Curriculum Planning Strategies

Students vary in many respects, and so do teachers and schools. In planning the BAFS curriculum, implementation strategies may be based on students’ ability, teachers’ expertise, the availability of school facilities and resources, and the time-tabling patterns in schools. The following suggestions provide ideas as to how schools may plan the curriculum to cater for students with different abilities and interests, to integrate learning with life-wide learning experiences and assessment, and to make student learning more meaningful.

3.3.1 Catering for learner diversity

Students differ in their abilities, inclinations, interests, motivation and learning styles.

Guidance should be provided to help students explore their inclinations and develop their potential to the full. BAFS includes two modules: “Accounting” and “Business Management” in the elective part to cater for such student differences. Schools are encouraged to offer both elective modules, from which students may choose one. In addition, schools may design a range of learning activities outside class hours to fulfil students’

different learning needs.

Example

Schools can be flexible in designing learning and teaching activities. The following example illustrates how a school might arrange different activities for two groups of students. The first group of students is more inclined to self-directed learning, while the second group prefers interactive activities. In addition to the regular lesson time, each group will have additional learning activities based on their learning styles to enhance their learning in BAFS.

Group A Group B

e.g. simulated business competitions, independent reading, challenging learning tasks

e.g. guidance tutorials, role-plays, debates,

visits, seminars

3.3.2 Promoting life-wide learning

Schools may arrange their time-tables in a way that involves student participation in life-wide learning activities in authentic contexts. As the learning activities may take half a day or longer, schools may consider allocating a long session on a weekly basis for activities such as visits to firms or business talks. Such an arrangement will give teachers flexibility in planning and arranging life-wide learning or extended activities for their students.

Example

To support student learning with life-wide learning experiences, teachers may organise the following activities during their weekly long sessions:

 a visit to a flea market to enrich students’ understanding of entrepreneurship;

 participation in business competitions or events;

 visits to different banks or financial institutions and collecting information on various financial products and services; and

 attending tradeshows or exhibitions.

3.3.3 Flexible use of learning time

Booklet 2 of the Senior Secondary Curriculum Guide (CDC, 2009) advises schools to allocate 10% of the curriculum time to each elective subject, and also a minimum of 15% to Other Learning Experiences. The latter may include moral and civic education, community service and career-related experiences that enhance student learning of BAFS. Schools may make use of the curriculum time for Other Learning Experiences to arrange activities such as participation in business competitions and visits to business corporations which provide students with a wider exposure to the business world. Schools may wish to refer to case 1 in the examples of curriculum planning in Section 3.3.7 for more information.

3.3.4 Making student learning more meaningful

Schools should make effective use of a range of human, learning and administrative resources to enhance student learning. Within the school environment, there are many extra-curricular activities or school clubs and societies in which BAFS students can apply their business knowledge and skills. By engaging in such activities, students can reinforce their learning and recognise the usefulness and relevance of business knowledge and skills to their daily lives.

Examples

The following examples illustrate how students may practise their business knowledge and skills in different school activities:

 Applying accounting knowledge in preparing financial records and statements for the student union and clubs;

 Applying management strategies in organising school events such as open days, dramas, fashion shows, singing contests and community services;

and

 Performing cost-volume-profit analysis in selling refreshments or souvenirs to visitors at school open days.

3.3.5 Integrating curriculum planning and learning with assessment

Effective assessment involves collecting evidence about students’ learning, on the basis of which useful feedback can be provided to students, and to enable teachers to adjust their teaching. Assessment activities support student learning. A variety of modes of assessment, including presentations or debates on business issues, preparation for and review of business talks/visits, and pen-and-paper tests, can be adopted to help teachers monitor student progress.

School’s internal assessment should be built into ongoing learning and teaching activities to avoid excessive workload pressure on teachers and students. They should not be “add-on

elements”. The delivery of school’s internal assessment activities should form an integral part of the curriculum plan. Schools might like to consider connecting the activities under

‘Other Learning Experiences’ (see Section 3.3.7: case 1) for effective use of time.

3.3.6 Collaboration with other senior secondary subjects

The BAFS curriculum can be connected to the learning of other senior secondary subjects.

Indeed, it is desirable that BAFS teachers cooperate with teachers of other senior secondary subjects to organise learning and teaching activities, as illustrated in the following examples:

Collaboration with core subjects

BAFS teachers may collaborate with teachers of Liberal Studies to organise learning and teaching activities such as debates on business ethics and social responsibilities to supplement the learning of the two subjects.

Collaboration with elective subjects

BAFS teachers may cooperate with teachers of different elective subjects, such as Economics, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Tourism and Hospitality Studies, and Physical Education to arrange joint activities within or outside normal school hours. For instance, schools may organise visits or guest lectures on ICT applications in business as an essential learning experience in studying BAFS and ICT.

Collaboration with Applied Learning (ApL)

At S4, BAFS teachers may collaborate with the co-ordinators of ApL courses to organise induction activities to support students in making informed decisions about their study options. For example, a sharing session with students who are studying business-related ApL courses or guest lectures by ApL course providers might complement students’ knowledge in studying business at senior secondary level.

3.3.7 Examples of curriculum planning

Curriculum planning and development is an on-going process. Schools are encouraged to develop their own school-based curricula whenever appropriate and feasible. Some examples of BAFS curriculum planning are given below: