others (as in didactic teaching), but an active creation of knowledge that is new to them. According to social constructivists, this creation must happen through students’ use of language. They must work out new ways of articulating thoughts and not simply learn to mimic the way someone else presents an idea. It is in

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their use of language, interacting with others, that students construct a way of relating new concepts to the perceptions built up through their previous experience. This theory of learning has four implications for teaching BEE. First, thinking does not easily transfer between contexts. Students may be able to work out a percentage by a standard procedure in a mathematics lesson, but when they are working in a business studies lesson they may be unable to carry out the same procedure and outside school they may adopt totally different strategies for working out mathematical problems. They have not ‘forgotten’ how to do percentages; they never learned how to work them out in contexts beyond the mathematics classroom. The ability to calculate a percentage is cited in the National Curriculum for Mathematics in England as a feature of level 5 attainment. If data provided by the school show that all students in a GCSE business studies class are performing in mathematics at level 5 or above, it does not mean they will have no problems with percentages in business studies classes. Second, the social constructivist approach to learning emphasises that learning involves induction into a way of thinking that has been developed by a particular community (whether it is a social group, an academic discipline or a professional group). The likelihood that students will be persuaded to adopt a new way of thinking will be greater if they feel positive about belonging, or trying to belong, to that group. Students who aim for future employment in ‘business’ are much more likely to strive to understand the ideas developed in business studies than those who feel alienated from school and pessimistic about the future status of their employment. Teachers who succeed in getting students to believe that understanding their subject is intrinsic to their future greatly increase the likelihood that students will grasp new ideas in their subject. This is not the same as aiming for high examination results; it is to do with students’ selfimage: their sense of what they can be. Miettinen (1999) draws upon ‘activity theory’ in providing an account of how teachers in a Finnish business school tried to achieve a deep interaction between students’ beliefs about themselves, the society in which they were living and their understanding of business studies. Third, students need the help of a subject expert to progress in their thinking. Social constructivism portrays learning as an induction into the way of thinking that has been developed by a particular community and a key member of that community—the teacher—is essential to supporting students’ learning. The problem is, how do you help a student to understand something that is beyond their current conception? You cannot simply tell them because how can they understand what you are trying to tell them if by definition it is beyond their current comprehension. You might succeed in getting them to repeat what you say, but they can only understand the words in terms they already understand and this cannot be the same as the way in which the teacher understands the words. This problem is addressed by Lev Vygotsky’s notion of a ‘zone of proximal development’. The idea here is that what we already know gives us partial access to some things we do not yet know but that we can understand if we are helped by someone else. We might think of what we know as a well-focused image that is surrounded by a hazy periphery in which we can detect objects that we cannot quite identify. The teacher’s job is then first to make clear what these ‘hazy objects’ really are and then to gradually reduce the level of support they provide so that students can identify and work with these new understandings in terms that make sense to them and others in the community (or

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academic discipline) into which they are being inducted. This approach to teaching is referred to as ‘scaffolding’. Understanding progresses in stages from dependence on a teacher to an ability to carry out independent work. Tharp and Gallimore (1988) describe these stages in the development of understanding. In the first stage students are assisted to perform beyond their independent capacity by teacher direction, most likely through modelling that level of quality in terms of the context of the topic that the student is currently learning. In the second stage they take over responsibility for directing and assisting their learning, and in the third stage their performance is thoroughly internalised and more or less automatic. The idea can create problems for traditional teaching strategies. Some students may find it difficult to achieve the passage from dependence to independence in a single lesson. So a series of lessons that move from one topic to another, with new objectives introduced in each lesson, may leave some learners well short of independence in most topics of the course. They will not really have internalised the ideas that the teacher has introduced. They will not have time. As a result they will have to adopt a ‘surface’ approach to learning in which they try to catch the drift of each new idea that is introduced without really working it out for themselves. Those who are able to move swiftly to independence will be able to work out what the new idea means for them. They will be able to pursue a ‘deep approach’ to learning in which they aim to work out what each new idea really means and how it relates to their previous perceptions. However, it is practicable for teachers to adopt a ‘scaffolding’ approach to objectives that they are aiming to achieve over a longer period. Some examples of such objectives are provided in Appendix F. The suggestion in Appendix G is an example of a scaffolding strategy. Scaffolding provides a useful structure for one-to-one work with the students. The starting point is to have a leading question that will help the teacher to quickly identify the way in which a student is thinking about a problem. To help the student to progress the teacher must also have an idea of the way in which different conceptions of a problem are layered. The idea of ‘variation in understanding’ developed by phenomenography provides a valuable basis for making this kind of scaffolding more than a ‘hit-or-miss’ affair. In Box 9.4 we present some examples of exchanges between a teacher and students in a business studies lesson on break-even. Students were engaged typically in activities in which they

BOX 9.4 EXAMPLES OF SCAFFOLDING IN ONE-TO-ONE WORK WITH STUDENTS Example 1 Teacher: How could you increase profits?

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Pupil 1: By selling more cans, buying more cans from the wholesaler. Teacher: Anything else? Pupil 1: Not sure. Example 2 Teacher: How could you increase profits? Pupil 2: Sell more cans. Teacher: Anything else? Pupil 2: Increase the price. Teacher: Anything else? Pupil 2: No. Teacher: If you changed any of these things would there be any repercussions? Would anything else be affected? Pupil 2: If you increase the price you might not be able to sell as many. Example 3 Teacher: How could you increase profits? Pupil 3: By putting the price up and by buying less. Teacher: How would that work? Pupil 3: Well if you put the price up you would sell less so you’d have to buy less. Say if you put the price up to 60p and you sold 15 instead of 20 (starts working out on calculator). Example 4 Teacher: How could you increase profits? Pupil 4: You could put the price up or use advertising. Teacher: How would advertising help? Pupil 4: You would sell more so your revenue would go up and your profits. Teacher: So how do you calculate profits? Pupil 4: Oh hold on, you would have to pay for it wouldn’t you? Teacher: Go on. Pupil 4: Your fixed costs would get bigger as well as your revenue. Teacher: So how would you work out whether your advertising would increase profits? Pupil 4: Don’t know. were calculating costs, revenues and profits at different levels of output. The teacher identified that the key to students’ understanding was the way in which they were conceptualising change in profits. This provided the leading question, ‘How could you increase profits?’ That is, instead of focusing on students’ success in carrying out each part of the task, the teacher focused interaction on underlying understanding. The teacher also had a view of how understanding might deepen: from single explanations to multiple explanations and then from multiple explanations to integrated explanations.

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In examples 1 and 2 the teacher’s second question to each student is ‘anything else?’ to try to prompt them to think that there might be multiple explanations. This prompt is not enough for pupil 1 but it does encourage pupil 2 to offer another explanation. Having prompted the student to consider multiple explanations the teacher moves on to try to get the student to make connections in their explanations. Pupil 3 immediately makes a connection between price per unit rising (raising profit) and quantity sold falling (reducing profit). So these brief exchanges have revealed three different starting points for the pupils and therefore three different kinds of prompt that are needed to help them to progress. In example 4 we see the teacher helping the student to progress from the multiple explanation approach of pupil 2 to the more connected view of pupil 3. All it took in this case was reminding the student to think about how they calculated profits. A fourth implication for teaching BEE focuses on the way opportunities are provided for students to use their language to develop their understanding. It is important to emphasise that it is in using their language that students will be able to develop their understanding. This means that teaching should encourage students to feel that the way in which they express ideas is important. There is a tension here between the importance of maintaining a well-ordered classroom and giving opportunities for the ‘student voice’. Teachers and students must feel sure of mutual trust and respect. In that context it is helpful if, when students make suggestions in response to a question or problem posed by the teacher, their exact words are put on the board. If the only words displayed in class come from the teacher the message is clear. Only the teachers’ words count so there is no point listening to anyone else. Students also need to see how their words relate to the teachers’ words and these connections can only be made overt if there is some clearly visible way of looking at the relationship between them. From a social constructivist perspective, asking students to work in pairs or groups of three or four is also an important strategy in teaching because it increases the amount of student talk in the classroom. If students learn from the way that they articulate responses to new problems, then the organisation of teaching ought to provide opportunities for them to do this. The pattern of a lesson might be as set out in Box 9.5. An alternative approach to supporting students’ use of their own language in learning is provided by ‘reciprocal teaching’. The basis of this idea is that we learn best when we have to teach and teaching is characterised by a series of key activities: summarising a piece of text, forming questions, clarifying others’ suggestions and making predictions. BOX 9.5 THE ORGANISATION OF A LESSON TO PROVIDE SCAFFOLDED SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS 1 Teacher sets objectives that build on and develop students’ current understanding within the limits of their ‘Zone of Proximal Development’. 2 Teacher invites students’ ideas about a phenomenon that is familiar to them. Words and suggestions put on the board. 3 Teacher introduces a new way of looking at this phenomenon and demonstrates on the board how this new way is related to the ideas they have previously put forward. Teacher has dialogue with students to clarify their understanding of this new idea (Stage 1 of Tharp and Gallimore’s Scaffolding Process). 4 Students are asked to work in pairs on a problem that invites use of the new idea that

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the teacher has put forward. Pairs may be later combined in fours in which students are asked to compare their solutions to the problem. The teacher goes around the groups listening to what the students are saying and trying to support their learning from each other. The teacher does not ‘take over’ groups by posing intrusive questions or treating them in the same way as in the whole class work in Stage 1 as this would defeat the objective of getting the students to work with less dependence on the teacher. The teacher might have some supporting material that they provide to groups if they feel a group needs additional support (Stage 2 of Tharp and Gallimore’s Scaffolding Process). 5 Students are asked to carry out a piece of independent work which will often be in writing but which might be in the form of a diagram (e.g. a mind map, as discussed in the previous chapter). Instructions for the independent work may be given carefully and may be supplemented by drawing on suggestions from different members of the class arising out of their group work—i.e. at the end of Stage 2 there may be reversion to whole class work to clarify the final stage (Stage 3 of Tharp and Gallimore’s scaffolding process). An application of reciprocal teaching in business studies is provided by Davies, P. et al. (2002b). Students were given some items of information about McDonald’s franchises (e.g. a typical McDonald’s restaurant serves 500,000 people a year) and asked to prepare three questions provoked by the data. In a revision of the task it was proposed to ask that one question begins with ‘What?’, one with ‘How?’ and one with ‘Why?’ in order to prompt more probing questions. Students were asked to clarify the information on the franchisor and two potential franchisees through a card-sorting activity using the headings ‘Risk’, ‘Growth’ and ‘Control’. They were finally asked to predict which of the potential franchisees would be more likely to be taken on by McDonald’s. Although this was a carefully structured activity, it aimed to involve students in the kind of thought processes that are typical for teachers and, thereby, to aid the students in articulating for themselves the way in which they were making sense of the key characteristics of franchising operations. CONCLUSION Teaching is more than ‘delivering content’ or even helping students to ‘understand content’. Students’ learning is shaped by their experiences of business, the economy and enterprise, but only in so far as this experience has influenced their perceptions of the world. Their learning is also shaped by the perceptions they have developed as a result of their experience of learning. Good teaching is not simply a matter of ‘building on’ these prior perceptions because new ideas must be embedded in students’ thinking if they are to become part of the way they see the world. This may require getting students to recognise the limitations of their current thinking and enabling them to develop a different view that replaces what was there before. Teaching that does not change what students think is unlikely to have a lasting impact.

