Experiential entrepreneurship

I have been troubled by the teaching of GCSE Business Studies, largely because the syllabus emphasises the entrepreneurial element while my students have no real experience. Scanning papers for another reason I came across an article by Jarna Heinonen and Sari-Anne Poikkijoki (2006) on the Emerald website. This was a review of approaches to teaching entrepreneurship using experiential and entrepreneurial activities. The paper also includes an annex containing a number of classroom activities that demonstrate this.

I liked the idea of using somewhat left-of-field approaches that allow students to explore their attitudes individually and as part of a team. Currently, I am being guided by a set text book, which uses real world (or at least realistic) examples, the down-side being that my students have no basis to judge this realism against which ultimately bores them.

This article has encouraged me to try 'unrealistic' examples which may have a better experiential content.

Reference

Heinonen, S., and Poikkijoki, S-A. (2006). "An entrepreneurial-directed approach to entrepreneurship education: mission impossible?". Journal of Management Development. 25(1). 80-94.

Term end

The last couple of weeks have been fairly horrendous and I can't say that I am particularly well motivated to teach at the moment. A truly amazingly complicated and 'petty' system of writing reports (I had over 50 to do) completely dominates life for teachers for the last few weeks of term.

I am amazed that we (teachers) allow ourselves to be dominated by a bureaucratic process that insists on the most inefficient and error prone option - individual reports for each student, in each subject. It is impossible to control style or layout and it is very difficult to tell if a report is missing or not - a teacher may simply have mis-titled the form tutor's name.

Although I'm tired and wouldn't make any important decisions due to that fact, this is a big enough issue to make me consider leaving the post. Which is crazy. I just want to teach! And part of teaching has to be effective feedback to the student, which seems to have been completely forgotten in the process.

Herzberg would certainly identify this as a 'hygiene' factor - unless administration is good it can only de-motivate. I have enough to do over the Christmas break, but I will draft a new work flow for reports that better meets the needs of students and teachers. I am just not doing my job properly if I don't.

Permission to learn

Conversations in the staff room, with teachers who have immense experience, are a tremendous inspiration. Real live 'case studies' where one gets the chance to interrogate a participant can not only be an addition to one's observation and reflection (as per Kolb's learning cycle), but also prompt one to look at another field in a different light.

A colleague who had to deal with very disruptive students noted that no matter how well he established a relationship with them, he didn't achieve anything until he was granted 'permission to teach'. How to gain this permission then. Wlodowski (1985) suggests that motivating students to learn is a combination of desire for success, volition (choice), value (valence) and enjoyment. The teacher who is to achieve this demonstrates expertise, empathy, enthusiasm and clarity. Amongst the detail of this good practice, two points stand out for me: continuously considering the learners' perspectives as part of the empathic approach and providing a clear way to comprehend what has been taught (clarity) when it has not been initially clear.

The former seems to suggest that planning a session cannot be too rigid - the students were not able to provide input other than the teacher's experience of their likely reactions, after all. The latter ties in with this week's PGCE session on assessment. Exploring assessment and academic research on the subject is something of a minefield: Murphy (1996) is clear that teacher assessment appears to enhance understanding but Broadfoot (1996) suggests that organisational assessment may not provide such benefits.

Broadfoot, P. (1996). Educational assessment: the myth of measurement. In Peter Woods (Ed), Contempory issues in teaching and learning. London: Routledge.
Murphy, P. (1996). Integrating learning and assessment. In Peter Woods (Ed), Contempory issues in teaching and learning. London: Routledge.
Wlodowski, R.J. (1985). Enchancing Adult Motivation to Learn. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Different views

I enjoyed the PGCE session on schemes of work today, largely because I had the chance to get my sub-group to re-design a scheme of work I'd designed. It really was a great improvement. I hadn't thought of getting students to present what they know at the start of a course, then using that to refer back to as a case study.

It certainly demonstrates that input - even from non-subject specialists - is going to improve an SoW. I'm not sure I'd like that to happen with session plans though (too personal)!

Busy week

It has been a busy week, with a microteaching assessment and first PGCE observation.

