Curriculum Design

Word Count: 3300

Introduction:

This essay serves as a guide to my Enterprise Market Stall Short Course.

This is a Six-week course with the purpose of providing learners with the experience of forming, planning and then running their own business. This guide will begin with an overview of the course, its structure, aims and objectives. Next, the need for the course will be examined alongside the significance of the environment that has created the need for such a course. The curriculum approach will be discussed in order to determine the validity of the course. Finally, the feasibility of the course will be revealed, bringing the essay to an end with a conclusion that will confirm the future of such a course.

Experiential Learning will be recurring theme throughout this guide, as the emphasis on the need for practical learning will be promoted.

About The Course

My proposed course is called, the Enterprise Market Stall Short Course. The aim of this course is to equip learners with the skills needed to contribute to the running of a project, including the planning, delivery and review phases. The course will cover resource planning for a project, communication with stakeholders along with individual and overall project performance review. Students will be challenged and will develop transferrable skills by engaging in real time live business opportunities and in most cases experience the realities of planning and launching their own enterprise.

The course starts with students grouping up to form companies and with these companies they decide on a product to sell and a name. Following this, companies will work on their business plan with a special focus on financial planning. Week two will involve the creation of a marketing plan for companies to decide a strategy to gain attention and then sales. Week Three is where groups will prepare for their first market stall, the following week. Weeks Four and Five will be the practical ‘market stall’ sessions whereby students can put their plans to practice and gain experience of what it is like to actively run your business. Students will have recorded each step in their project booklets, from week one to week six. The market stall weeks will be recorded by two methods: 1. Digital notes (i.e. Photos, Videos etc) & 2. Performance figures (i.e. How many sales made, How much profit made & notes on customer interaction etc.)

This will be important because the final week, week six, is an evaluation week whereby students will write a report on the whole six weeks, what happened, what went well and what could be improved.
Key skills developed during this course are: * Business Planning * Project Management * Market Research (target market, competitive analysis & USP) * Finance/Budgeting planning * Marketing & Promotion (marketing objectives, reaching a target audience, developing a marketing strategy)

The main aim here is to inspire Level 2 students into believing that they can run a business and make their ideas come to life. Furthermore, it is hoped that if the students can develop a business concept as early as year one, they can continue it into year two and hopefully beyond. Starting this course early helps students develop a mental confidence that will strengthen their belief for the future. The course can also be delivered as a workshop to educate and inspire young offenders and youth club children etc. Each week will take two hours and are designed to be action-packed sessions with well-structured activities to guide the learner into creating new, powerful experiences that can be referenced in future.

This course has been modified and derived from an existing module that was designed by a teacher at Newham Sixth Form College on the two-year NCFE course. The original module takes place over the period of one academic year.

Relevance of The Course

The course discussed in this essay actually aims to condense the original module into an efficient 6-week course that could spawn early-stage startups that may develop into businesses.

As recognized by the author of the original module, such a course is integral to the both the educational and pastoral purposes of Newham Sixth Form College. This is because the college is located in a ‘deprived area’ and naturally, the majority of its students come from ‘deprived backgrounds’ where support is poor and as a result, opportunities and belief in self are low. Furthermore, in the 2010 Deprivation Index, The London Borough of Newham was listed as one of the 20 most deprived local authorities in England. (Department for Communities & Local Government, 2015:1-6) Historically, East London has a reputation for being less developed than other areas in London. It is often said that the recent 2012 Olympics, held in neighboring town, Stratford, helped to transform the area and ever since the spotlight has been on the area, local investment has risen to unprecedented levels. According to the Independent, ‘London’s share of the most deprived neighbourhoods in England has almost halved in the past decade, from 462 in 2004 to 274 in 2015.’ (Owen, 2015:1) According the Dr. Rae, the change has been so sharp that it “shows apparent dispersal of London’s poorest residents over little more than a decade” and “all of the evidence points to the fact that poorer people are having to move out of inner London boroughs due to housing costs.” (Owen, 2015:1) As a result, the college should aim to provide a platform that is representative of the wide-ranging demographic of its students so they too may experience facilities and opportunities that are equal to those offered in the very best colleges in London, public or private. In addition, these opportunities should be equally accessible to all regardless of gender, race or wealth (deprived or wealthy). According to their policy: “the College aims to be a welcoming, inclusive college for all who learn, work or use our services. We believe in respect for everyone; we want to develop our community by valuing diversity and advancing equality.” (Playfair, 2016) More specifically, Newvic go further to state three of their six objectives for 2016 as: 1. Ensure There is a More Balanced Representation of Specific Groups on College Courses 2. Review the Accessibility to All Aspects of College Life to Ensure All Students Have Fair and Equal Access to Involvement or Progression 3. Continued Monitoring of College Success Rates for Specific Groups to Ensure No Significant Difference Between Groups is Maintained