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This chapter has also emphasised that the sequence of teaching matters. Ideas should be introduced in simple representations first before moving on to more complex representations. Moreover, the most important objectives in teaching take a long time to achieve: developing students’ metacognition (their ability to recognise a better argument or explanation in BEE or their ability to write a well-constructed account of a business activity). Finally, all learning takes place in a social context and if we want students to learn in any depth we need to let them play a full part in that process. If the teacher does most of the talking, all of the questioning and all of the planning, there is not much room left for students to think. All they can do is to try to mimic what the teacher does and this will have no lasting impact. Even if this process achieves decent examination results, it will not have led to a population that is more employable, better equipped to act as citizens or better able to contribute to the development of the society. APPLYING THE IDEAS DISCUSSED IN THIS CHAPTER You might consider each of the following activities and reflect on relevant parts of the chapter: 1 Review a lesson you have taught in terms of the range and effectiveness of the strategies you have used to help students to learn from experience. 2 Try using the sequence in Box 9.3 to design a lesson that you will have to teach (alternatively, redesign the break-even lesson referred to in Chapter 8; see Box 8.2). 3 Use Appendices F and G to design a ‘scaffolding’ lesson that focuses on improving the qualities of students’ arguments in a relevant topic that you are teaching.

FURTHER READING Adey, P. and Shayer, M. (1994) Improving Learning through Cognitive Intervention, London: Routledge. (A good introduction to the development of thinking skills’ from the perspective of writers who are convinced ‘neo-Piagetians’. Theory and practice are carefully related and this work has provided the basis for ‘cognitive acceleration in science education’.) Garnham, A. and Oakhill, J. (1994) Thinking and Reasoning, Oxford: Blackwell. (This is a comprehensive and authoritative review of what is known about the development of reasoning. It is very well organised into sections that you can dip into.) McCormick, B., Vidler, C. and Thomas, L. (1994) Teaching and Learning the New Economics, London: Heinemann. (The first part of this book focuses on ‘what should be taught’ and the second half on ‘how we should teach’. So the second half should be of interest to all teachers of BEE even if you do not teach economics.) Tharp, R. and Gallimore, R. (1988) A theory of teaching as assisted performance, in R.Tharp and R.Gallimore (eds) Rousing Minds to Life: teaching, learning and schooling in social context, New York: Cambridge University Press. (As good a summary of the rationale for ‘scaffolding’ as you could wish to find.) Wood, D. (1997) How Children Think and Learn, London: Blackwell.

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(This is a very accessible, although quite long, book written from a ‘social constructivist’ perspective. His explanation of why he thinks teachers ask too many interrogative questions is particularly good.)

Part III Professional development

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Chapter 10 Evaluating teaching in business, economics and enterprise KEY THEMES ■ Evaluation is a powerful vehicle for improving practice when it is viewed primarily as having a formative rather than a judgemental role. ■ Problems with the reliability and generalisabiIity of data mean that it is unwise to rely on just one kind of evaluation data. ■ Criteria for evaluation are very useful in providing a basis for discussion, but they are at their most useful when they are used as a stimulus for debate.

INTRODUCTION Evaluation of teaching can seem like a threat or a support. External evaluation that will be used to judge performance can appear threatening because it puts self-esteem on the line. But it also provides an opportunity to gain recognition for achievement. Evaluation from peers and selfevaluation can be more readily seen as a support as long as it is focused on finding ways to improve. So there is a tension in this chapter between looking at evaluation as a way of judging performance and using evaluation as a strategy for improvement. We will look at some of the standards for qualified teacher status (QTS) in England and at criteria for evaluating teachers and departments used by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). We will consider how these published standards should be interpreted. These benchmarks are useful reference points, but a good teacher is able to use evaluation in a more productive way than simply checking their progress against someone else’s criteria. Every lesson poses some distinctive problem, however minor. Every teacher has a different set of capabilities to bring to bear and weaknesses to take into account. When we face up to the complexity of helping groups of students to learn, what we can say for certain about the exact effects of different ways of teaching seems rather limited. It is for these reasons that reflection lies at the heart of making good progress when training to teach and continuing to develop as a professional teacher. If I view evaluation only as a means of judging my performance (How well am I doing? Will I pass?) my prospects for improvement are stunted. If I view evaluation as a way of increasing my understanding of teaching and myself as a teacher then I have a powerful tool to help me improve (Schon, 1983, 1987; Black, 1998). We can illustrate this difference between reflection on teaching and reflection on ourselves as teachers by referring to a study of trainee teachers of business and economics conducted by Wood, K. (1996). Reflection on teaching focuses on what

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happened in a lesson and why it happened in that way. I might focus on the way that a group of students seemed to really struggle with an idea I was trying to help them to understand. There are many different types of explanation that could be offered for this kind of problem. I might explain it by arguing that the students had been ill-prepared or poorly motivated. I might think that they are simply ‘weak students’ and their failure to understand can be taken as evidence of their lack of ability. Alternatively, I might look for explanations in the way I taught. I might think about the way I communicated the idea. Was my presentation clear? Did I rush through the steps in the reasoning? I might think about my assumptions about the readiness of the students to understand this idea. What was I assuming about their previous thinking and their ability to process information that I presented to them? What was I assuming about their prior experience and what opportunities was I giving them to work out relationships between new and old information? Each of these questions focuses on what happened and why it happened. Some trainee teachers will tend to explain the problem in terms of the students’ abilities, some will explain the problem in terms of their communication of the idea and others will tend to explain the problem in terms of the assumptions they had made. Reflection on ourselves as teachers begins when we ask ourselves, ‘Why am I trying to explain what has happened in this way?’ Wood found that trainee teachers tended towards four different types of explanation that reflect different ways of conceptualising teaching: ■ ‘Teaching as imparting knowledge’; For example, one trainee described teaching as ‘…you get to transmit knowledge in a clear and logical way…’. ■ Described teaching as ‘preparing pupils to use knowledge’; For example, one trainee described what they tried to do as ‘…to adapt the knowledge that you have. In a sense try to extract it through the kids rather than giving it to them…’. ■ ‘Providing opportunities for students to see the existence of different perspectives on [a] phenomenon’; For example, one trainee argued that ‘having arguments in the lesson seems to make lots of sense… they were really having to think about it…’ and another trainee referred to ‘the teacher as the catalyst and pupils take it from there …the teacher starts something off and hopes the others will pick it up. Then it will evolve from there…the teacher can learn from the kids’. ■ ‘Preparing students to be reflective’; For example, one trainee described their teaching as ‘…pupils are given the opportunities to interpret their understanding rather than just relating it to very structured knowledge…’. (Wood, K., 1996:288–293) For Wood, these four categories form a hierarchy. Many trainee teachers begin with the first type of conception, focusing on imparting what they know. Moving on from this way of thinking is crucial to making progress during training. In our view it is helpful to think of these different ways of thinking about teaching as a menu rather than as a simple hierarchy. Developing as a teacher involves becoming more adept at recognising the circumstances in which it is better to think about our teaching in one way rather than in another. There are occasions when it is more appropriate to think of teaching principally in terms of communicating an idea clearly. There are other occasions when it is more appropriate to think of teaching as ‘helping students to reflect on their understanding’.

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How should teaching be evaluated? Dunkin distinguishes between judging teacher effectiveness, performance or competence: Teacher effectiveness is a matter of the degree to which a teacher achieves desired effects upon students. Teacher performance is the way in which a teacher behaves in the process of teaching, while teacher competence is the extent to which the teacher possesses the knowledge and skills (competencies) defined as necessary or desirable qualifications to teach. (Dunkin, M.J., 1997:39) These distinctions are important because researchers have struggled to find a significant relationship between observers’ rating of teachers’ performance and evidence of teachers’ effectiveness as judged by examination results (Medley and Shannon, 1994). Hay McBer claimed to solve this problem when publishing their model of teacher effectiveness for the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE, 2000). The Hay McBer model suggests three ways in which teachers affect pupils’ performance. These factors are: teaching skills, professional characteristics and classroom climate. The model identifies 35 distinct teaching skills in seven clusters: high expectations, planning methods, pupil management, time management, resource management, assessment and homework. There is a greater emphasis here on resource and time management and the use of homework than that found in the standards for QTS. The Hay McBer criteria can also be contrasted with the criteria that teachers would use in their self-evaluation. A survey by Kyriakides et al., (2002) found that teachers tend to place more emphasis on the promotion of students’ self-belief and happiness. Given the difficulties in summing up a teacher’s work, it makes sense to use a mix of methods: evidence from repeated observations using agreed and justifiable criteria, evidence of pupils’ value-added attainment (where available) and portfolio evidence of the teacher’s work and reflection (Darling-Hammond et al., 1995). In using general criteria to evaluate teaching in a particular subject area, it is wise to bear in mind ways in which distinctive features of a subject may lead to certain qualities being required or emphasised that are less valued elsewhere in the curriculum (Haertel, 1991). These considerations provide the context in which we review some of the standards for QTS in England in this chapter. In the next three sections we look at the evaluation of three aspects of teaching performance: setting objectives and lesson planning, making effective use of ICT and differentiation. In each case we relate our observations to the standards for QTS in England and we provide illustrations of practice. In the final part of the chapter we look at evaluations of teacher effectiveness as evidenced through examination results. SETTING OBJECTIVES AND PLANNING LESSONS We have reproduced a selection from the standards for QTS in England in Box 10.1. Standard 3.1.1 prompts us to ask ‘How can we recognise a challenging teaching and learning objective?’ We will try to answer this question in the context of a GCSE lesson on the product life cycle. Some alternative lesson objectives are:

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1 Cover the product life cycle; link marketing strategies to points on the product life cycle. 2 Understand the product life cycle; identify which marketing strategies are used in each phase of the product life cycle. 3 Identify different stages in the product life cycle; evaluate the usefulness of different marketing strategies at different points in the product life cycle. Objective 1 is written in the form of an instruction to the teacher about what they must do in the lesson. This is the kind of objective we might expect from someone who is still operating at the first level in Wood’s hierarchy. It implies that whatever the teacher says the students will learn unless they are ‘lazy or lacking in ability’. It is a simplistic view of learning and teaching. Objectives 2 and 3 are written as ‘learning objectives’. They both articulate what students are expected to demonstrate by the end of the lesson. Objective 3 demands something more of students by requiring them to evaluate marketing strategies. As we pointed out in Chapter 4, there are different levels of evaluation, so we might still find a range of achievement satisfying this objective. We might make our objectives more precise by specifying what we are hoping for all students to achieve and what we expect some students to achieve. We might aim for all students to identify stages in the product life cycle and give an appropriate justification for using one marketing strategy at one particular point in the life cycle. We might aim for some students to explain differences in the shape of product life cycles for different products and justify suggestions for marketing strategies for each. Whether such learning objectives are ‘challenging’ and ‘appropriate to past and current achievement’ depends on the nature of the group of students. These are issues that might be commented on in reflection on the lesson. However, these objectives are relevant to the expected standards at GCSE. We now consider the application of the standards in Box 10.1 in more detail through a case study (Box 10.2). This case study is provided by Rob Randall from the London Oratory School in West London. Although there are plenty of opportunities to observe what teachers do, it is less easy to infer the reasoning that underpins their practice. The lesson is an AS level economics lesson on ‘elasticity of demand’ and the principles are applicable to teaching other aspects of BEE at other levels. Rob refers to the specification when deciding his lesson objectives, which are written in terms of the achievement that he wants students to demonstrate. So he is clearly taking into account the expected achievements for students of this age range and ability. He also discusses the implications of his objectives for his style of lesson. He describes how his lesson objectives require him to design a lesson that gives students the opportunity to develop the analytical evaluation skills required by his lesson objectives. In fact, he goes beyond this by commenting on the need to think holistically about his objectives for students, rather than restricting his vision to a single lesson (Box 10.1, QTS standard 3.1.1). He comments on how he will assess students’ learning and he refers to some advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives he is choosing between (Box 10.1, QTS standard 3.1.2). He has also structured the lesson in a way that tries to make the learning objectives clear to students BOX 10.1 EXTRACTS FROM THE STANDARDS FOR QUALIFIED TEACHER STATUS IN RELATION TO SETTING

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OBJECTIVES AND PLANNING LESSONS 3.1.1 They set challenging teaching and learning objectives which are relevant to all pupils in their classes. They base these on their knowledge of the pupils: ■ evidence of their past and current achievement ■ the expected standards for pupils of the relevant age range ■ the range and content of work relevant to pupils in that age range. 3.1.2 They use these teaching and learning objectives to plan lessons, and sequences of lessons, showing how they will assess pupils’ learning. They take account of and support pupils’ varying needs so that girls and boys, from all ethnic groups, can make good progress. 3.3.3 They teach clearly structured lessons or sequences of work which interest and motivate pupils and which: ■ make learning objectives clear to pupils ■ employ interactive teaching methods and collaborative group work ■ promote active and independent learning that enables pupils to think for themselves, and to plan and manage their own learning. BOX 10.2 AN EXAMPLE OF A TEACHER’S LESSON PLANNING Lesson objectives The Edexcel specification states that pupils should be able to ‘define measure and interpret price elasticity of supply, price, income and cross elasticity of demand.’ In writing this account I have tried to capture my thought processes as I planned, delivered and evaluated a lesson on the topic of elasticity. Reference is sometimes made to the ‘heartbeat’ of a lesson. I take this to suggest a sequence of learning in which discussion is followed by teachercentred activities, pupilcentred activities and then a plenary (usually through a question and answer session). Whilst it is very helpful to think of each lesson in chunks like this, I worry that this can lead to overlooking the bigger picture in which students are able to build up a holistic understanding of the subject, relating different parts of the specification and developing their ability to analyse and evaluate. The constant dilemma of covering content through a teacher-centred approach versus helping students to develop their own integrated understanding of the subject is one which plagues much of my planning. Price elasticity of demand is a topic which regularly appears in examination questions. To emphasise its importance I often tell my pupils that it is used to test their powers of analysis and evaluation and can often be used in a wide variety of circumstances. I set myself objectives based upon what I want the pupils to learn. These are quite broad and based upon the course specification:

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■ Pupils should be able to define and measure price elasticity of demand. ■ Pupils should be able to interpret price elasticity of demand and explain its significance in relation to consumers, producers and the government. Lesson organisation Having established my objectives I begin every topic or lesson by letting the pupils know the intended aims by either verbal or written communication. I feel this is important to ensure the pupils themselves know the focus of their own learning. I often begin a lesson with a ‘way-in’ that introduces a topic by arousing students’ interest. Price elasticity of demand has many practical applications and I often start by asking one student about their buying habits to highlight how their demand for a product would be affected by its price. When first qualified I would have approached this topic in a very teacher-centred manner. I provided the students with definitions, calculations and diagrams via a handout, which I worked through with the class answering any questions. I was preoccupied with ensuring that students had ‘covered the topic’ in sufficient depth to answer examination questions. Over time my approach has changed as I realised that this strategy does not maintain students’ interest and this leads to failing to achieve the learning objectives. It took me a few years but I have realised that the teacher does not have to be talking for the pupils to be learning and that if you provide the framework the pupils can take responsibility for their own learning. If they are to take responsibility they must have…feedback on their progress. I have got into the habit of building into my lesson plans a quick re-cap at the beginning of the lesson on the key ideas covered in the previous lesson and a five minute review at the end of a lesson on the work we have covered. Within the topic of elasticity this may take the form of a question and answer session on definitions. I might ask ‘Is a product with a PED of −1.5 elastic or inelastic?’ This also gives me an opportunity to focus on the quiet members of the group. Another form of assessment to test the learning of pupils is the use of homework to examine knowledge and understanding of a particular topic. There are a number of textbooks which include a whole range of data response questions but in the past I often used examination papers in an attempt to get the pupils used to the examination format and type of questions. The pupils themselves are also very inquisitive to see the structure of the paper they will be taking. The one problem I find with setting examination questions for homework is that pupils will often spend a couple of hours in an effort to get the best possible grade. I would prefer them to spend 30 minutes (in the case of a data response question on elasticity) to develop their time management techniques. I now very rarely set examination questions for homework. Instead I give these questions as timed exercises within the classroom (pupil-centred strategy) and then with the use of discussion, the examination mark scheme and the pupils’ self assessment as methods of improving performance. Writing about my lesson planning has prompted me to wonder whether I should consider an alternative technique in which I give the pupils different products with different price elasticities of demand I could then structure the lesson around supporting

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students’ enquiry into the reasons for these differences in elasticity and the significance of the differences for each market. Source: Rob Randall, London Oratory School. and which engages them in purposeful ways to develop their understanding (Box 10.1, QTS standard 3.3.3). In Chapters 8 and 9 we examined the type of tasks that might be used to engage students’ interest and develop their understanding. In this case we might want to use processing tasks similar to those presented in Box 8.8 (p. 133) and Figure 8.1 (p. 133) or ‘cognitive acceleration’ strategies, such as those suggested in Box 9.2 (p. 157). USING ICT EFFECTIVELY IN TEACHING BEE The increasing availability of ICT hardware in schools and homes and the availability of extensive sources of information through the Internet are maintaining the growing profile of ICT in education. Nevertheless, as yet, there does not appear to be any link between schools’ spending on ICT and pupils’ performance (Hurd et al., 2005). It is the effective use of ICT that is the crucial issue and this is identified in the current standards for QTS in England and Wales (Box 10.3). The effectiveness of ICT use is an important issue for business as well as for learning. Fisher (2003) reports BOX 10.3 EXTRACTS FROM THE STANDARDS FOR QUALIFIED TEACHER STATUS IN RELATION TO USING ICT 2.5

They know how to use ICT effectively, both to teach their subject and to support their wider professional role.

3.3.10 They use ICT effectively in their teaching.

criticisms of the use of spreadsheets in accounting when the data may be changed or updated. Spreadsheets do not keep track of updating changes and this leads to severe problems for audit trails. We can evaluate whether use of ICT in BEE is effective in terms of (1) contribution to the development of ICT capability and (2) development of BEE subject understanding. The contribution to ICT capability begins with lesson objectives. References in lesson objectives to ‘using Word’ or ‘using graphs in a spreadsheet’ are not very helpful because they are not learning objectives. If BEE teachers are really going to develop students’ ICT skills they need to be clear about the kind of improvement they are trying to achieve. Statements of ICT capability in the National Curriculum or Key Skill standards are obvious sources of statements that can be included as learning objectives. In Box 10.4 we present a depreciation model that might be used with a class. This approach could easily be adapted to other models of this kind. In Box 10.5 we show how tasks related to the depreciation spreadsheet can be related to the National Curriculum levels of attainment. The extracts from the level descriptions could be used in lesson objectives. This would enable the exercise to be used as a way of

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developing students’ ICT capability by extending the demand of the manipulation of the spreadsheet. These tasks ought also to deepen students’ understanding of the relationships in the model and this will develop their understanding of BEE. In addition to evaluating teaching with ICT through lesson planning and software templates, we can examine reflective accounts of lessons using ICT. We provide an example in Box 10.6. This account describes how the teacher ‘blended’ students’ work at the computer with teacherled discussion away from the computers. A rationale is presented for the purpose of the use of ICT within the lesson. We interpret this as an example of ‘effective use of ICT’ because it exploits the capabilities of the ICT (instant feedback, access via the Internet to real data and examples) and the use of ICT is well integrated into the lesson. BOX 10.4 A DEPRECIATION SPREADSHEET MODEL (A) Scenario A company is calculating the depreciation on different assets using different methods of calculation: straight-line, decreasing balance and sum of years. The depreciation calculations for the first asset are shown below. The asset is currently worth £10,000 and the company estimates that it could sell it in 5 years time for a salvage value of £1,000. (B) Formulae in the model Cell Formula

Comment

B6

=IF(A6<=B$2, (B$1−B$3)/B$2“”)

Calculates the straight line depreciation (B1−B3)/B2 when the year is no more than time horizon (checked by the IF statement).

C6

=B1–B6

Calculates the book value for that year after the depreciation has been subtracted.

C7

=IF(B7<>“”, C6–B7, “”)

Calculates the book value only if there is non-zero entry in the depreciation column.

D6

=(B1−B3)*B4/100

Calculates a simple version of reducing balance using the percentage reduction in cell B4.

E6

=B$1–D6

Calculates the simple version of the book asset value given the depreciation calculation in column D.

