REPORT INFORMATION ON THE INSPECTION ON THE QUALITY OF LEARNING AND TEACHING IN BUSINESS STUDIES AND BUSINESS

Transcription

1 An Roinn Oideachais agus Scileanna Department of Education and Skills Subject Inspection of Business Studies and Business REPORT Ennis Community College Ennis, County Clare Roll number: 70830N Date of inspection: 20 April 2015

2 REPORT ON THE QUALITY OF LEARNING AND TEACHING IN BUSINESS STUDIES AND BUSINESS INFORMATION ON THE INSPECTION Date of inspection 20 April 2015 Inspection activities undertaken Review of relevant documents Discussion with principal and teachers Interaction with students Observation of teaching and learning during four class periods Examination of students work Feedback to principal, deputy principal and teachers MAIN FINDINGS Good quality teaching and learning was evident in the lessons observed. Individual learning needs were accommodated by way of thorough lesson preparation by the teachers. Assessment approaches were very good and highly commendable practice was evident for the correction of students grammar and spellings in Irish-medium provision. Teachers have undertaken good quality analysis in relation to the decline in participation rates in business subjects. Schemes of work are in place for both subjects though there is scope to review the junior cycle schemes. A substantial body of additional resources has been developed by the teachers. MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS The subject teachers should agree and adopt a number of co-operative learning strategies for use in lessons. In line with the whole-school initiative to develop students study skills, increased use should be made of graphic organisers and other study aids to support learning. The Business Studies scheme of work should be reviewed to increase the emphasis on financial literacy in first-year and spread the delivery of higher-level outcomes more evenly through the cycle. 2

3 INTRODUCTION Ennis Community College operates under the auspices of Limerick Clare Education and Training Board. The school has a current enrolment of 490 students which includes 110 Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) students. The mainstream provision operates both an English-medium and an Irish language Aonad, known as Gaelchólaiste an Chláir. The school offers all curricular programmes including an optional Transition Year (TY). It also participates in Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS), the Department s action plan for educational inclusion. TEACHING AND LEARNING Good quality teaching and learning was evident in the lessons observed. Teachers are very sensitive to the needs of individual students and strive to provide a positive and secure learning environment for their students. Support for students was very strong. Individual learning needs were accommodated through diligent lesson preparation including for example, customised worksheets prepared for students with additional learning or language needs. However, given the specific learning needs of students evident in some of the class groups, a better balance is needed between the teaching and learning activities used to accommodate the range of learning needs. Students are well managed and kept on task. Though there were few examples of studentled activities they were effective when used. For example, pair work when used was well structured with students working off a common shared template and each group s conclusions shared with the rest of the class group. There is scope to further develop group work as a strategy for co-operative learning. Teachers focused on contextualising students understanding of the business environment to their own lives. Data protection legislation was related specifically to on-line purchasing and economic theory to personal budgeting. Across all the class groups an enthusiasm for the subjects was evident through the questions posed by students of their teachers. With junior cycle class groups, additional mechanisms to enable students to frame appropriate questions should be considered. Homework is regularly assigned and it is evident that the teachers are monitoring homework completion through a variety of approaches including, in-class spot checks, whole-class and teacher corrections. Though all teachers prepared additional resources for use in class, occasionally students did not have appropriate systems in place to record and store the information for further use, for example, as additional revision aids. Where relevant, appropriate maintenance of materials by students should form part of the in-class activities. In line with the wholeschool initiative to develop students study skills, increased use should be made of graphic organisers and other study aids. Class tests are frequent and their length and format are good and appropriate to the subjects. In all instances the feedback to students on their attainment and progress is positively framed. In the case of Irish-medium provision, correction of students grammar and spellings is evident. This is highly commendable practice. 3

4 Samples of senior cycle students tests reviewed by the inspector clearly show students level of progression. One additional option to consider is the use of a test copybook with junior cycle class groups to support the school s assessment as learning (AaL) strategy. SUBJECT PROVISION AND WHOLE SCHOOL SUPPORT Provision for junior cycle Business Studies differs between the English and Irish-medium units of the school. Business Studies is optional in the English unit and core in the Irishmedium unit. At senior cycle, Business is available in both units but given the number of students opting for it, only one class group is formed in each year. Though access is open at senior cycle, the school s management indicate that Business as a preference is low when students are surveyed regarding their preferences. The breadth of the junior cycle curriculum is a factor as the number of subjects students take at senior cycle is half that of junior cycle. The subject teachers have completed a detailed background paper with actions to address the pattern of uptake in the subject in recent years, given their concerns. In total across the school, participation in junior cycle is approximately one-third of the cohort with a decline to ten percent of the cohort at senior cycle. The quality of this analysis indicates significant strengths within the department to engage with the school self-evaluation process. To support its analysis the subject department is engaging with students to ascertain the factors affecting subject choice. Among additional area to consider are; students evaluation of the various areas of the course and their ease with each; ascertaining students preferred learning strategies; and whether performance at junior cycle affects decision making. In the Gaelchólaiste, the business module aims to support the subject sampling layer of the TY programme as well as the TY specific layer through the enterprise element. The impact of this module will need to be monitored by the department to achieve the maximum benefit to the students and the continuity in subject provision. Staff engage fully with the school s continuing professional development (CPD) programme and other relevant provision. PLANNING AND PREPARATION Schemes of work are in place for both subjects. The junior cycle schemes should be reviewed to plan for the completion of a greater number of higher-level syllabus outcomes in advance of third year. Earlier introduction of some of these areas may encourage greater uptake of the subject at higher level. The English-medium Business Studies scheme is linked to the relevant Junior Certificate Schools Programme (JCSP) statements of learning. There is scope to review this scheme to include the business documents in first year. A review of the content of the first-year scheme of work is advised to promote development of students general financial literacy skills. Likewise for Leaving Certificate Business, the sequence for delivery of the units could vary to reflect students interests, and current economic developments. 4

5 The TY plan for enterprise is presented in Irish and English. This means that the material is accessible to either section of the school. Class materials are made available online for access outside of class time. A substantial body of resources has been built up at junior cycle, likewise Irish-medium resources are constantly updated to address deficiencies in the published resources available. The department should encourage TY students to create a business blog with access to relevant updated resources for both senior and junior cycle students. The draft findings and recommendations arising out of this evaluation were discussed with the principal, deputy principal and subject teachers at the conclusion of the evaluation. The board of management was given an opportunity to comment in writing on the findings and recommendations of the report; a response was not received from the board. Published October