Secondary Business Studies with ICT: A Pupil's
Entitlement to ICT in Secondary Business Studies
Secondary Business Studies with ICT: A Pupil's
Entitlement to ICT in Secondary Business Studies
Becta in association with
April 2009
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Becta | Secondary Business Studies with ICT: A Pupil's Entitlement to ICT in Secondary Business Studies
All pupils have an entitlement to Business Studies through Economic Well Being and
Financial Capability (EWB/FC) at Key Stages 3 and 4. Many pupils also opt for
Business Studies or a business-related subject at Key Stage 4. Both courses
provide many opportunities for pupils to enhance their learning through ICT, as this
document illustrates.
Managing Economic Wellbeing and Financial Capability
The Programmes of Study for KS3 and 4 can be downloaded from the QCA website
http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/uploads/QCA-07-3346-pEconoWell3_tcm8393.pdf?return=/key-stages-3-and-4/subjects/pshe/ewfc/keystage3/index.aspx (for
KS3) and at
http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/uploads/QCA-07-3347pEconoWell4_tcm8-394.pdf
Using ICT to teach Financial Capability
Personal Education Finance Group (Pfeg)
Pfeg [http://www.pfeg.org] offers a range
of advice and resources suitable for
pupils of all ability levels, as well as
reflecting different social, economic and
cultural backgrounds.
The site has some very useful
interactive games and simulations,
including Your Finance Manager, which
gives pupils the opportunity to develop
their budgeting skills in a fun way. Other
resources worth a look include:
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Bringing financial education to life – a 10 minute video filmed in seven
schools demonstrating the range and diversity with which they integrate
personal finance teaching into their timetables.
Case studies – ideas and lesson plans to try out in the classroom or for
teacher professional development.
Cultural diversity bulletins – designed to give teachers and pupils an
insight into how people may experience personal finance differently.
Special needs – a pack that can be used with pupils with moderate to
severe learning difficulties, covering basic skills of coin recognition,
addition of money and calculating change.
The Oslem show – a video film featuring an improvised role-play by
pupils from Catford Girls School, London.
Catriona's big day out – Key Stage 3 Catriona’s big day out is a Teachers' TV
[http://www.teachers.tv/video/browser/861] clip originally designed for Key Stage 2
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Becta | Secondary Business Studies with ICT: A Pupil's Entitlement to ICT in Secondary Business Studies
but can be useful at Key Stage 3 to reinforce prior learning, or as a scene-setter. It
follows a ten-year-old girl on her financial journey as she saves up and budgets for a
day out for her parents and best friend. It can be used to prompt thinking about
trying to predict how much money you need for a particular activity and where to find
out (for instance rail fares).
Paying your own way – Key Stage 4
Teachers TV
This Teachers' TV clip [http://www.teachers.tv/video/browser/861] features 18-yearold Joe and his 16-year-old brother Tom setting up home on their own for the first
time. It can be a good prompt to discussing what the options are for young people
and everyone has their own idea about what kind of expenditure they would incur in
the same situation. Uncovering the implications of the decisions is often an eyeopener for everyone.
Financial Services Authority
http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/
The ‘products explained’ section helps pupils learn about different financial products
and the downloadable factsheets are ideal as handouts, classroom displays.
In ‘useful tools’ there are interactive resources to help pupils with budgeting,
borrowing, planning for the future and shopping around for financial products.
Support4learning website
http://www.support4learning.org.uk/money/moneymanagement.cfm
This is an ideal reference resource bank, both for pupils and teachers, with a
comprehensive collection of web links on financial-related matters.
Interactive whiteboard ideas for business studies
The interactive whiteboard can bring invaluable benefits to the classroom since it
provides an opportunity to include all learners within the lesson. As well as the
features of a whiteboard – reveal, rubbing out, for example, they also enable use of
a range of visual stimulus – pictures, newspaper cuttings, photographs, diagrams,
tables, worksheets, graphs and video
clips – which can enhance pupils'
understanding of the theory.
Scan, highlight and reveal
One good way to use the whiteboard is
to work through questions from past
papers. In this example, a question from
a past paper has been scanned, along
with the correct answers in the cashflow
analysis. The text boxes were
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Becta | Secondary Business Studies with ICT: A Pupil's Entitlement to ICT in Secondary Business Studies
highlighted with white, to give the illusion that the table was blank and parts of the
words in the first column of the table were erased. For example, some of the
payments categories were partially erased and pupils were asked to figure out what
they were. Using the erase tool, the teacher was able to rub off the white highlight
and reveal the answer.
Once the lesson was completed, this resource was saved on the school network, so
it could be revisited in the next lesson and accessed by pupils in their own time.
Group, layer and drag
There are some useful images in clip-art programs that you can group with text to
make meaningful graphics. In this
example, text has been superimposed on
images of bank notes to illustrate the main
items of income and expenditure for an
optometrist.