(C) Values of the model as seen by the students A 1 Value of asset

B £10,000

2 Time horizon (years until asset will be sold or obsolete) (must be no more 5 than 20) 3 Resale value at end of time horizon

£1,000

4 Percentage for reducing balance

37.5

C D E

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5

Year

Straight line depreciation

Book value of asset

Simple reducing balance method

Book value of asset

6

1

£1,800

£8,200

£3,375

£6,625

7

2

£1,800

£6,400

£2,484

£4,141

8

3

£1,800

£4,600

£1,553

£2,588

9

4

£1,800

£2,800

£970

£1,617

10 5

£1,800

£1,000

£607

£1,011

11 6

£379

£632

12 7

£237

£395

13 8

£148

£247

14 9

£93

£154

15 10

£58

£96

16 Total cost recovery in time horizon

£9,000

£8,989

17 Salvage value

£1,000

£1,011

18 Initial value of asset

£10,000

£10,000

EVALUATING DIFFERENTIATION IN BEE LESSONS The difficulties in successfully differentiating between the needs of learners are frequently underestimated. Differentiation takes great skill and effort. As with the use of ICT, it begins with the lesson objectives. A useful practice is to include some lesson objectives for all to achieve and other lesson objectives for some to achieve. For example, lesson objectives related to the example in Box 10.4 might specify for all to ‘explore the effects of changing variables’ and some to ‘vary the rules in an economic model’, as in Box 10.5. In Chapter 5 we looked at possible levels of outcome in the quality of students’ arguments (Appendix F) and this might also be used as a basis for planning for differentiated outcomes. In addition to planning for different outcomes we might also plan for different levels of support. Drawing upon the idea of a ‘zone of proximal development’, discussed in Chapter 9 (p. 171), we might provide some students with more scaffolding than others. The level of scaffolding can be adjusted through the individual support provided by teachers and teaching assistants, but also through the extent and range of data provided and the cognitive demand of the tasks (as discussed in Chapter 8, pp. 124–125, 127–132 and 136–137). In Box 10.7 we present relevant extracts from the standards for QTS and in Box 10.8 we present an account from Wendy Meigh describing how she differentiated between the needs of learners. BOX 10 5 EXTRACTS FROM THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM

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ICT ATTAINMENT TARGETS National Extract from level Task related to the depreciation rate spreadsheet Curriculum description ICT level 4

Use ICT-based models to explore patterns and relationships and to make predictions about consequences

Try changing the values in cells B1–B3 and keep a record of which other cells change and in which direction.

5

Explore the effects of changing variables within an ICT-based model

Suppose it was found that the asset could last somewhat longer and be sold for £1,000 after 8 years. Vary the percentage in cell B4 such that the decreasing balance method also yields a salvage of £1,000 after 8 years. If the percentage in cell B4 was 50% how long would the time horizon have to be for selling the asset for roughly £1,000?

6

Use ICT-based models to make predictions and vary the rules within the models

Give students a version of the spreadsheet with no formulae in cells E6–E15 and ask them to complete the formulae. Then give a version with no formulae in cells D6–E15 and ask them to complete the formulae. (The formulae in column B are harder because of the IF statement to prevent anything being shown when the cell should be empty.)

7

Design ICT-based models and procedures with variables to meet particular needs

Show students how to calculate the sums of years method and ask them to add to the spreadsheet to show how this works. They will need to dedicate a separate area of the worksheet to working out the actual sums of years figure to be included in the calculations.

This teacher is using knowledge of relative strengths and weaknesses to provide different opportunities and different levels of support for students. The strategies employed include: differences in learning objectives, different levels of support through the organisation of groups, different demands on processing power in terms of quantity of data and variety in the type of learning style required. We reviewed arguments for and against this approach to preferred learning styles in Chapter 8

BOX 10.6 AN EXAMPLE OF A TRAINEE TEACHER’S EVALUATION OF THEIR USE OF ICT IN A BUSINESS STUDIES LESSON As it was my Intention to provide as many real life examples as possible I decided to

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look into using the Internet as a means of providing a vehicle for obtaining an immediate response from a web site which allowed on-line psychometric testing. (The web site presented a series of self assessment questions to complete. The software produced a personality type category based on the combination of responses.) The on-line psychometric test helped meet the objectives of ‘understanding the various selection methods used in businesses in the recruitment process’. I initially provided the students with some background on various selection techniques used by businesses when recruiting staff. Each student was then given the opportunity to complete an on-line personality test, similar to that used by many firms. The benefit of using the Internet to carry out such a test was the immediate feedback feature. As soon as the student had completed the last of the 48 questions and submitted their questionnaire, feedback was provided on-line outlining the supposed personality of the student. The results were then used as a stimulus for an open debate about the validity of psychometric testing. While some students agreed with their personality profile others felt it did not give a fair representation. These issues were discussed in relation to businesses selecting the right person for the job. The language used in the personality test was easily accessible to the majority of the class and support was provided where necessary for some students for whom English was a second language. The test only required the completion of ‘check-boxes’ so it made no demand on writing skills. While each student revelled in the opportunity to obtain some information about themselves, the results of the actual text were merely a stimulus to the main thrust of the lesson. It was the debate that followed the tests that gave most satisfaction. It was at this point that the learning objective really began to be achieved as students considered alternative selection processes. (pp. 140–144). Following our discussion of the work in Baddeley in that chapter we suspect that it is the requirement for students to relate the outcomes of one type of processing to the outcomes of another type of processing that brings particular strength to this lesson. BOX 10.7 EXTRACTS FROM THE STANDARDS FOR QUALIFIED TEACHER STATUS IN RELATION TO DIFFERENTIATION 3.2.4 They identify and support more able pupils, those who are working below age-related expectations, those who are failing to achieve their potential in learning, and those who experience behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. They may have guidance from an experienced teacher where appropriate. 3.3.4 They differentiate their teaching to meet the needs of pupils, including the more able and those with special educational needs. They may have guidance from an experienced teacher where appropriate.

BOX 10.8 ONE TEACHER’S APPROACH DIFFERENTIATION IN GCSE BUSINESS STUDIES

TO

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The lesson described here took place near the beginning of the academic year with a Year 10 GCSE Business Studies class. There were 21 students of mixed ability. Two students are noted on the school’s Gifted and Talented register. There were four students identified on the school’s SEN register (two with specific learning difficulties in relation to literacy, one student with cognition and learning difficulties and one student with literacy and behavioural problems). The intended learning outcomes for the lesson were for the students to be able to identify the main types of business organisations and explain the main advantages and disadvantages of the different types of business ownership. If I had taught the lesson in an undifferentiated way… The lesson would begin with introducing the topic and putting the heading on the board. As the students are new to the subject of business studies there are many new terms in every lesson. The first phase of the lesson would involve the use of an overhead with the different types of business organisations listed with their definitions. I would then explain each one as students copy notes into their books. At the completion of this stage I would quickly quiz students to test understanding of the types of business organisations. The second phase of the lesson would focus on developing the advantages and disadvantages of each type of ownership. I would lead this discussion but also seek input from students by carefully designed questions. As the discussion continues the students would then complete a table on a worksheet by taking notes from the class discussion. Homework would then be set from a case study in the textbook so they could apply their understanding. Potential problems with the undifferentiated approach This plan does not really allow for students to reach their varying potential. There is nothing really to stimulate or stretch the gifted and talented students. There is no consideration of the SEN students. Those with literacy problems would have particular difficulties with the note-taking. There are also likely to be behavioural problems as some students may quickly become bored with what is an essentially teacher-centred lesson where students are passive individuals rather then actively engaging in the subject content. The differentiated approach The lesson began with an activity designed to motivate the students and to introduce some of the concepts that will be dealt with in the lesson. Each student was given an envelope through which they were assigned to a particular type of business ownership. In each envelope is a description of the type of business ownership they are representing with a brief case study about them. Only one student received a sole trader envelope, three or four students received a partnership envelope, six received a private limited company and the rest of the class received a public limited company envelope. Groups had been carefully selected at the beginning of the lesson. Working in their allocated groups students were then asked to ■ decide what time to open at weekends ■ as a group write down the alphabet ten times ■ divide up a small chocolate bar between them.

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The idea was to get students to actually experience some of the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of business ownership, namely decision-making, workload and the share of profits in a business. After this initial phase of the lesson the students are introduced to a mind map showing each of type of business ownership with an appropriate visual clue to help students understand. The lesson then moved into a group work phase as students returned to their ownership groups and worked through an information sheet with clues about possible advantages and disadvantages of the types of ownership. When groups have completed this task they each provide feedback to the class on their findings and make brief notes of key points in tabled handout with the visual clues. The final phase of the lesson had two parts: the setting of homework and a plenary session. The homework was a worksheet with the visual clues again with a table incorporating example businesses. Students were asked to evaluate which type of ownership is best suited to which business. There was also an extension task on PLCs in the homework sheet. Students were also invited to join in the schools Pro-share stock market simulation game. The plenary involved students physically voting with their feet. Each corner of the room was allocated as a type of business ownership that had been dealt with in the lesson. I read out an example business (e.g. a coffee shop) and asked the students to move to that part of the room they thought the business would be. Students were asked to give a reason why they had chosen a particular type of business ownership. Explanation of the approach to differentiation There are many different types of activities in this lesson and therefore many different learning styles are catered for. The introduction game provided students with an experience that simulated types of business ownership. This approach was useful for all students but particularly for those who experienced difficulties with literacy. The use of visual clues on all handouts also appeared to help the SEN students to process the information. The mind map is an easy way to show how concepts relate to each other and is also very useful to students in organising the information from the lesson. Careful selection of students for the group work is another differentiation technique used in this lesson. This particular activity is using differentiation by task by ensuring a more able student is the sole trader. The structure of the rest of the groups allows for the careful placement of the SEN students to facilitate peer assisted learning. The actual information sheets used were also at varying degrees of difficulty to allow for differentiation by resource. The design of the homework was in a layered approach to allow for differentiation through outcome. The extension task also allowed for the gifted and talented students and students who were motivated to extend themselves further. Source: Wendy Meigh.

EVALUATING PERFORMANCE THROUGH PUPILS’ ATTAINMENT

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Teachers’ performance can be evaluated through the examination results their students achieve or through an observer’s judgement of the standard that students are displaying in their current work. Given the problems with reliability in judging students’ work it is typical to rely heavily on examination results. This is referred to in the US as ‘high stakes testing’. The difficulty with using examination results as a basis for comparison is that schools are only responsible for a small proportion of the variation in students’ achievement. The majority of the variation is accounted for by differences in student background. So when we use examination results to evaluate the performance of teachers and departments we have to be very careful to take account of a range of other factors that influence students’ performance. It is helpful to break the various factors down into five groups: 1 Pupil characteristics (including ‘innate ability’, sex). 2 Pupil background (parental education and employment and ethnicity). 3 Peer effect (the influence of the composition of the pupils’ peer group according to pupil characteristics and background). 4 Teacher effectiveness. 5 School-level effectiveness (organisation and management of the school). In order to evaluate teacher performance we have to disentangle teacher effectiveness from the other four influences on students’ performance. The approach used in Ofsted inspections (Ofsted, 2001) is to use eligibility for free school meals (FSM) (through the so-called PANDA data) as a proxy measure for factors 1, 2 and 3. There are some difficulties with this approach. First, while FSM is probably the best proxy measure available it only explains a proportion of the variation in factors 1–3. Second, the relationship between FSM and pupil performance is not a straight line (Benton et al., 2003). In their publication Ofsted illustrate the kind of data they use to support selfevaluation by business education departments in secondary schools (Ofsted, 2001). We reproduce these data in Table 10.1. The rows titled ‘This school’ refer to data on a particular school and the rows titled ‘National average’ present data for comparable schools in the same band for FSM eligibility. Despite the differences between the school’s performance and the national average, the final column finds that, on the key indicator ‘per cent A*−C’, there is no statistically significant difference between the school’s performance and the national average. As the commentary in the Ofsted report points out, it is important not to overreact to differences, particularly when small absolute numbers are

Table 10.1 Example of Ofsted analysis of the examination results of a business education department Business studies

Girls

% % % Average Entry as percentage % A*−C A* – A* – A* – points of year group significant? A C G score (APS) This school 4

54

92

4.1

20

No

Evaluating teaching in business, economics and enterprise

National average Boys

All pupils

11

54

96

4.4

15

This school 0

31

86

33

18

National average

49

96

4.2

17

This school 2

43

89

3.7

19

National average

53

96

4.3

19

10

11

163

No

No

Source: OfSTED (2001: p. 9).

involved. If this is an average-sized school then the number enrolled in business studies is probably no more than 40 to 50 (given a 20 per cent rate of enrolment). So the expected number of students getting grades A*−A would only be roughly two to three boys and two to three girls. It is surprising to find Ofsted commenting on these data by saying ‘the proportion of pupils reaching top grades of A*−A seems particularly low’ and ‘the results since the last inspection indicate that low standards are longstanding’. These statements might be correct but they cannot be inferred from the table. The data in the table do suggest that it would be worth trying to find out whether the department is giving the most able pupils and boys appropriate opportunities to achieve to their potential, but that is as far as it goes. Many schools in England and Wales have responded to this agenda by using systems such as CATs1 and YELLIS2 to monitor achievement data. This involves setting baseline aptitude tests in order to calculate a predicted grade for each student and then comparing predicted with actual grades when the results are published. The introduction of the PLASC (Pupil Level Annual School Census) database by the government enables schools to predict a GCSE grade on the basis of students’ previous performance in National Curriculum Assessments. Each baseline measure provides a different basis for predicting future performance, so we should not necessarily expect the predictions to be the same. The National Curriculum Assessments give more weight to students’ understanding of what they have been taught and the measure of initial achievement is grouped into bands, so it is less fine-grained than the measures from CATs or YELLIS. Table 10.2 presents hypothetical predicted and actual grades from a business studies class in one school using CATs and YELLIS tests. You can see from comparing the predicted grades that the nature of the baseline test does affect the predicted grade. Although the reliability of these tests is good, as with any test there is a margin of predictive error and it is important to remember this when interpreting the scores. The data presented in Table 10.2 can be presented in the form of graphs to show the relationship for each subject, teacher and class between predicted and actual grades. Figure 10.1 presents graphs for the CATs and YELLIS data in Table 10.2. The diagonal line connects the points where predicted score and actual score are identical. Individuals above the line have performed above expectations. Given the CATs predictions the class has on average performed close to expectations, but according to the YELLIS scores the class has performed above expectations and on this basis the class teacher might expect congratulations for their efforts. However, the comparison with the CATs predictions

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reminds us that there are many reasons why the predicted and actual scores might differ and ‘good teaching’ is only one of them. It is important to ask with these predictions, ‘Could this difference between predicted and actual be simply a random effect generated by factors other than the quality of teaching?’ A standard way of answering this question would be to run a statistical test to see whether the difference between the predicted and actual is so significantly great that we should conclude that the teacher has made a difference. In fact, when the GCSE actual grades are converted into their YELLIS equivalent the average actual score in Figure 10.1 is very close to the predicted score, so there is no significant difference3. Significant difference could take a number of forms. It could be that all the actual scores are greater than the predicted scores or vice versa. This suggests (although it does not prove) that the quality of teaching of this group is either substantially better or worse than average. Alternatively, a comparison of actual and predicted grades might suggest that in this class students predicted to get lower grades are doing substantially relatively better or worse than students who are predicted to get higher grades. On this basis the data may be used to identify problems and successes in past teaching. The data may also be used during a course to direct the emphasis in teaching and to motivate students. For example, regular comparisons of predicted grade and quality of work produced by students can be used to identify students who may for some reason be performing substantially

Table 10.2 Predicted and actual GCSE scores using CATs and YELLIS data Student

Sex

1

F

2

M

3

CATs score

CATs predicted grade business studies

YELLIS

YELLIS predicted grade business studies

Actual business studies grade

50

D

C

116 B

50

D

C

M

107 C

72

B

B

4

F

106 C

48

D

B

5

M

109 B/C

65

B

B

6

M

100 C/D

46

D

C

7

M

102 C/D

65

B

C

8

F

101 C/D

52

C

D

9

F

100 C/D

53

C

C

10

M

97 D

53

C

C

11

M

118 B

68

B

A

12

F

112 B/C

53

C

B

99 C/D

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13

M

106 C

57

C

C

14

M

94 D

39

D

C

15

F

102 C/D

58

C

D

16

M

95 D

54

C

D

17

M

125 A/B

87

A

A

18

M

110 B/C

62

C

B

19

F

97 D

49

D

C

20

F

105 C

60

C

C

21

M

108 C

62

C

B

22

F

109 B/C

46

D

C

23

M

92 D/E

45

D

D

24

F

107 C

56

C

C

25

F

98 D

40

D

C

26

F

104 C

54

C

B

27

F

98 D

50

D

C

28

M

115 B

56

C

C

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Figure 10.1 Graphs of predicted and actual grades less well than expected. In some schools students are constantly reminded of their ‘target grade’ and encouraged to relentlessly achieve this level of performance. This can be problematic in terms of labelling students, but it can also communicate to students that they have more potential than they hitherto believed. On balance, the more that targets can be put in terms of the kind of understanding that students should aim for, the more likely it is that the target setting will help them to improve.

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Pupils’ performance can also be judged by direct observation of current work and this approach is used by Ofsted inspectors in England. In Box 10.9 we produce an extract from the Ofsted document on self-evaluation by business studies departments. This commentary provides a view of the qualities of understanding that should be typical of students working at BOX 10.9 OFSTED COMMENTARY ON CONVERSATIONS WITH PUPILS DURING A SCHOOL INSPECTION Questions about the pupils’ work confirmed the provisional conclusions reached in the work analysis. The most able pupils not only had a sure grasp of important concepts, and confidence in using specialist terminology, they were quick to make connections between different aspects of their work. For example, they explained that there might be cash flow problems and losses in the early stages of a product’s life cycle, before the marketing has had an impact. They suggested that some Internet companies were examples of this. The average ability pupils did not contribute much to the more complex topics discussed. When prompted they were able to give accurate and clear definitions of fixed and variable costs, and the break-even point, but were hesitant in suggesting what a firm might do if prices fell so that it was no longer breaking even. Their level of understanding suggested they were on the C/D borderline at GCSE. The below average pupils described what they had done on some of their industrial visits and demonstrated a sound basic knowledge of some of the easier content (e.g. procedures involved in recruiting employees) but they became confused when trying to distinguish assets from liabilities on a balance sheet. Despite different levels of attainment, all pupils were obviously well motivated by their work in BS. No obvious differences were apparent between boys and girls at each of the levels. Source: Ofsted, 2001. different levels on the GCSE scale. As such it can be used to supplement the graderelated descriptions discussed in Chapter 4 (pp. 49–57). We suspect that summary observations of this kind are most useful when they are used as the basis for discussion of standards between teachers. Just as moderation meetings in the external examination process are valuable learning experiences for teachers, discussions of the standards demonstrated in examples of pupils’ work can be a very valuable part of a department’s work. CONCLUSION Teachers who want to improve welcome evaluation as long as the criteria for judgement are open for inspection and dialogue. Criteria of this kind are useful in self-evaluation and they provide an excellent basis for dialogue within departments, especially when related to outcomes in terms of pupils’ learning. Various sets of benchmark standards are avail-able, such as the standards for QTS in England, the Hay McBer model of teacher effectiveness, and the criteria employed in Ofsted inspections. While each set of

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benchmarks is designed for a particular context, it is useful to compare the depictions of ‘teaching quality’ indicated by these and other checklists. We do not yet have criteria for judging teacher effectiveness in specific subjects as suggested by Haertel (1991). In this chapter we have picked out three aspects of the standards for QTS that are particularly important for teachers of BEE. Space has precluded examination of other criteria. We looked at the criteria for lesson objectives because the omission of BEE from the National Curriculum has meant that the subject has missed out on the development work on description of standards that has been central to much of the development work in the National Curriculum. We looked at effective use of ICT because that has traditionally been such an important part of BEE as a subject. The challenge for the last decade has been to find ways of using ICT in BEE such that pupils’ ICT skills and their understanding of BEE are developed. We looked at differentiation because most classes in BEE are still organised on an all-ability basis, despite the growing use of sets in other parts of the curriculum. So these three aspects of teaching quality are of particular importance for the development of the subject as well as the development of individual teachers. Ultimately, the subject area can only move forward on the basis of a shared evaluation based on systematic evidence (such as that found in Wood, K. (2000) and Pang and Marton (2003)). There is plenty of anecdotal evidence from different approaches to learning and teaching and different approaches to curriculum organisation. But this cannot provide the basis for development. It is more likely to lead to an experience of ‘going round in circles’. As when we are evaluating our own teaching, we are on much safer ground if we draw on different types of evidence: rich qualitative observation of pupils and teachers in lessons, systematic analysis of pupils’ work and carefully conducted statistical analysis of examination results. Triangulation of evidence is the best hope of minimising the reliability problems inherent in evaluation. This kind of agenda is a tall order, particularly given the enormous pressures on teachers’ time. However, it can only be achieved with the full involvement of classroom teachers and those who do get involved in such work make a huge contribution to the development of the profession. NOTES 1 CATs stands for Cognitive Ability Tests, published by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), The Mere, Upton Park, Slough, Berkshire SL1 2DQ. 2 YELLIS stands for Year Eleven Information System, published by the Curriculum, Evaluation and Management Centre at the University of Durham, Mountjoy Research Centre 4, University of Durham, Stockton Road, Durham, DH1 3UZ. 3 You can test for significant difference between means using a t-test. This is available on Excel in the Analysis section of the tools menu. When Excel is installed this facility may not be immediately installed. To install select ‘Addins’ and then Analysis toolpack. Working on a home computer you will be asked to insert your Windows disk so that the software can be installed. On a network system your access should be updated. If not, consult your network manager. In the data provided by the test look first at the H Critical twotail’ figure. If your absolute t figure (ignore—signs) is below this then the difference is not significant. The ‘p value’ given for ‘P(T<=t) two-tail’ shows you the estimated probability that your actual and predicted figures are not different. The p value needs to be less than 0.05 for there to be ‘significance at the 5 per cent level’ and less than 1 per cent for there to be ‘significance at the 1 per cent level’. As this is a severe test of significant difference you might be advised to

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calculate an effect size instead. A simple method of calculating an effect size is to divide the difference between the two means by the pooled standard deviation. A score of less than 0.25 suggests no nonrandom effect. A score of 0.25–0.4 suggests a small effect that may well be worth treating as a significant difference. A difference of 0.4–0.6 is a quite a large effect and anything higher than 0.6 is very substantial and something that would be picked up by a t-test as well.

FURTHER READING Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) (2001) Inspecting Subjects 11–16: business education with guidance on self-evaluation, London: Ofsted. Online. Available at http://www.of%20sted.gov.uk/publications/index.cfm?fuseaction=pubs.summary &id=1049. (This guide provides a valuable discussion of criteria and evidence in evaluating teaching in BEE.) Pang, M.-F. and Marton, F. (2003) Beyond ‘lesson study’: Comparing two ways of facilitating the grasp of some economic concepts, Instructional Science, 31: 177–194. (This paper describes an approach to developing teachers’ thinking about their practice. It adapts an approach to teacher development developed in Japan and applies it to learning economics. It provides a model that could be followed by a group of staff in a BEE department.) Wood, K. (2000)The experience of learning to teach: changing student teachers’ ways of understanding teaching, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32(1): 75–93. (This article reports on a study of trainee teachers’ conceptions of teaching. It provides a helpful exemplar of how systematic work can be carried out as well as offering a useful categorisation of different ways in which teachers of BEE think about teaching their subject.)

Chapter 11 Conclusion In this book we have tried to identify the issues and opportunities facing individual teachers of BEE and the subject area as a whole. In this chapter we concentrate on the opportunities as we look tentatively towards the future. In doing so, we pick up a major theme throughout this book. Teaching is more than the delivery of set courses or precisely laid-out government policies. It is crucial that teachers, policy makers and parents regard schools as places where something is created, and where something new and better is fashioned. There are two main reasons why this is so important. First, we simply do not have the knowledge to be able to tell every teacher exactly what they should do in every situation they face. Of course, guidelines from government agencies and subject associations can be really helpful. It is also important to take into account the limited base of research evidence on learning in BEE. The experience of colleagues can also be very revealing. But ultimately each teacher needs to make frequent judgements about which knowledge to bring to bear on the situations they face. Even the same lesson plan can work out very differently with one class than with another and even with the same class at different times of the week. Second, society needs a teaching force that values critical scrutiny and that fosters the knowledge, understanding and attitudes that allow pupils to bring such scrutiny to bear on the BEE contexts they encounter. Governments, industry and pressure groups each have partial interests to promote when influencing the curriculum. Teachers also have selfinterest in making the curriculum consistent with their own knowledge and experience. But this makes it all the more important that teachers have a professional culture that values critical scrutiny in developing their subject and the way in which that subject is taught. DEVELOPING THE SUBJECT In our introduction we promised some statements in our conclusion about future directions that would be desirable for the subject. Subjects are continuously developing. In this section we focus on those developments that we believe are particularly important for BEE at this time. The first of these areas for development is a need for greater coherence. Goodson’s (1983, 1985) analysis of the development of subjects stresses the way in which they are coalitions of areas of interest. This is very apparent in BEE, in which some teachers would identify themselves primarily as teachers of business studies, some would regard themselves as economics teachers and others regard enterprise education as something quite distinct from business and economics. These differences reflect professional expertise and experience and they are not in themselves at all problematic. The problem arises when the different parts of BEE are regarded as

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competing rather than complementary. This is an understandable outcome when opportunities are limited and school leaders are looking for one BEE course to occupy a slot on the school timetable. However, no single part of BEE can lay claim to adequately addressing each of the educational aims analysed in Chapters 2 and 3. Economics has a stronger claim to developing citizenship education and financial literacy because it is focused on how the whole economic system operates. The key insights that learners can derive from an economics education come from the way in which the subject fosters understanding of how the outcome of a system of decisions and interactions can look very different from what might be expected if we just look at the outcome from a single decision. Enterprise education has a strong claim to developing some aspects of employability through the way in which an emphasis on capability is intertwined with development of understanding. Business studies occupies a place between these two. It contributes to the development of employability through developing relevant knowledge and understanding, but it does so in a more detached fashion than that claimed by enterprise education. It also makes some claim to contribute to citizenship education as a result of the inclusion of stakeholder analysis. However, the focus on individual organisations makes this claim less strong than that of economics. These three parts of the subject area complement each other in the achievement of educational aims. Given this, we might ask how the curriculum could be organised to enable this complementarity to be achieved in practice. The first way in which this might be achieved is through the design of courses. Policy makers in England have been struggling for some time with how to create a curriculum structure that presents a coherent set of opportunities for academic and vocational courses with a parity of esteem. At present there are two kinds of courses for 14–18-year-olds: academic and applied GCSEs followed by general or vocational A levels. This system creates three difficulties for BEE: ■ Business studies and economics compete for the ‘academic’ slot. ■ There is a perennial question about whether business studies is an ‘academic’ or ‘vocational’ subject. ■ It is difficult to design a vocational business studies that is sufficiently distinct from the academic business studies route. These problems are created in this form by the nature of the examination system. One solution to the first problem has been the creation of common ‘business and economies’ courses. There is a great deal of pragmatic sense to this solution, but these courses have gained only a small share of the market. The second question was temporarily settled when the definition of business studies at GCSE level rejected the ‘business and information studies’ version of the subject and followed the definition developed at A level (and in BTEC awards). The development of business studies A level in England was based on establishing academic credentials, and for GCSE to provide an appropriate preparation for A level study, it made sense for GCSE to follow the academic emphasis of A level. However, the perception of business studies as a vocationally orientated subject has remained in the minds of policy makers and the claims for ‘vocational relevance’ frequently help the popularity of the subject in schools. Our proposed solution to the third problem is to develop a ‘Business and Enterprise’ route that uses enterprise

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education as a way of providing a distinct vocational route. We would prefer the title ‘Business and Enterprise’ to ‘Business Enterprise’ because our view of enterprise education embraces state, not-for-profit and voluntary organisations and the term ‘business’ is too easily interpreted as meaning ‘for-profit business in the market’. However, a coherent view of the subject area is more likely to be developed if it is possible to develop a foundation programme that can be understood as providing a basis for future learning in each strand of the subject area. With the introduction of specialist ‘Business and Enterprise’ status more schools are looking to develop introductory programmes for students aged 13 and 14. Our observations of such courses at present is that the most important aim is to provide students with an experience that will encourage them to opt for the subject at GCSE level and that, if they do so, they will have a head start on their GCSE studies. These aims serve the interests of individual departments but they are rather limited in their scope. The development of a foundation programme for 13–14-year-olds that introduced them to each of the strands of BEE would be educationally more justifiable and it would help to develop a coherent vision of the role of the subject area in the curriculum. The development of a 14–19 curriculum structure in England may also provide opportunities for increasing the coherence of provision for BEE. One of the key ways in which a new framework would impact on the subject area would be through the definition of a curriculum core. We noted in Chapter 4 how the curriculum core defined by the National Curriculum damaged the development of business studies. BEE has a long tradition of attracting a large proportion of students in the 16–19 curriculum. If a core curriculum for 16–19-year-olds was decided on the basis of previous enrolment levels, then BEE would definitely be included as part of a core curriculum. However, if it is once again excluded this could have serious implications for the future of the subject area. A second way in which a new curriculum framework could influence the development of the subject would be through changing the possible combinations of elements of the subject area that could be included in a course and the flexibility with which students could combine elements. This might prompt a re-examination of the internal boundaries of the subject at different age levels: ‘What are the essential elements of business studies or economics for 16–18-year-olds?’ and ‘How might these be combined with enterprise education?’. In addition to these questions of curriculum organisation, the subject area has much to gain from developing its approach to ‘assessment for learning’. The view we have taken is that learning is, to an important extent, subject-specific. Learning BEE is somewhat different from learning science or learning French. The problems with the current assessment framework that were identified in Chapter 6 may be attributed in part to the way in which derivations of Bloom et al.’s taxonomy are used to specify assessment objectives. Achievement in the subject is construed as the demonstration of an ability to ‘analyse’ in business studies or ‘apply’ in economics. Analysis and application are treated as general capabilities that are exercised in relation to a body of knowledge in business or economics. It is time for the subject to move beyond this. The most practicable way for this development to be pursued is through a focus on assessment for learning. This entails finding out more about the variation in students’ learning in BEE and identifying steps in the progression of understanding that can be observed in practice. These steps can be articulated and used with students to help them to understand how they can improve their

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work. Then our feedback can be much better informed as we help students to aim for realisable improvements in their work. We included some examples in Chapter 7 (see pp. 109–117). The theoretical developments through phenomenography and threshold concepts provide underpinnings for future developments of this kind. DEVELOPING AS TEACHERS The subject area will not, however, develop without the creativity and commitment of teachers. The health of the subject area depends on teacher development being seen as more than learning to implement practices and policies with ever increasing efficiency. There are procedures in place in England: through the Career Entry and Development Profile, induction and later opportunities to become an advanced skills teacher that provide a framework for professional development. The activities in which an advanced skills teacher may be expected to participate are set out in Box 11.1. This may seem a daunting agenda for anyone just starting their teaching career, but it offers something to aspire towards. We want to emphasise the last two items in this list. Collaborations within and between schools are offering increasing opportunities to become involved in development groups and eventually to lead such groups. Teachers working together in such groups have a long history of generating powerful innovations that help not only their school but the wider teaching community. Innovations on this scale need to be firmly grounded in evidence gathered in the school and through reading about what has been achieved elsewhere. Boyer (1990) refers to this as the ‘scholarship of teaching’. It requires teaching to be less instinctive and based on routine, and more thoughtful and adventurous. It requires a willingness to get better and better at asking questions about what students are learning and how teaching is shaping learning. It also requires a deepening commitment to personal learning as a teacher. In Box 11.2 we present two lists of attributes that a teacher might aim towards. By ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ Shulman (1987) is referring to knowledge about learning and teaching a particular subject: How do students learn Business Studies? What are the key steps in the development of understanding of economics? and How do different ways of teaching Enterprise Education affect what students learn? He argues that this kind of knowledge is the most precious possession of a good teacher and we would certainly agree with this judgement. We have suggested that there are two fruitful ways of developing responses to these questions: by focusing on variation in students’ understanding (phenomenography) rather than asking ‘Do they understand it or not?’; and by identifying threshold concepts that act as critical gateways in students’ appreciation of how to think as a practitioner of the subject. Not everyone will want to become an advanced skills teacher, but if we all see our professional development as bound up with the development of the subject, the better it will be for both. Teachers who retain an appetite for their own learning provide powerful role models for their students. Teachers who aim to help their subject to develop also model an attitude of creating something better for the future that lies at the heart of education and that can really make a difference. In the face of inspections, regulations,

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implementing policies and dealing with the latest batch of workaday problems, retaining a belief that teaching is more than just a job is crucial to feeling that it is all worthwhile. BOX 11.1 THE ROLES OF AN ADVANCED SKILLS TEACHER ■ Producing high quality teaching materials. ■ Disseminating materials relating to best practice and educational research. ■ Providing ‘model’ lessons to a whole class, or a target group of pupils, e.g. G & T, SEN, EAL etc., with staff observing. ■ Supporting a subject leader with regard to schemes of work, policies or management skills. ■ Observing lessons and advising other teachers on classroom organisation, lesson planning and teaching methods. ■ Helping teachers who are experiencing difficulties. ■ Participating in the induction and mentoring of newly qualified teachers. ■ Leading professional learning groups. ■ Supporting professional development. Source: DfES (2004b). BOX 11.2 PRACTITIONERS Steinberg (1988)

CHARACTERISTICS

OF

LEADING

Shulman (1987)

A leading practitioner will have:

A leading practitioner will possess:

(i) an expert knowledge of the field;

■ Content knowledge ■ General pedagogical knowledge

(ii) insightful thinking in that field;and possess

■ Curriculum knowledge Pedagogical content knowledge

(iii) an intrinsic motivation;

■ Knowledge of learners

(iv) a high degree of selfconfidence;

■ Knowledge of educational contexts

(v) a flexible approach;

■ Knowledge of educational ends or aims.

