“Our education is what is left after we may have forgotten most of the facts which we have learned”
George Wrong (1924)
My methodology was quickly influenced by the above quotation by Canadian historian George Wrong, in a reading early on in my Bachelor of Education. It was an article by Ken Osborne titled, “Education and Schooling: A Relationship That Can Never Be Taken For Granted”. It is stunning to think that Wrong said these words in 1924 and 90 years later ministries and governments are only now trying to make education more relevant such as the BCEdplan and the push for real-world skills and less content.
This quotation reaffirms the notion that we are facilitators not teachers. Education is no longer about lecturing the students about content and material that they are likely to forget, it is about guiding the learning process.
I find that the above quotation is extremely relevant to Business Education because business is all around and is, and will be, a part of everyday lives. This is evident from the grocery stores, gas stations, coffee shops, and banks that we frequent on a daily basis. I firmly believe the study of Business Education should bring the real world into the classroom as well as take the classroom outside into the real world.
Today our students are surrounded by technology that brings information and entertainment, whether social media, movies, or games to their finger tips. This technology contributes to a sense of flow where, “we feel more alert and alive than we do at other times… in this state, the experience is its own reward”
As facilitators we are competing with this sense of flow and that is why it is important to incorporate technology into the classroom. When I look back on my education as well as my business experience I realize now that I did not learn from reading a book or listening to someone tell me how to do something. I need to try something for myself, and have the light bulb go on for me to truly learn and understand a new concept. Today technology in the form of games, and youtube often ignite the light bulb for students.
My goal is to apply every class to the real world whether through linking with Junior Achievement in Accounting, playing a stock market game or monitoring current events in Economics, to having the kids develop a company and product and market that company in a Marketing class. I believe that such methods will engage the students and create that sense of flow that is so prominent in their lives.
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