The bank notes were set to disappear
behind the safe or the out box by right
clicking on the bank note, selecting ‘order’
then ‘send to back’.
Pupils could drag the notes into either the safe (income) or the out box
(expenditure). They enjoyed this activity and it was revisited in the starter for the next
lesson.
Here, a quiz from tutor2u resources
(http://www.tutor2u.co.uk ) was
copied into the interactive whiteboard
software. When a correct answer is
dragged over to the orange box, it will
show up on the screen. When an
incorrect answer is dragged to the
box, it will go 'behind'and not be
revealed.
Exam question modelling
This technique can be useful for explaining exam technique. Scan in some
examples of answers from past papers and display one at a time on the board.
Then, ask pupils to come up to the board and highlight the content, application,
analysis and evaluation parts of the answers. Pupils often struggle with the
understanding the different elements required in answers, and this makes them
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Becta | Secondary Business Studies with ICT: A Pupil's Entitlement to ICT in Secondary Business Studies
more aware of what examiners are looking for. Always make sure you ask before
you use past pupils' work, as some may not want their work shown.
Using digital video in business education
Is it ethical? The combination of an ethical issue such as sweatshops and the task of
making their own video can be a great motivator for pupils. This example was with
an AS class but could easily be a Stage 4 activity.
The brief was for small groups to make
three-minute movies that raised issues of
business ethics and present them to the
whole class.
With a little prompting, pupils were very
creative. The movies took the form of news
reports on serious breaches of ethics,
interviews with business leaders holding
different opinions and exposés in the style
of programmes like the Cook Report.
Contexts included accidents in a trainer-producing sweatshop caught on CCTV and
an undisclosed discovery of a bird flu vaccine, where the manufacturers were
waiting for an epidemic before launching the ‘product’.
The pupils enjoyed the creative aspect of the project. They took roles both in the
movies and as part of a production team.
Have I got news and television clips for you?
This teacher uses TV business programmes and news to bring topicality to lessons.
He has recorded entire series of programmes like Risking It All, The Apprentice, The
Money Programme and Dispatches. He also records BBC Breakfast, so that if there
is something interesting in the business slot, he can select the segment of the
recording, cut it down and transfer the resultant file to my laptop. He can then use
that material in class on the very same day or when appropriate within the scheme
of work.
For a GCSE business class on promotion, he has played a series of recorded
adverts. At the end of each one, he asks for a consensus show of hands as to which
marketing objective is being demonstrated: is it informing, persuading, reassuring or
creating an image? This tactic generates debate and pupils have to make a
convincing argument based on sound interpretation and evaluation.
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Becta | Secondary Business Studies with ICT: A Pupil's Entitlement to ICT in Secondary Business Studies
Supporting revision at GCSE
Business Studies Online
http://www.businessstudieson
line.co.uk is designed to
encourage self-guided
learning and one teacher
regularly suggests it to her
Year 11 class for use away
from the classroom for
revision.
The site is pupil focused and
provides a comprehensive coverage of the GCSE course, with resources that can be
used online.
As an alternative to Business Studies Online she sometimes uses the ‘bitesize’
materials
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/business/. Although the business studies
resources lack depth in places, it is excellent for last-minute revision and particularly
suitable for less able students.
Other web-based resources
Economics, Business and Enterprise Association
http://www.ebea.org.uk
The subject association for Business and EWB/FC, this has extensive support for
teaching and managing the subject on its website.
The Times 100
http://www.thetimes100.co.uk
This provides case studies for each Times 100 company with each clearly linked to a
specific topic area. The case studies are updated annually and can be a powerful
resource.
UpMyStreet
http://www.upmystreet.com
This site provides information about towns and neighbourhoods across the UK and
is an excellent source of information for research tasks. Pupils enjoy looking at the
statistics of their own neighbourhood, as this makes the data more relevant and
easy to understand.
National Statistics
http://www.statistics.gov.uk
National statistics offer an alternative (or supplement) to UpMyStreet. Teachers may
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Becta | Secondary Business Studies with ICT: A Pupil's Entitlement to ICT in Secondary Business Studies
want to adapt data for classroom use, however, as the breadth of options and the
raw nature of the data can make it daunting for pupils.
Dragons’ Den
www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden
This has engaging clips from the current series and is ideal for stimulating
discussion about a related concept.
Blogs and wikis
Blogs and wikis are an increasingly useful resource for Business Studies and
Economics classes. These are worth a look:
http://www.economicshelp.org/econ.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/
http://brynsaseconomicsblog.blogspot.com/
http://business-studies.typepad.com/economics_teacher/
http://welkerswikinomics.com/blog/
http://aquestionofeconomics.blogspot.com/
www.bized.co.uk/homeinfo/feeds.htm
http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/economics/
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