(vi) a willingness to take risks.

Appendix A Competency statements in business studies AN EXTRACT FROM NVQ LEVEL 2 ADMINISTRATION UNITS OF COMPETENCE 201 Support the work of your team 201.1 Work effectively with team members 201.2 Help to improve the work of your team 202 Organise and improve your work 202.1 Plan your work to other people’s requirements 202.2 Carry out your work to other people’s requirements 202.3 Help to improve your work 203 Communicate information using telephone and fax 203.1 Make and receive telephone calls 203.2 Send and receive faxes (OCR, 2003a)

ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES FOR APPLIED BUSINESS GCSE AO1 Demonstrate and apply knowledge of the specified subject content using appropriate terms, concepts, theories and methods to address problems and issues; AO2 Plan and carry out investigations of issues by gathering, selecting, recording and analysing relevant information and evidence; AO3 Evaluate evidence, make reasoned judgements and present conclusions. Specification of Content 6.2.6 Business Communication As business people carry out their different tasks, they have to communicate with other people: ■ Within their functional area; ■ Outside their functional area; ■ Outside of the business as a whole. In order to communicate well with others, business people might use:

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■ Oral communication (telephones, meetings, telephone conferencing); ■ Video communication (e.g. video conferencing, Internet video link); ■ Written communication (e.g. memos, letters, financial documents, advertisements, email attachments/ documents); ■ Graphical communication (e.g. production drawings, on-screen, via the internet). (OCR, 2003b)

INITIATIVE AND ENTERPRISE SKILLS DEFINITION FROM THE AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY ■ Adapting to new situations ■ Developing a strategic, creative and long term vision ■ Being creative ■ Identifying opportunities not obvious to others ■ Translating ideas into actions ■ Generating a range of options ■ Initiating innovative solutions (ACCIBCA, 2002)

Appendix B Assessment objectives ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES FOR GCSE BUSINESS STUDIES SPECIFICATIONS Assessment objectives used in all specifications 1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the specified content. 2 Apply knowledge and understanding using appropriate terms, concepts, theories and methods effectively to address problems and issues. 3 Select, organise, interpret and use information from various sources to analyse problems and issues. 4 Evaluate evidence, make reasoned judgements and present conclusions accurately and appropriately. (AQA Business Studies GCSE Specification A for 2005; Edexcel GCSE in Business Studies (1503) First examination 2003; OCR GCSE in Business Studies A (1951)) Assessment objectives used in some specifications 5 Present relevant information in a form that suits its purpose, use specialist terms appropriately and ensure text is legible and that spelling, punctuation and grammar are accurate, so that meaning is clear. (AQA Business Studies GCSE Specification A for 2005)

ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES FOR GCE AS/A2 BUSINESS STUDIES SPECIFICATIONS Assessment objectives used in all specifications AO1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the specified content. AO2 Apply their knowledge and critical understanding to problems and issues arising from both familiar and unfamiliar situations. AO3 Analyse problems, issues and situations. AO4 Evaluate, distinguish between fact and opinion, and assess information from a variety of sources. (AQA Business Studies AS/A2 Specification for 2005; Edexcel Advanced Subsidiary GCE

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in Business Studies (8076) For examination from Summer 2003, Advanced GCE in Business Studies (9076) For examination from Summer 2003; OCR Advanced Subsidiary GCE in Business Studies (3811), Advanced GCE in Business Studies (7811) Second Edition)

ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES FOR GCE AS/A2 ECONOMICS SPECIFICATIONS Assessment objectives used in all specifications AO1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the specified content. AO2 Apply this knowledge and critical understanding to problems and issues arising from both familiar and unfamiliar situations. AO3 Analyse economic problems and issues. AO4 Evaluate economic arguments and evidence, making informed judgements. (Edexcel Alliance Advanced Subsidiary GCE in Economics (8121) For examinations from Summer 2003, Advanced GCE in Economics (9121) For examination from Summer 2004; OCR Advanced Subsidiary GCE Economics (3812), Advanced GCE in Economics (7812) Second Edition)

Appendix C AS Business Studies data response question: coffee with conscience Cafédirect Ltd is committed to supplying consumers with good quality coffee without exploiting coffee growers in less developed countries. This is known as “fair trade”. The company prides itself in: – paying a fair price—often 10% above that paid by other companies; – paying growers 60% of the price when placing an order, rather than waiting until the goods are delivered. Cafédirect admits that it is aiming to make consumers in wealthy countries, such as the UK, think about what they put in their supermarket trolleys. The company is determined to avoid forcing farmers in less developed countries to accept low prices and low living standards. In spite of these principles the company has had low sales because most consumers are not interested in fair trade. Cafédirect took the decision to relaunch its instant coffee brand as 5065 in spring 2002. The company’s market research had revealed that drinkers of instant coffee were “turned off” by the name and packaging of the old product. Many consumers had not heard of, or seen, the product. A Cafédirect spokesperson said: “We want to attract younger, more mainstream customers. The instant coffee market is a mainstream, mass market”. The introduction of 5065 is a move from a niche market to a mass market for Cafédirect’s instant coffee brand. The Cafédirect name will still appear on the packaging of 5065 as will a description of how fair trade helps producers. This will differentiate the product from other instant coffees. However, the packaging has been redesigned to emphasise the quality of the product. Cafédirect faces tough competition from well-known coffee producers such as Nescafé who have much more experience of selling instant coffee in a mass market. Cafédirect received a boost to its plans to launch 5065 when the Co-op announced that it is to sell fair trade products in 1500 of its supermarkets throughout the country. The Co-op has produced leaflets and posters explaining how fair trade helps farmers in less developed countries. Cafédirect plans to promote 5065 widely. Business analysts believe that effective distribution will be vital if 5065 is to be successful in a mass market. (a) Explain what is meant by the term “niche market” (line 16). (3 marks) (b) Cafédirect pays growers 60% of the price of the coffee when placing an order. Outline one financial benefit to coffee growers that may result from this action. (3 marks)

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(c) Cafédirect’s decision to launch 5065 was based on the results of primary market research. Explain two reasons why the company may have decided to carry out this research. (6 marks) (d) Analyse two ways in which effective distribution might help Cafédirect to market 5065 successfully. (8 marks) (e) Cafédirect has decided to stop selling its instant coffee in a niche market and to launch it into a mass market. Discuss the case for and against this decision. (10 marks) (AQA AS Business Studies Unit 1 Question 1, January 2003)

Appendix D AS level Economics data response question: an industry riding for a fall High investment, stiff competition and the unpredictable British weather mean that theme parks are a rollercoaster sector of the economy. Many companies are struggling to survive in a market which economists claim has now reached saturation point. One of the exceptions is Chessington’s World of Adventures, part of the Tussauds Group, owners of the famous waxworks museum along with theme parks at Thorpe Park and Alton Towers. This company now dominates the theme park market. Chessington’s star attractions are the Samurai ride and the more sedate Beanoland, which together cost a massive £4.5m to build. These are the major attractions for the visitors who pay an average of £15 for entrance to a park which can accommodate 15000 visitors per day. Economists estimate that most of the smaller family-owned theme parks do not operate at a profit. ‘It costs a great deal to build theme parks. This is in addition to labour costs and other operating costs. Despite having loads of visitors, they make little or no return for their owners,’ said Simon Lake of ABN Amro. Another economist, Pat Aston of Mintel, said, ‘There is little doubt that as a theme park opens new attractions, the demand for visits increases. However, it should be recognised that the London Eye has lured some visitors away from theme parks. Disneyland Paris, despite the cost and journey involved, also plays a part in reducing demand for visits to UK theme parks.’ 1.(a)(i) Define the term opportunity cost. [2] (ii) Explain how opportunity cost could be applied to a family deciding on whether to visit a particular theme park such as Chessington’s World of Adventures. [2] (b) Use a diagram in each case to explain how the demand for visits to Chessington’s World of Adventures might be affected by (i) a general increase in household income [4] (ii) the opening of a new leisure attraction such as the London Eye. [4] (c) Chessington’s World of Adventures attracts an average of 15 000 visitors per day. Each visitor pays an average ticket price of £15. Research by the company indicates that the estimated price elasticity of demand for visits is (−) 0.4. (i) What is price elasticity of demand and what does an estimate of (−) 0.4 mean? [4] (ii) Explain two factors that might affect the price elasticity of demand for visits to Chessington’s World of Adventures. [4] (iii) The company is considering increasing the average ticket price from £15 to £18 but is concerned about the effect that this increase might have on its revenue. What advice can you provide? [5]

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(d) All theme parks have high fixed costs which might deter new firms from entering the industry. Chessington’s Samurai ride, for example, cost £3m to build. (i) Explain the difference between the fixed and variable costs of the theme park industry. [4] (ii) Excluding the high costs of entry, state and explain two other likely barriers to entry into the theme park industry. [4] (e) Chessington’s World of Adventures aims to maximise its profits each year; economists have stated that this is not the case with most smaller, family-owned theme parks. Discuss whether profit maximisation is the only objective for all firms in the theme park industry. [12] (OCR Economics AS Specimen Paper 2003)