The former was fine and the latter really helpful. The main feed back related to the teaching of international students. Because of the language barrier, we do tend to teach in in 'factoid' type way, and do not explore the subject and allow free reign as we would do with native speakers. But surely our international students have a 'right' to move through the phases of Bloom's taxonomy rather than being taught to pass exams.

This has been niggling me for a while, but I hadn't been able to put my finger on the problem. The goods news is that over a one year course it should be possible to change my role from 'priest mediator' to facilitator. However, the timing and mechanism isn't clear to me yet. Perhaps the first step is to consider the session plans for the second (of four) module and change their format. I'll be working on these next weekend so I will give it some more thought.

Back into the routine

Post half-term there is always a measure of re-organisation at my school as students are moved to classes that better suit their abilities. We also have quite a few students returning from extended periods of sickness.

This has left me with quite a few students who need to catch up quickly (our courses are pretty intensive) but arrive a little shell shocked.

I can collect old handouts for these students (particularly those who have been sick) and let them have them, but this doesn't seem enough. I've also been asking new students to us the associated text book and complete the end of chapter 'exam' questions for me to review. But it really doesn't seem enough. I must try to make sure I have time at the end of the year to cover topics again so I'm going to review my scheme of works to take this into account. And look for other ideas.

Emergency

A bit of a hiatus today caused by family illness. The first lessons I've missed due to sickness for a very long time and it wasn't even me!

Still, it did give me the chance to prepare worksheets to cover three different lessons. I was quite happy that I had covered the main elements of the topics I intended to cover today, but I will make sure that I follow up next lesson. I did all three as workbooks I can take in and mark if necessary and I will do if the responses to Q&A aren't good.

A low ebb

Quite a bad day today, so probably worth reflecting on it.

The sheer volume of work, plus students handing in late and partially completed work really hit me today. I am (just) coping and thank the heavens for for good preparation. At this low ebb to go to my PGCE course and get the message that there's a very strong chance that all I'm doing is adding to misconceptions and creating confusion, especially amongst GCSE students is the final downer.

I am really, seriously, going to have to review my practise at half-term. I can't hang on the coat tails of another's preparation.

Testing week

It has been a very busy week, with all classes receiving a mid-term test. One thing I remember from my school and university days was how irritating it is to have to wait for your results.
So I have pulled the stops out this week and every class has known by their next class their result.

This has had an extraordinarily positive effect on the classes, though some of the poorer performers have been a bit 'low' and in need of gentle handling. So yes, it is worth the effort of the late nights!

ICT Conquest

I cover one ICT homework session, one evening a week, for younger overseas students. I have been trying to introduce them to useful websites, but have clearly misunderstood how tired they were and how jaded they can be with the Internet. So I had tried an informal, 'give them a site' and 'monitor each individually' for the first two weeks. Crowd control would be the kindest description of the outcome.

So much as I might not like them personally (it did raise a groan) tasksheets do seem to be the answer. I did find the silly things (finding out if they would like to try 'bubble and squeek' while researching dictionaries) seemed to work well so I will try to do something even sillier next time!

First full observation

Last lesson of the day - given that it's 5pm - isn't ideal for an observed lesson. I had set a fairly low level of achievement because of this and it went reasonably well until about 35 minutes. A weak activity, that I hadn't defined well or explained, lost the group very quickly and I never really recovered. This also flustered me and meant I didn't really summarise at all. Not great.

Lesson? I need to test drive or role-play new activities more carefully, especially when the attention of the group might be fragile. Still there were a good deal of positives, and I was very happy with the first half of the lesson. I have asked to be observed with the same group at the same time next term, to check whether my strategy has improved.

De-slumping

I was interested by a brief experiment on my PGCE course yesterday when my tutor suggested we try a 'Brain Gym' exercise before a class. Having suffered in the previous session from the slump myself, I did feel better for this session, which got me wondering. So I have tried our Dr Carla Hannaford's suggested approach with most of my classes today, to some effect. There was a distinct improvement in one post-lunchtime group. I didn't do the exercise with the next group, who remained their grouchy usual selves.