(Playfair, 2016)

Despite the recent trends of gentrification, these objectives appear to be representative of the wide-ranging demographic that still make up the population of Newvic. And with the dizzy heights of Canary Wharf a stone’s throw away (and clearly visible from Newvic classrooms), the course proposed in this essay aims to build on Newvic’s aims to provide equal opportunities to students of all backgrounds.

Given the college’s location and the deprivation amongst many of its students, social inclusion is clearly at the forefront of this course. Research by the Inclusive Design Research Centre, OCAD University, suggests that, ‘inclusivity has moved beyond just physical and cognitive disabilities to include a full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age and other forms of human differences.’ (IDRC, 2015) Similarly, research conducted by Pickett and Wilkinson suggests, “student performance and behaviour in educational tasks can be profoundly affected by the way we feel, we are seen and judged by others. When we expect to be view as inferior, our abilities seem to diminish" (2010:113) As a result, facilitators of this course must be aware of their class profile. Newvic has an ‘inclusive practice’ system where all students are educated together with additional support provided for students who may require them. As this course will be initially run at Newvic, inclusive practice is the system that will be used.

As previously stated, the main aim of this course is to inspire and encourage entrepreneurial ambitions amongst youngsters. Not only can this course be taught within a college setting but it can also be delivered as a six-week community workshop at local youth centres who can use the course to create meaningful projects for it’s members. For this reason, I believe that the course will, in most cases, utilise the ‘inclusive practice’ model in the classroom. All students will participate in this project via their group, regardless of any disabilities and here; groups will be monitored and assisted with relevant adaptations made, where necessary, for the benefit of any disabilities. Extra sessions provided by the College will be utilised by students requiring them in order to ensure that they receive the equal opportunities, discussed above. However, this remains open to interpretation as many other facilitators of this course may wish to choose another model for inclusion. The course itself stands for a complete inclusive practice but there are no restrictions on the course that would prevent the use of other models of inclusion.

The ability to include all resides heavily with the curriculum design, which leans heavily towards the ‘apprenticeship model’ where the focus is on becoming. According to Barab & Hay, apprenticeships include, “(1) the development of learning contexts that model proficiency, (2) providing coaching and scaffolding as students become immersed in authentic activities, (3) independent practice so that students gain an appreciation of the use of domain-related principles across multiple contexts” (2001:72) As Pratt simply stated: ‘the Apprenticeship Perspective involves the learner within an actual, physical context of practice.’ (1998:32)

The Curriculum

This course is very much driven by its process, which guides the participant towards the end result of launching a business. There may not be a professional standard certificate awarded but the experience gained as well as the opportunity offered, should provide a good foundation upon which a learner will develop an understanding of how to launch a business.

