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INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE Business and Marketing teachers have less time and opportunity to teach traditional Business subjects. They are expected to teach computer applications and other technology courses but not accounting, basic business, business law, or office procedures. There are many reasons for these changes but, more importantly, business educators in Idaho, and throughout the nation, need to maintain the integrity of their programs by making certain that every student enrolling in their courses receives some important information for and about business. The Business Technology Curriculum Guide, BTC for short, provides teachers with a wide variety of business, marketing, career, and economics modules designed to enhance their ability to teach business concepts and realities to their students. Students will not spend a semester on each unit but they will be exposed to a variety of units and will learn why they are important. For example, students will spend six to nine weeks learning accounting. They will leave knowing the basics and having a greater appreciation of accounting and how it is used in the business world today. Most of the modules are project or activity oriented. Business Technology is already being offered in many Idaho schools. For more than a decade business teachers have used the two previous Business Technology Curriculum Guides (1989, 1994) to develop a one- or two-semester course which combines business and marketing concepts with microcomputer applications and workforce basic skills. BTC is an on-line guide so it will link to other internet sites and can be updated on a regular basis. The course incorporates reading, writing, composition, speaking, keyboarding, calculating, proofreading, and microcomputer skills into activities which teach business and marketing principles and concepts as well as human relations, career skills, work attitudes, productivity, and self-esteem. It is recommended that all written assignments be prepared using word processing. Thus, rough drafts can be submitted for feedback, and incomplete or incorrect assignments can be corrected and resubmitted. Students learn from their mistakes and are encouraged to keep trying until they get the assignment correct. It is eligible for reimbursement from state professional-technical funds. Students complete realistic assignments using technology. Brief oral reports and an oral presentation are recommended or required. Current events are used to keep the content relevant. Students relate all activities to modern business practices. The course is contemporary, related to careers, the economy, inflation, interest rates, unemployment, educational opportunities, training in industry, and more. The Business Technology curriculum includes the following units of study:
If Business Technology is not offered in your school we encourage you to develop a course. If this is not an option, we encourage you to integrate these activities into your other courses. Look for opportunities to substitute some of these activities for regular assignments in a keyboarding, microcomputer applications, and/or economics course. The units all involve topics which will better prepare students for life and the world of work. BTC is a work in progress but it has reached the point where we think it can become a trusted and useful tool for business, marketing, and economics teachers. Eventually, we hope to have at least three different activities available for each of the units included in the Idaho Business Education Standards. Some units have many more activities. Ability Levels
Many of the activities work well having students work in pairs or small groups or teams. Having students to work together and make team decisions is encouraged. The activities can be done independently as well. One of the most vital purposes
of public education is to prepare youth for a successful transition to the world
of work and/or to pursue post-secondary education. Secondary education must provide all
students with the academic knowledge base and the skills necessary to be able to
enter the workforce upon graduation. Even
students who "plan" to attend college should be prepared for full or
part-time employment. Something may
happen that prevents them from going directly from high school into college. Faced with the need to enter the
workforce earlier than expected, these students need the minimum skills required
for employment. Those who argue that secondary students,
as a group, need more "academic" preparation and little or no
preparation for the "world of work", do not understand the needs of
the students or of business and industry. Business education and
marketing education programs have people and programs ready to prepare students
to meet the emerging needs of business and industry. While requirements for high school graduation are demanding
more math and science, students are often being denied the opportunity to study
business, marketing, and computer applications. The result is high school students are not prepared to
compete for many jobs. For our nation to survive and
prosper in this new century, there must be a joint effort between education and
industry. Business education and
marketing education programs need to promote cooperation and the sharing of
common resources in order to be able to identify and concentrate on the demands
of society and the workplace. A
review of the literature indicates that immediate steps must be taken to prepare
secondary students to accept the workplace challenges they will face. Business and industry leaders advocate
that students graduating from high school should possess the following
competencies: Human Resource Competencies Business and Economic Competencies Marketing Principles and
Functions Microcomputer Applications
Competencies Management Principles and
Practices National, state, and local research supports the fact that the workforce basic skills employers want their employees to possess include the following: LEARNING TO LEARN: The ability to absorb, process, and apply new information quickly and easily. LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS: More instruction in oral communications and listening. COMPETENCY IN READING, WRITING, AND COMPUTATIONS: Summarizing information, monitoring one's own work, using analytical and critical thinking skills. ADAPTABILITY, CREATIVE THINKING, PROBLEM SOLVING: Creative thinking to solve problems and overcome barriers. PERSONAL MANAGEMENT, SELF-ESTEEM, GOAL SETTING, MOTIVATION, PERSONAL CAREER DEVELOPMENT: Take pride in work accomplished, setting goals and meeting them, and enhancing job skills. GROUP EFFECTIVENESS, INTERPERSONAL SKILLS, NEGOTIATION, AND TEAMWORK: The ability to work cooperatively in teams and to organize events. ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS AND LEADERSHIP: Have a sense of where the organization is headed and what they must do to contribute. Provide for continual training of personnel and the effective management of equipment and supplies. An extensive report, conducted by the US Department of Labor, surveyed
business owners, public employers, union leaders, employee supervisors, and
workers. One message was clear: "good jobs will increasingly depend
on people who can put knowledge to work." What is disturbing is the realization that more than half of our young
people leave school without the knowledge or foundation required to find and
hold a good job. "These young
people will pay a very high price. They
face the bleak prospects of dead-end work interrupted only by periods of
unemployment." Schools need to do a better job and so do employers. Students and workers must learn to work smarter. The research verifies the necessity for all workers to be prepared to function efficiently and effectively with respect to the following areas: RESOURCES: Identifies,
organizes, plans, and allocates resources such as time, money, materials
facilities, and human resources. INTERPERSONAL SKILLS: Works well with others as a team member, leader, teacher/trainer, negotiator, provider of customer service. Interacts with people from diverse backgrounds. INFORMATION: Acquires and uses information, interprets and communicates information, organizes and maintains information, and uses computers to process information. SYSTEMS: Understands systems, monitors, corrects performance, and improves or designs new or existing systems. TECHNOLOGY: Selects
technology, applies technology to tasks, maintains and solves problems with
equipment or software. The personal characteristics necessary to compete effectively in the workplace
include: BASIC SKILLS: Mastery in reading, writing, mathematics, listening, and thinking. THINKING SKILLS: Ability to think creatively, make decisions, solve problems, visualize the future, knowing how to learn new things, and reasoning skills. PERSONAL QUALITIES:
Demonstrates
responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, integrity, and
honesty. These competencies represent the attributes that
high-performance employers seek in tomorrow's employee. Recommendations for
Business, Marketing, and Economics Teachers
The BTC Development Plan Phase one Business Technology Curriculum Guide is completed. Many business education students, faculty, and support staff have contributed to this project. Phase
Two allowed classroom teachers and others to submit modules to be
considered for inclusion in the Business Technology Curriculum Guide
and/or to provide feedback on the modules which are currently available. Keep
in mind that each module is designed to be totally self-contained. Teachers do
not need to
have any books or references which are not provided in the module or are readily
available on the Internet. The
modules include curriculum for students who are
academically challenged and for students who are capable of higher order
thinking. All students in a class can be working
on the same topic but they would be assigned modules in accordance with their
abilities. A positive attitude and
work ethic should permeate throughout. Phase Three provides for continued improvement of the quality and quantity of the assignments. Add additional modules and remove those that are mediocre. You can help:
The two primary contacts for this project are:
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