There are other 'Brain Gym' tips too, like making sure students drink water because of the effects of dehydration, which I can certainly attest to. However, there is an element of 'cod science' here, attacked, quite rightly, by commentators such as Ben Goldacre (2006) for such nonsense as processed food "not containing water" or "directly stimulating the cartoid artery". Allegedly supported by Ofsted as an example of "healthy school practice" there is no trace of such a recommendation, which would have been worrying.

So do I continue with it? Well yes, though I'm not convinced by the science. It is a great unifying activity for the class and seems to raise a smile at least. So I think this will be my opener and 'trademark quirk' for the next few weeks at least. I think all teachers need an idiosyncracy for students to hang their hats onto (this is true of most effective leaders - Churchill and cigar; John Harvey-Jones and his bow tie) and if by some miracle it does improve retention then I'll take that as a bonus.



Goldacre, B. (2006). "Brain Gym – Name & Shame" [online]. Downloaded 1 Oct 2009 from http://www.badscience.net/2006/03/the-brain-drain/

Afternoon slump

The dreaded afternoon slump seems to haunt me most days.

It's often the same group (thank you, timetabling) so the option of concentrating on practical or kinesthetic lessons at those times isn't open to me. I just have to cover 'dull stuff' for a fair proportion of the time as I build up the range of specialist lexis and concepts that the students need. The school thoughtfully provides water bottles and chilled water, so this should help, but most students don't bring it along anyway.

At the minute I'm stuck - perhaps because I'm suffering the same slump? I really need some guidance from a more experienced teacher.

Another week over

I certainly noticed an improvement in my teaching this week and the classes are now a lot calmer - probably down to me being less stressed. I'm also beginning to notice more about my students and (through their homework) picked up weaker students I hadn't immediately noticed.

Teaching adults often means that we neglect homework as it is hard to enforce, but it is clearly worth the effort. After only a week I've been able to take some corrective action and I'm confident of improving the student's performance. There is evidence that we may misjudge an adult's ability to control and manage out-of-school learning (Cooper and Corpus 2009), so we should allow them the opportunity.



Cooper, C.A. and Corpus, J.H. (2009). "Learners' developing knowledge of strategies for regulating motivation". Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 30(4) 525-536.

Teach, reflect, improve

I'm having a pretty good week because of the amount of effort I've put into preparation. I taught a class of 18 today (huge for where I am) - mostly teens - and achieved my objectives.

I also rethought the way I'm teaching business to a non-native speaking class. I'm dropping a lot of the material prepared for me by the BS department because it really didn't work across cultures. Today I used toys placed on a table (to represent transport) that they moved around a market mapping grid themselves. I had feared they might play with them, but this really didn't happen to any extent I needed to act on. It was an early lesson - 8:30 am - so I felt that moving around would work. Result - a productive lesson, with one normally disruptive pupil working well.

The downside is that this is twice as much work, but the adrenaline contrast to the alternative depression is a big compensation!

What a syllabus says about education

Having thought and read about education a little more, I have noticed something quite interesting. The syllabus for GCSE Business Studies has changed significantly this year - it is far more focussed on business enterprise that on studying, let's say, other businesses. My experience with new students suggests that this subject, at GCSE level and for the 14-16 age group, is difficult for students because of their lack of context (none are economically independent). Even AS/A2 level students suffer from a distinct lack of experience to relate to the topic.

What I can see then is a reason to change the syllabus - if it isn't relevant or comprehensible then it isn't worth the effort. Yet the new syllabus smacks of the populism relating to Dragon's Den and even the X Factor. You too can be a successful businessperson! But in reality virtually none of my students would be able to start a business capable of surviving a few weeks, let alone a year or two. I do feel that I'm promoting a forlorn hope, yet it is my responsibility to deliver to the syllabus and I must (because of the nature of my school and its one year GCSE courses) stick to it. I am rather struck by the responsibility this brings and this isn't something I expected.

Summary of the week

Overall, I'm happy with the way the week went - maybe 7/10. The obvious lesson was that the more prepared you are, the smoother things go. For the first week, when other people's poor admin creeps on top of you and you don't know the level of the group you are working with, I clearly need more subject specific filler lessons that have fairly simple outcomes (students should work with a student they haven't previously worked with, for example). I know I have to do a lot more prep for next week, but I am more confident that I can now decide on outcomes - and schemes of work for the 'mystery' groups.

Discipline matters

I had my first real run in with a young student today. The student is one of my form members of mine and I had already warned him following a number of other reports that back chat and 'clever' comments were not being appreciated by other teachers.

He did arrive in the room a little too lively and was warned that he should calm down or be moved. He didn't, I thought I also saw gum being chewed and so moved him. I received an immediate 'I'm innocent, why?' response, then a 'not fair' and bag and equipment crashing around at his new desk. He also refused to stop bemoaning the injustice, so I felt I had to send him out of the room and ask him to report to the Deputy Head. He did, returned, apologised and we moved on well.

So I'm not to worried about the head-to-head element, which defused the problem and got the lesson back on track for the other students. But could I have prevented it? On reflection, yes. I wasn't well organised for this lesson - too few copies of a handout, text books unavailable to issue, etc. - so I didn't take immediate charge. If I had, the silliness could probably have been stopped before it escalated. I am going to think about easy engagement exercises I can do with groups when they arrive a little over-exuberantly, that might calm them down.

BAck to SkoOl

After a couple of decent lessons in the morning, off the college for my first PGCE session.

The first topic on the agenda was a look at 'education'. I wasn't too surprised that many fellow students seemed to pick up on the functional / process aspect as most are involved in 'life long learning' type teaching. I really felt the work I'd been doing as part of my degree on the subject of learning and knowledge management was useful - for me education is and has always been a social control mechanism used by organisations to ensure that people 'fit'. There's a real danger here in that approach as it acts as a boundary to knowledge and learning. Peter Senge suggests a possible defence in detaching emotion from thought and engaging in participatory discourse as a route to greater creativity and hence a culture of learning (Hatch 1997:369). This may be a bit too vague and academic for practical use (can you truly detach yourself emotionally?) .

I came across a term new to me - andragogy - which intrigued me. I dug out an article on the history of the term (Merriam 2001) and found it dated back to Michael Knowles in 1968. Knowles himself considers it to be model of assumptions about adult learners rather that a theory. Merriam (2001) questions whether it can truly be an 'adults only' term and I would concur, having taught young people and adults and having found many crossover experiences between the two. Ultimately it appears to revolve around self-directed learning - you can either cope with this or not and maybe it depends on your level of compliance with the education system. Fight, submit to or use? More control issues.

Hatch, M. J. (1997). Organization Theory: Modern Symbolic and Postmodern Perspectives. Oxford: OUP.
Merriam, S.B. (2001). "Androgagogy and Self-Directed Learning." In The New Update on Adult Learning Theory. New Directions for adult and continuing education, No. 89. S.B. Merriam, Ed. San Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass, pp. 3-13.

An easier day, but ending on a dilemma

Nowhere near as manic today, though I still struggle with the efficiency of moving between two buildings to deal with routine administration. Learning new rooms and their various layout and equipment problems (and occasional pleasant surprises) is helping me think about planning next weeks lessons to take advantage or account of them.

One idea - an icebreaker for a couple of English classes - worked really well today. I gave them a lie ('I have a twin sister' and so on) on a card and asked them to add two interesting facts about themselves or their family to see if the group could spot the untruth. This was adapted from something a little more sophisticated that was used during a course I was on a couple of years ago.

One class was a problem. Trying to organise an ICT homework session was pretty fraught - lots of 'off topic' surfing and even the fairly innocent looking were Googling 'proxy service' in an effort to find a way around the school's Websense filters! This I need some help on - I'm really only used to more mature ICT students.

I also had a agony of self-doubt following an incident in the ICT lesson. A student took advantage of some disruption to make a surreptitious phone call home to mom. I let the call finish as the student was clearly homesick and wanting to talk but I felt I had to re-enforce the rule on mobile phone use quite firmly. As the bottom lip trembled, I did add that I would be sympathetic to an emergency call to mom, but only with my explicit permission. Did I undermine myself or correct an unreasonably harsh stance? Arggh.