Overall, I’d like to consider the curriculum design of this course a ‘modified process approach.’ Furthermore, unlike the praxis curriculum model, this course has been designed with pre-planning as well as evaluation to ensure that a holistic yet realistic approach to developing a business is retained. In essence, this is the best approach of execution for this course. Moreover, how often is a successful business launched without a plan (of some sort)? Brinckmann et al, published their 2010 study on: Should Entrepreneurs plan or just storm the castle? Their study aggregated research on the business growth of 11,046 companies and found that planning improved business performance. (2010:24)
Additionally, this course has been initially crafted to fit within the NFEC Two-Year course curriculum and as a result, is, initially, targeted at the 16-18 year old age group. Therefore, a certain amount is delivery is required in the initial stages, weeks 1 – 3, for the students to develop knowledge of what they are aiming to do and how they will successfully complete the tasks in weeks 4 & 5. This feeds the narrative of learning by doing but with a plan first, also supporting Schofield and Honore’s study, which claimed that the current generation Y learns more by doing. (2009)

Criticisms of the proposed, ‘process’ approach have often stated that there is no formal assessment or structure. The lack of formal assessment remains within this course, as it exists to provide an alternative to more traditional methods of learning, providing ‘real-life’ experience as a formal assessment. According to Peter Cappelli, ‘employers nowadays appear to bemoan the lack of experience available in contrast to the vast wealth of academic talent, especially because you cannot get work experience at school.’ (2012:10) This has become known as the ‘skills gap.’ However, in the UK, the government has sought to combat this issue through their National Apprenticeship Service, formed in 2009. Now, there are over 100,000 employers offering apprenticeships across the UK. (Apprenticeships, 2016)

Despite the progress, we must ask if this is enough though. The Office for National Statistics claims that there will be 4.9 million teenagers in Britain by 2017. This course is being proposed in 2016 and with one year to go, it is evident that we need to do more to sufficiently train our youngsters. (Moore, 2010)

On the lack of structure, this course has been organised in a very clear manner with set objectives for each week over the six-week period. * Week One – Creating a Business Plan = theory & planning * Week Two – Creating a Marketing Plan = theory & planning * Week Three – Planning for Market Stall = planning * Week Four – 1st Market Stall Delivery = practical/assessment * Week Five – 2nd Market Stall Delivery = practical/assessment * Week Six – Evaluation of performance = evaluation/report

(see Appendix B)

Weeks 4-6 are the most crucial parts of the course, following the Kolb model of experiential learning and learning by doing. (Kolb, 1984) Considering the aforementioned struggles of deprivation across Newham, Paulo Friere’s ‘praxis’ pedagogy proposes an interesting concept where he states that, ‘through praxis, oppressed people can acquire a critical awareness of their own condition, and, with their allies, struggle for liberation.’ (Friere, 1970:126) Essentially, this relies on the action of doing, or as Scott and Marshall would state: ‘taking human action on the natural and social world.’ (2009:25) However, the structure of the course is focused on learner’s constructing their own framework of understanding to make meaning of a subject and convert it into personal knowledge. Through the practical nature of the course, not only do students learn by doing, they also need to reflect on the learning process itself so that when a situation arises where information skills are called for, they can create a plan to address their needs drawing on their own understanding of previous knowledge and interpretation. In this way they take control of the learning process and are able to transfer their skills from one situation to another. The desired outcome of the theory-practical-evaluation sequence of this course is to promote, “the major emphasis on the processes of development it sets out to promote, so that if it can be said to be concerned with products or outcomes, these will be defined in terms of intellectual development and cognitive functioning rather than in terms of quantities of knowledge absorbed or changes of behavioural performance.” (Blenkin et al, 1981:89)

As admirable as Scott and Marshall’s statement is, it may appear idealistic on it’s own. Therefore it is clear that, going out into the world to ‘take action’ without any knowledge of how to achieve desired outcomes could lead to instant failure. Even so, as the age-old Benjamin Franklin quote goes: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” (Franklin and Willcox, 1986)

It is worth mentioning here that my lesson plans for this course have been formulated out of criticism received when I shared my course to design to my colleagues. One in particular made reference to the ambiguity of how exactly I would conduct this course. What would each lesson look like? How would each weekly objective be achieved? Obviously, the strength of reaching the course’s objectives lie with how much can be achieved each week.

As a result, I have decided to create a lesson plan for each week. Here is what Week One will look like:

Class | Warm Up | Main Activities | Closure | Materials | Week One (2 hours) | Introduction of Course (10 - 15 mins)Group Introduction Icebreaker & Allocation (10 mins) | What is entrepreneurship exercise? (10 mins)Video case studies of successful entrepreneurship i.e. Virgin, Alan Sugar etc. (15 - 20 mins) View examples of successful Business Plans (15 - 20mins)Creation of Business Plan in groups (30 mins) | Quiz on key factors of a business plan (5 – 10 mins)Briefing for next week (5 mins) | PowerPointProject BookletsComputers |

Whilst the lesson plans are vital towards achieving the desired objectives of this course, they will be provided as a guideline or template for each lesson. It is fully expected that each facilitator responsible for delivering this course would have the freedom to design their own lesson plans and add their own expertise into providing the best possible experience of this course for their students.

Providing the freedom for practitioners to adapt this course for their needs is a very important part of this courses’ design because this course has not been created to become static. As mentioned earlier, this course is a derived from a yearlong module that was created to fit within the structure of the NFEC qualification. Individually, this course has a Business Enterprise Programme Award Ceremony – all students invited to celebrate achievements and receive a certificate. This is in addition to the NFEC certificate that will be received upon completion of that qualification. This ensures that, whether the course is stand alone or within the NCFE, or any other, structure, participants will receive a tangible award, representative of their efforts. Clearly, with this experience under the belt, and a certificate to prove it, participants can then move on with the belief that they have achieved something on their own merits and this is key in creating the self-confidence that was mentioned earlier in this essay.

As with any modern course, participants will also need the tangible skill of being able work with the existing apparatus within the modern world. Essentially, this means that this course must integrate elements of ICT and, to a lesser extent, ILT. As Jung said, ‘while ICT is not a panacea for all educational problems, it is impossible to teach today without technological tools.’ (2005:1)

Within the six weeks of this course, students will be encouraged to use computers in aid of their research for their business and marketing plans. As mentioned above, almost everything is online and how else could participants be able to carry out crucial activities such as: competitor analysis etc.?

Thankfully, computer facilities can be accessed via the library and computer rooms at Newham 6th Form College and whilst computer-based activities are not a large part of this course, it is recommended that leaders of this course are able to provide access to these facilities for completion of vital tasks such as, competitor analysis and etc. Whilst teaching the longer format of this course, I have built-in a few sessions of computer-based classes where learners simply use the computers to complete research and to type up final drafts of documents due. Of course, students could read records from the library but it is now common knowledge that the best place to gain up-to-date information quickly is now on the Internet, access for which, a computer is needed. In addition to this, use of everyday technology will be vital to record progress and examples of where modern technology would be useful are as follows: use of mobile phone camera to take photos/video evidence of market stall experience and use of Microsoft PowerPoint to create promotional materials for their project. Finally, students will have the option to present their final project portfolio either by hand-written documentation, typed documentation or a combination of the two.

Conclusion:

To conclude, I would like to confirm that I believe this course may borrow on a range of curriculum approaches, especially the process design but is not defined completely by it. The aim is to create a course that is itself inclusive of all necessary curriculum approaches, the best approach for creating a well-balanced course with holistic yet realistic tasks, creating a well-rounded experience. The significance of this course is great, however, the impact is not so. This is due to the lack of similar ‘practical’ courses in other subject areas. I hope that more similar courses will follow, as I believe that this will increase the impact of learning by doing which is the basis of this course.

For the course itself, I would not suggest that the learning stops at the end of this course. I would in fact, encourage further practice in order to provide continuation of skill development. In essence, following the evaluation of Week 6, I would recommend facilitators and learners to continue with more practical sessions to build upon the lessons learned from the evaluation and show real development.

References

Apprenticeships. (2016). Apprenticeships - GET IN. GO FAR. [online] Available at: http://www.apprenticeships.gov.uk/ [Accessed 27 Apr. 2016].

Barab, S. and Hay, K. (2001). Doing science at the elbows of experts: Issues related to the science apprenticeship camp. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(1), pp.70-102.

Blenkin, G. and Kelly, A. (1981). The primary curriculum. London [England]: Harper & Row, p.89.

Brinckmann, J., Grichnik, D. and Kapsa, D. (2010). Should entrepreneurs plan or just storm the castle? A meta-analysis on contextual factors impacting the business planning–performance relationship in small firms. Journal of Business Venturing, 25(1), pp.24-40.

Cappelli, P. (2012). Why Good People Can't Get Jobs. New York: Wharton Digital Press, p.10.

Department for Communities & Local Government, (2015). The English Indices of Deprivation 2015. London: National Statistics, pp.1-6.

Franklin, B. and Willcox, W. (1986). The papers of Benjamin Franklin. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.

Honore, S. and Schofield, C. (2009). Generation Y & Learning. The Ashridge Journal, [online] pp.26-32. Available at: https://www.ashridge.org.uk/Media-Library/Ashridge/PDFs/Publications/GenerationYAndLearning.pdf [Accessed 27 Apr. 2016].

IDRC, A. (2016). Inclusive Design Research Centre. [online] Idrc.ocadu.ca. Available at: http://idrc.ocadu.ca/about-the-idrc [Accessed 27 Apr. 2016].

Jung, I. (2005). ICT-Pedagogy Integration in Teacher Training: Application Cases Worldwide. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, [online] 8(2), pp.94-101. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.8.2.94 [Accessed 27 Apr. 2016].

Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Moore, M. (2010). Teenage population 'to fall over next decade'. Telegraph. [online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7790539/Teenage-population-to-fall-over-next-decade.html [Accessed 27 Apr. 2016].

Owen, J. (2015). Gentrification pushing some of the poorest members of society out of their homes, says study. The Independent, [online] p.1. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/gentrification-pushing-some-of-the-poorest-members-of-society-out-of-their-homes-says-study-a6695926.html#commentsDiv [Accessed 27 Apr. 2016].

Pickett, K. and Wilkinson, R. (2010). The Spirit Level - Why Equity is Better for Everyone. England: Penguin, p.113.

Playfair, E. (2016). Newham Sixth Form College - Equality Objectives 2012-16. [Report] Newham Sixth Form College Archive, London.

Pratt, D. (1998). Five perspectives on teaching in adult and higher education. Malabar, Fla.: Krieger Pub. Co.

Scott, J. and Marshall, G. (2009). A dictionary of sociology. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.20-30.

APPENDICES

Subject: Business Studies | Duration: 6 weeks | Centre: Newham 6th Form College | Day & Time: | Level: NCFE Level 2 & 3 | Tutor: Mr. Usman Kadiri | | | Accessibility:Face to Face | | | Student Target Group | NCFE Business Level 2 (*Primarily for but not exclusive to:16-18 year old students) | Course Aims | The aim of this unit is to equip learners with the skills needed to contribute to the running of a project; including the planning, delivery and review phases. This unit covers resource planning for a project, communication with stakeholders along with individual and overall project performance review | Learning Outcomes | Students will be challenged and will develop transferrable skills by engaging in real time live business opportunities and in most cases experience the realities of planning and launching their own enterprise | Learning Activities | * Business Planning/Project Management (timelines, milestones, SMART objectives) * Market Research (target market, competitor analysis, research into industry, competitive advantage & USP) * Finance/Budgeting (start-up costs, break even, planning an event to a set budget) * Marketing & Promotion (marketing objectives, reaching a target audience, developing a marketing strategy) | Assessment Methods | Contribution to planning a project – business planContribution to running a project – market stallContribution to reviewing a project – evaluation document | Resources | PowerPointProject BookletsComputersPhoto/VideoMarket Stall | After the Course | Continued live delivery of project e.g. pitching to industry professionals, running an event – The opportunity to take their business forward into the real worldBusiness Enterprise Programme Award Ceremony – all students invited to celebrate achievements and receive a certificate |

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COURSE DESCRIPTION (App. A)

INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION PGCE/DIPLOMA (PC) SCHEME OF WORK | Name of Trainee Teacher: Usman Kadiri | Course Title & Level: Group Apprentice (Contribute to Running a Project) | Total No. Lessons/Sessions: 6 | | | | Session No. | Duration | Content Summary | Learning Outcomes | Main Teaching Methods | Resources | Assessment Methods | Key Skills Covered | 1 | 2 hours | IntroductionIcebreakers View examples of Business PlansCreation of Business PlansQuiz on key factors of a business plan | Creating a Business PlanStudents will learn what a Business Plan isHow to identify a good business planHow to write a complete business planHow to build a business team & work together to start a business | Tutor LectureWhole Class DiscussionPaired activities and Group work. | PowerPointProject BookletsComputers | Q & AQuizFill-in BookletsWorksheet Activities with SnowballingIn-class Assessment/ Peer Assessment – key questions.Independent reading and research.Group discussion, verbal analysis and evaluation. Case studies as necessary. | CommunicationWritingNumerical: Understanding of financial planning | 2 | 2 hours | Recap, building on business planView examples of marketing plansCreation of marketing plansQuiz on key factors of marketing plans | Creating a Marketing PlanStudents will learn how to create a Marketing plan | Tutor LectureWhole Class DiscussionPaired activities and Group workCompletion of worksheet exercises | PowerPointProject BookletsComputers | Q & AQuizFill-in BookletsWorksheet Activities with SnowballingIn-class Assessment/ Peer Assessment – key questions.Independent reading and research.Group discussion, verbal analysis and evaluation. Case studies as necessary. | CommunicationWritingNumerical: Understanding of marketing planning | 3 | 2 hours | Recap, on business & marketing planView examples of market stallsCreation of market stall planQuiz on plans for market stall | Planning for Market Stall DeliveryUsing the Business Plan and Marketing Plan of the past two weeks, students will learn to plan for selling their business products at a market | Tutor LectureWhole Class DiscussionPaired activities and Group workCompletion of worksheet exercises | PowerPointProject BookletsComputersVideo | Q & AQuizFill-in BookletsWorksheet Activities with SnowballingIn-class Assessment/ Peer Assessment – key questions.Independent reading and research.Group discussion, verbal analysis and evaluation. Case studies as necessary. | CommunicationWritingNumerical: Understanding the cost for hosting a market stall & calculation of profit | 4 | 2 hours | IntroductionPresentation of business at market stall delivery | 1st Market Stall DeliveryStudents will learn here, how to perform at a market stall | Students to present their market stalls to tutor and the public | Market StallPhoto/Video: Performance to be recorded | Q & A Calculation of profit and lossLogging of performance: Profit & Loss | Communication: Performance at market stallNumerical: Understanding of profit and loss at market stall | 5 | 2 hours | IntroductionPresentation of business at market stall delivery | 2nd Market Stall DeliveryStudents will learn here, how to perform at a market stall and improve on the previous | Students to present their market stalls to tutor and the public | Market StallPhoto/Video: Performance to be recorded | Q & A Calculation of profit and lossLogging of performance: Profit & Loss | Communication: Performance at market stallNumerical: Understanding of profit and loss at market stall | 6 | 2 hours | Recap on previous performanceStudents to view performance on photo/video | Evaluation of project/performance and businessDeveloping a plan to improve own performanceDescribing what went well in the projectDescribing what did not go so well in the projectStating what would be done differently in the futureDescribing how the plan will be updated | Tutor LectureWhole Class DiscussionPaired activities and Group workCompletion of worksheet exercises & reflection booklet | PowerPointProject BookletsComputersPhoto/Video | Fill-in BookletsWorksheet Activities with SnowballingIn-class Assessment/ Peer Assessment – key questions.Independent reading and research.Group discussion, verbal analysis and evaluation. | CommunicationWritingNumerical: Understanding profit & loss |