For lecturers who are new to lecturing (but not necessarily new to business, management and accounting) the challenge of teaching is exciting. Yet the complexity of factors to be taken into account when preparing for teaching may be rather daunting. However, there is no need for any individual lecturer to go it alone when deciding on content and approaches to teaching. For example:
• Draw on the experience of colleagues and ask for advice. It takes some time to build up a personal portfolio of teaching materials and experience. All lecturers have benefited at some time from helpful mentors and most are willing to assist new colleagues. It is important to adopt teaching approaches that are personally meaningful but there is no need to fully ‘reinvent the wheel’.
• A significant amount of teaching within business education takes place in teams.
Ascertain the various skills and expertise which are available in your particular team and identify just a few aspects of teaching (or of the subject) where you would like to take responsibility for further development.
• The business syllabus is ever-expanding. Do not feel that you have to ‘cover ’ everything (thus taking the responsibility on yourself, rather than giving it to the student). Be realistic when identifying topics for inclusion in the syllabus. More experienced lecturers often find that they reduce the number of topics as time goes on, realising that subject-specific skills are more important than comprehensive content coverage.
• Bear in mind that you do not have to be the ‘expert’. Teaching is often more about facilitation than providing subject expertise. When faced with a diverse student Accounting, business and management ❘ 401
Interrogating practice
• Access and browse the BMAF website (http://www.business.heacademy.
ac.uk).
• Explore the links provided on the Resources and Publications pages.
• Explore the ‘First steps in tutoring’ guidance, available on the Resources page.
• How might BMAF’s workshops, publications and resources support your own teaching?
group, draw explicitly on their experiences (and expertise). Let the students tell their own stories or identify their own perspectives. Equally, share your own enthusiasm but also your difficulties concerning the subject. This sharing can support the mutual identification of areas for further study.
OVERVIEW
Business education is a complex, but potentially very rewarding, area in which to teach.
This chapter has identified distinctive aspects of business education which must be taken into account by business educators, both at the level of the programme and at the level of the individual module. The tensions produced by the different demands of students and stakeholders and by the changing nature of the business disciplines are not, by their nature, ever likely to disappear. It is not expected that degree programmes can, or should, be created at identical points along the for–about spectrum. The Benchmark Statements do not have to be viewed as a form of national curriculum. Indeed, the diversity of students, stakeholders and educators ensures that each institution can make its own unique contribution somewhere along the spectrum. The challenge for business educators lies not in resolving such tensions but in acknowledging their nature in their own particular institutional context and in responding to them creatively as they decide on their own particular approach.
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Foreman, J and Johnston, T (1999) ‘Key aspects of teaching and learning in business and management studies’, in H Fry, S Ketteridge and S Marshall (eds) A Handbook of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education(pp. 372–390) (1st edn), London: Kogan Page.
Grey, C and French, R (1996) ‘Rethinking management education’, in R French and C Grey (eds) Rethinking Management Education (pp. 1–16), London: Sage.
Grisoni, L and Beeby, M (2001) ‘Experiential leadership development at undergraduate level’, in C Hockings and I Moore (eds) Innovations in Teaching Business and Management (pp. 39–50) Birmingham: SEDA.
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FURTHER READING
Albrecht, W S and Sack, R J (2000) Accounting Education: Charting the Course Through a Perilous Future, Sarasota, FL: American Accounting Association. This booklet addresses the challenges faced by accounting education, particularly the requirement for graduates who possess a broader range of skills than just the technical. While it specifically considers the US context, most of its discussion is pertinent to accounting education internationally.
Grey, C and French, R (1996) See above. This text offers alternative ways of viewing the business and management curricula; in particular, management is viewed as a complex social, political and moral practice rather than simply as a collection of competencies.
Hockings, C and Moore, I (eds) (2001) Innovations in Teaching Business and Management, Birmingham: SEDA. An interesting collection of innovations in business education, presented in a way that makes them easily accessible. Some of these can be adapted to a lecturer’s individual needs quite quickly. Others may need more extensive adaptation, such as a change of course documentation or departmental policy.
Kaye, R and Hawkridge, D (2003) Learning and Teaching in Business: Case Studies of Successful Innovation,London: Kogan Page. Individual case studies range from action learning, resource-based learning, peer assessment and computer-based teaching of accounting to international consultancy assignments, developing an intranet for staff and students, and creating distributed communities of practice.
Macfarlane, B and Ottewill, R (eds) (2001) See above. This provides an excellent overview of issues affecting teaching in business and management and contains individual chapters on the teaching of particular functional areas.
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Key aspects of teaching and learning in economics
Liz Barnett