The advances in business education have been as a result of leadership provided by state authorities, local authorities, teachers' education institution, business teachers association and text-book publishers.
LEADERSHIP OF STATE AUTHORITIES
The success of business education has not been due to state support. Except for New York, which had employed an official charged with supervising business education, no other state had prepared a business curriculum for the guidance of local school officials who desired to set up a business course. Nor had a single state prepared a course of study in any business subject for the assistance of teachers who were responsible for presenting the business subjects.
Even public high schools that offered business subjects did so on the initiative of local authorities rather than because of the leadership of state authorities.
The early high school business teacher received their training in private business school and thus, the high school curriculum and to some extent the teaching methodologies did reflects the ideas of business schools rather than of state department of education.
Even as business education spread to town most states made no provision for issuing certificates covering the business subjects. The state believed that anyone was able to teach business subjects.
In 1909, New York State appointed Fredrick G. Nicholas as an inspector of Business education for the state department of education. Other states followed afterwards. Business education succeeded mostly on those countries that employed supervisors of Business education.
The numbers of states have placed business education under general supervision of the state director of vocational education. This has been considered as an acceptable plan if the state also employed specialists in business education.
The state have also assisted business education by preparing curriculum, course of study and bulletins relating to the curriculum construction, equipment and suppliers and other administrative matters. The publication has provided considerable guidance to public schools administrations and business teachers in developing effective business education programs.
The state certification of Business teachers has also affected the success of business education, since through these certification requirements, it can either lower or raise the teaching standards and thus raise or lower the standards of business education within the state.
The state can have a great effect on business education through its certification criteria, which may have a negative or positive effect. These can be done as follows: -
(i) Where the state issues several different business teachers’ certificates, one for each major field of work. This will them mean that the teacher will teach only those field indicated in the certificate.
(ii) The state may issue a general business teachers certificate covering all business subjects
(iii) It may also issue a certificate that list the business subjects that the teacher is entitled to teach.
(iv) The state may issue only a general certificate for teaching in the secondary schools. The main disadvantage is that the teacher can be forced to teach either a minor or a subject that he/she did not do in college, thus rendering too low quality education.
The qualification or lack of qualification of the business teacher largely determines the effectiveness of business education. Business education teacher should have the same general preparation for teaching like any other teacher. In addition, there is need to have a certain minimum number of semester hours of college work in each of the business subject taught, as well as special methods work in the teaching of the business subjects.
No teacher, otherwise certified should be permitted to teach a business subject unless he has the minimum preparation for teaching that particular subject. The trend today seems to be towards acquiring more business subject matter background on the part of each student preparing to teach business subjects. The state does provide data on Business Education on the number of schools offering business subject and the number enrolled in the business subjects. Also they do provide such information as the number of teachers, the rate of turnover and the percentage of beginning teachers.
The state department of education did also provide information on studies on business curriculum, with suggestions for reorganizations, objective evaluation of local business education programs upon invitation, information with reference to occupational trends, studies in dropout and failure in various business subjects, newsletters which contain materials and suggestions for more effective teaching and assistance in the development of new instructional films and other teaching aids.
LEADERSHIP OF CITY AUTHORITIES
Though at the beginning cities did not employ supervisors to supervise, the recent steps to employ qualified supervisors has contributed to the following:-
i) There is the modernization of the curriculum
ii) There is evidence of close cooperation between the business teachers of all the schools in the systems.
iii) In some cities, there is a fine spirits of cooperation between the public schools and private business schools.
iv) Placements bureaus for graduates have been established
v) There is a noticeable increase in the number of business teachers enrolled in state, regional and national business education associations.
LEADERSHIP OF TEACHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
This involves the formulation and guidance of ideas in others. The growth of the influence of the business teacher- education institutions was slow. The early high school business teachers were the products of the private business schools and these private schools were not influenced by the public schools administrations.
Immediately after the 1st World war, however, state teachers colleges and Liberal Arts College began organizing business teacher – education programs.
The standards of Business teachers were raised and quality education was offered. The early teachers who were prepared in private school had a good background on bookkeeping, typing etc. But there had not done any course in psychology and education, among others. Thus the greatest achievement of the teacher-education institutions has been in raising the professional and general educational and general educational standards of business teaches to levels that are comparable to those of other high school teachers.
Another outstanding service rendered by some colleges and Universities has been the publications of business education journals and periodicals. These periodical provide on excellent means for disseminating research findings to former business students who are now teaching or to other interested business teachers.
Colleges and universities that engaged in preparing business teachers have had considerable influence on business education through their annual business education conferences and workshops. These conferences are useful for they offer an opportunity for business teachers to receive help in solving their specific problems.
The research by graduate students and faculty members has contributed to our existing knowledge of business Education. Graduate students have provided information for curriculum reorganization through community surveys and follow up studies. Teaching aids and methods are also being developed through the research efforts of graduate students. Despite this contribution by graduate students, several weaknesses have already been pointed out.
i) Quality of the research needs to be improved since some graduates schools seem to be more concerned with number of studies completed rather than the quality of the work done.
ii) Lack of coordination of the research projects, which means that there is duplication of research is many areas of business education where as other areas are completely neglected.
iii) Research finding are rarely made available to the classrooms teachers and in most cases this research projects remain in the shelf.
This has made various committees to be formed to look at the above weaknesses. This is mainly aimed at improving the quality and distribution of research finding.
Lastly is the service rendered by faculty members. Some colleges and Universities have given advice on the reorganization and revisions of curriculum, on the selection of equipment, on the setting up of standards of achievements and on organizing testing programs. Many members of the faculty have been invited in several seminars.
LEADERSHIP OF BUSINESS TEACHER'S ASSOCIATIONS
In this case, teachers come together, listen to speakers, take part in discussions and return to their respective schools. Teacher’s Association has held their greatest influence on the methods of teaching used in the classroom.
Since teaching is the prime purpose for establishing schools, then any agency that brings about improvement of teaching methods that result in better learning must be recognized as exerting leadership in business education.
LEADERSHIP OF TEXTBOOKS PUBLISHERS
They have been in the front line in an effort to secure the adoption of newer and more scientific methods of teaching. Publishers have also been strongly backers of business teachers association and have furnished hundreds of speakers, free of cost, for the association programs.
In addition, the professional journals they publish and the free or inexpensive monographs, teaching aids, reports, or summary of research and the like now available throughout the nation have done much to bring about the improvement of business education.
Titany answered the question on December 15, 2021 at 09:01