Appendix E Grade descriptions for the Edexcel Business and Economics GCSE GRADE F Candidates demonstrate knowledge and understanding of some aspects of the specification content. They begin to apply this knowledge and understanding, using some terms, concepts, theories and methods to address problems and issues. They show some ability to select, organise, interpret and use simple information from a variety of sources to analyse problems and issues. They also make judgements and present simple conclusions that are sometimes supported by evidence. GRADE C Candidates demonstrate knowledge and understanding of most aspects of the specification content. They apply this knowledge and understanding, using terms, concepts, theories and methods appropriately to address problems and issues. They select, organise, interpret and use information from a variety of sources to analyse problems and issues with some accuracy. They also make reasoned judgements and present conclusions that are supported by evidence. GRADE A Candidates demonstrate in-depth knowledge and critical understanding of the full range of specification content. They apply this knowledge and critical understanding, using terms, concepts, theories and methods effectively to address problems and issues. They select and organise information from a wide variety of sources and interpret and use this information effectively to analyse problems and issues with a high degree of accuracy. They also evaluate evidence effectively, making reasoned judgements and presenting conclusions accurately and appropriately. Capability

Grade F

Grade C

Grade A

Knowledge and understanding

Some aspects of content

Most aspects of content

In-depth knowledge and critical understanding

Application of Knowledge and Understanding

Begin to apply, using some terms and concepts

Apply terms and concepts appropriately

Apply knowledge and critical understanding effectively

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184

Selecting, organising and interpreting information to analyse problems

Some ability, from a variety of sources

Analyse problems Interpret information with some accuracy effectively and analyse with a high degree of accuracy

Making reasoned judgements

Simple conclusions sometimes supported by evidence

Reasoned judgements supported by evidence

Evaluate evidence effectively, presenting conclusions accurately and appropriately

Appendix F Qualities of economic judgements in citizenship education MAKING MY ARGUMENTS BETTER 1 Better arguments recognise different stakeholders

Example

1 Only presents view of one stakeholder. Presents the view of Greenpeace on recycling. 2 Presents the views of more than one stakeholder.

Compares the views of Shell and Greenpeace on recycling the Brent Spar oil platform.

3 Suggests how the interests of different stakeholders can be brought together.

Considers incentives, such as payments from the government, or taxation of waste disposal, that would create incentives for an outcome that both parties would consider preferable.

4 Considers the advantages and disadvantages of any one way of getting stakeholders to work for thesame outcome.

Examines the costs and benefits of alternative policies (e.g. taxation or government grants) that might lead to Shell and Greenpeace preferring the same option.

MAKING MY ARGUMENTS BETTER 2 Better arguments include more than one reason

Example

1 There is a point of view, but no argument to back it up.

I think recycling is good.

2 Gives only one reason to support a point of view.

I think recycling is good because it saves money.

3 The argument has more than one reason but the reasons contradict each other (don’t add up).

Recycling saves money but businesses don’t recycle as they want to make as much profit as possible.

4 The argument has more than one reason Recycling is good because it saves money and is good but the reasons do not support each other for the environment. (like a list). 5 The different parts of the argument fit together to support the same point (joined-up reasons).

Recycling is good because it saves money as fewer raw materials etc. are needed and so it is also good for the environment.

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MAKING MY ARGUMENTS BETTER 3 Better arguments look at interdependence

Example

1 Costs or benefits are not connected (like a list).

People who do not recycle are wasting resources.

2 The balance between costs and For it to be worth recycling the cost of recycling must not benefits is considered (weighing outweigh the benefits from recycling. up). 3 The effects of everyone’s behaviour on the future balance of costs and benefits is considered (knock-on effects).

If more and more people recycle plastic then it may make the costs of recycling fall. It would be worth having more locations where you can leave plastic and this will reduce transport costs and it may cost the recycling companies less if the total volume of plastic is increased.

Appendix G Developing students’ understanding of qualities of economic arguments in citizenship education STAGE 1 INTRODUCING THE STATEMENTS TO THE STUDENTS 1 Provide students with four examples of different levels of argument using past students’ work or made-up examples. Make these examples relevant to one of the free parts of the framework. Make these examples specific to the topic they have just studied or are just about to study. Ask the students to assess these examples. First ask them to identify the best and worst. Then ask them to put the four examples in order from best to worst. Discuss in class. 2 Introduce that part of the framework you want the students to focus upon. Show how this is related to the examples they have just assessed. 3 Ask students to assess their own work. This could be their previous, most recent piece of work, or a piece of work they do after you have introduced the framework. Help them to focus on individual sentences rather than leaping to an overall verdict. Discuss examples in class. 4 Ask the students to set a target for the level of argument they want to reach in their next piece of work.

STAGE 2 SUPPORTING THE STUDENTS’ USE OF THE FRAMEWORK AS THEY WORK ON TASKS AND ASSESS THE OUTCOMES 5 Provide students with support for their next task by showing examples of levels in relation to this task. 6 Ask the students to carry out the task, aiming to improve the quality of their arguments. 7 Ask students to assess their work, mark their neighbour’s work, and compare and discuss grades. Follow with class discussion. 8 Ask students to set a target for their next piece of work.

STAGE 3 REDUCING THE LEVEL OF SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS’ USE OF THE FRAMEWORK 9 Provide students with less support for their next task compared with (5). For example do not use examples of levels in relation to this task.

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10 Ask the students to carry out the task, aiming to improve the quality of their arguments, (as 6) 11 Ask students to assess their work, mark their neighbour’s work, compare and discuss grades. Follow with class discussion, (as 7) 12 Ask students to set a target for their next piece of work, (as 8)

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Index A level examinations 48–9, 99, 62–4, 85, 101–2, 107 academic/vocational divide 33–4, 42–5 acts of parliament 16, 36, 42, 46 applied business 52–3, 58–61, 64, 80, 86 assessment: assessment for learning 84, 101, 109–10, 113, 117–18, 208; assessment objectives 3, 54–5, 62–4, 84–9, 92–104, 109–10, 117, 121, 125, 208; case studies 3, 60, 67, 71, 76, 101, 105–6; coursework 3, 46, 58, 62, 101–4; essays 62, 113; evaluation (level descriptor) 27, 49, 52–4, 88–93, 97–9, 106, 109, 128–9, 148, 153, 185, 187; formative assessment 3, 84, 101, 111, 117; multiple choice questions 3, 11, 101, 106–8, 167; summative assessment 84, 101, 117–18 Barnes, D. 166, 169–70 behaviourist theory 99, 117–24, 145–6, 170 Biggs, J. 83, 118, 150, 156, 169 Black, P. and Wiliam, D. 110–13, 117 Bloom’s taxonomy 3, 83–4, 88–93, 98–101, 117, 121, 124–31, 153, 208 Bruner, J. 152 business and communication systems 46–7, 86 business links 37 Centre for Education and Industry 64, 68 Christian Aid 77 citizenship education 7, 9–14, 35–6, 40–1, 45, 48, 66, 70–1, 80, 110, 206 cloze procedure 125–6 cognitive acceleration 156–8, 188 commercial tradition 46, 86, 144 competencies 9, 28, 49, 84, 86, 99, 119–22, 183 constructive alignment 83–4, 108, 118, 169 continuing professional development 3, 76 core concepts 152 curriculum: core curriculum 2, 33–8, 41, 45, 79, 208; crosscurricular themes 12, 36, 39–41, 63; curriculum change 48, 64, 66; curriculum 2000 49 debt 16–19, 69, 126 ‘deep’ and ‘surface’ learning 165

Index

202

developmental stages 150, 152, 155–6 differentiation 184, 191, 197, 203 economic awareness 39, 68, 78 Economics and Business Education Association 35, 40, 167 Economics Education 14–16 Project 8, 12, 14, 78 Economics 16–19 Project 78, 118, 167 education-industry partnerships 68 enterprise education 1–2, 9, 20–32, 40–1, 45, 48, 64, 68, 80, 83, 86, 144, 151, 167, 206–9 evaluation (of teaching) 3, 181–4, 193, 197, 201–3 examination standards 84–5 experiential learning 150, 159–65 extended writing 108, 111 Face 2 Face programme 19, 70–1 financial capability 22–3 financial literacy 8, 15–21, 37, 68–71, 80, 144, 206 Gardner, H. 66, 121, 125, 143–6 GCSE examinations, 40, 44, 46, 49, 54, 61, 63, 86, 207 gender differences 136 Government Green and White Papers 35, 41 higher education 37, 65–6, 76–80, 83 Honey, P. and Mumford, A. 163–4 Howard Davies Review 26, 40, 45, 70, 144, 162 ICT 35–6, 40, 46, 54, 121–2, 140, 144, 184, 188–93 industry: education-industry links 64, 68, 80, 160; influence on the curriculum 2, 26, 31, 64, 67–9, 77–9, 86, 144, 160, 205 inspection 198, 202 key skills: key skills (generic) 23, 26–7, 37, 49, 54, 58, 67, 71, 144–6; literacy 41, 98, 111, 125–6, 148, 194, 197; numeracy 41, 54, 77–8, 148; problem solving 23, 27–9, 54, 103, 144–5; social skills 8, 54, 161 kinaesthetic learning 119, 125, 140–4, 147 Kolb, D.A. 150, 159, 163 learning objectives 110, 121, 134, 185–9, 193 learning styles 140–5, 163–4, 193, 195–6 level descriptions 109, 189 living graphs 132, 134

Index

203

Marton, F. 20, 116, 164, 166, 203 matching tasks 129 metacognition see thinking skills mind maps 138–9, 147, 175, 196–7 neo-Piagetian 150, 155–8 National Curriculum 12, 34–41, 63, 71, 155, 171, 189, 192, 198, 203, 208 National Vocational Qualifications 43, 49, 60, 86 Nuffield-BP Business and Economics 68, 78, 155 Ofsted 41, 46, 49, 54, 60, 181, 197–8, 201–2 Oxfam 74, 76, 142 phenomenography 116, 118, 159, 164–7, 172, 208–9 Piaget, J. 149, 152, 155–8 professional development 3, 179, 182, 209–10 reciprocal teaching 175–6 reflection 132, 150, 159–2, 166, 182–5 scaffolding 111, 124, 150, 172–7, 191 sequencing learning 102, 124, 140, 145, 148–50, 156, 176, 177, 186 sequencing tasks 140–1, 154, 167 simulations 23, 71, 142, 151, 161–3 social constructivism 159, 169–71 specialist schools 36–7, 72 spiral curriculum 155 standards for Qualified Teacher Status 181, 184–91, 194, 202–3 story grammar 111–12 targets (attainment) 37, 67, 192, 201 thinking skills 27, 132 Times 100 Case Studies 71, 73 threshold concepts 14, 109, 113–14, 117–18, 208–9 tiered papers 62 uncertainty: ‘need for flexible workforce’ 24–5, 29 vocational GCSEs and A levels 37, 49, 54–5, 86, 207 Vygotsky, L. 150 work-related learning 22–7, 144, 151, 159, 161 worksheets 122, 124 Young Enterprise 28, 30, 45, 68, 87, 136, 138, 140, 162 zone of proximal development 171, 175, 191