First Day

A really busy day, though that wasn't a surprise. I had taken quite a lot of time to organise separate class files and a materials folder for each day, so I could photocopy or use the materials I needed.

My personal tutor group grew from 9 to 12 and there have already been some student changes in my classes so I was glad to be fairly resilient and manage to complete the first flurry of forms that go with organising various activities almost immediately.

I deliberately left my first lessons fairly simple, concentrating on a single icebreaker activity that related to the subject being taught - this gave students the opportunity to talk to other students they hadn't met before. This worked well with all but one group, whose English was well below that required to teach to GCSE level. I managed to think on my feet and design a simple lesson to introduce business vocabulary. Talking to EFL staff, they identified a suitable business English text book that I can build a course around. What a time saver it is to ask the question rather than worry about it!

I had intended to complete a short review of each student in each lesson, but I think I have to be pragmatic this week and accept that there is too much going on to make it practical. So I have deferred this to next week, when I will have started on the schemes of work proper.

Overall I'm quite pleased with how the day went and found the mutual support of other teachers (I managed to help a couple of new teachers too) the key to a good outcome.

The first trip

This was my first school trip as a supervisor and - apart from a compulsive need to count heads every few minutes - a practical demonstration of the non-teaching element of teaching, if that makes any sense at all. Not only the physical responsibility for the safety of your students, but also the fact that many of them are very obviously looking to you for a lead or to understand your own cultural values. And even those who don't seem to be probably are.

So how can a teacher be natural yet appropriate? I don't share or understand the cultures of many of my students so (maybe) I'm making horrible mistakes. And clearly there are the cynicisms and prejudices that cling to us like barnacles as we get older that I don't wish to inflict on them. I also don't want to be a friend (in the full sense) as there will be times I have to dictate. My strategies so far:

• Balance and honesty: applying the rule of saying two positive things before a negative wherever possible, but stand up for what I believe in
  
• Give a little: for overseas students especially, I am happy for them to understand a little of my personal life as they are probably experiencing the start of culture shock

And finally, moving a group of teens from 'A' to 'B' takes at least 25% longer than you might expect - loos, mobile phones and food appear to be a constant menace!

Induction schmuction

I've always found inductions a bit of a trial. No matter how you try to stage them they just aren't the same as the environment you are really going to find yourself in. Personally, I'd just deal with process issues and accept that the first couple of lessons are going to involve some forming/storming/norming interaction and build it in to the lesson plan.

I did like the idea of using different coloured post it notes to create a sort of for sale / wanted notice board, though a couple of examples would have stopped us from making mistakes (writing bios or putting too much on each one). I might even steal that for next week, when I've got nine different classes to start - seems to find business studies quite well with the concept of entrepreneurship, services and demand and supply. It should also help me reinforce the names of the students, which is something I do find quite stressful, despite a good memory.

I certainly think that the variety of different teaching environments represented in the group is a bonus and should spark of some creative threads. Time is going to be against me this year with 15 lessons a week to prepare.

Where I started from

Although teaching isn't a complete mystery to me, it isn't until this year that it has become a full time job (or should that be vocation?) so it is appropriate to reflect on it somewhat more.

I'm going to blog this anonymously and any names and places will certainly have been changed to protect the innocent... and possibly guilty. However, it's probably fair to give some context so I will say that I will be teaching in the UK, in a private school somewhere in the Midlands. The school does have a large proportion of overseas students, many of whom are experiencing the UK for the first time.

I will be teaching English Language (better watch the spelling then) and Business Studies GCSE, plus some AS and A2 syllabus business stuff as well.

Although I'm partially doing this as part of my PGCE studies, I do think that there's a good deal to be gained in reviewing what happens over the next couple of years. My personal style is to editorialise but the blog forces me to record things contemporaneously so it should do the trick just fine. Although if this all peters out after 10 entries than I'll know I was wrong.

My promises to myself are:

• To record entries within 2 working days, at least every 2 working days
  
• To be honest
  
• To adjust my practice as a result of negative outcomes

OK. Let's go!