With the implementation of multi-purpose Higher Secondary Scheme, there has occurred a qualitative improvement in the school commerce programme. This had become possible because of the fact that the programme is based on certain stated basic objectives.
The fulfilment of the objectives of the commerce programme lies in the competencies of the students, who pass out of the secondary schools since the programme has turn objectives (i.e. (i) preparing the students for immediate employment, and (ii) to prosecute education at the end of secondary stage) so the programme must consider two types of competencies of students i.e..
(i) Competency desired by the employer’s i.e. reasonable degree of efficiency and skill.
(ii) Competency desired by the institution of higher learning i.e. providing educational background that is essential for a student to enable him to undertake the studies in the field of higher education.
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Though no clear cut demarcation is possible between the two because for both the above competencies the pupil must be capable of reading intelligently, writing correctly and communicating effectively in addition to the above, the pupil must be capable of taking responsibility as an active and cooperative citizen of our society. He must be capable of participating intelligently in social, political and business “e of the community.
Competency-problem solving
In the words of Tonne, Popham and Freeman, “Much of the current education philosophy is based on the idea that the educative process is largely training in problem solving”
The student is presented with a situation wherein he requires learning, how to do a certain thing? In their way he realises a felt need and as a consequence learning takes place.
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A teacher of skills subscribing to the above views might on the very first day in a type-writing class direct the discussion to the uses to be, derived from a course in type-writing the student may take a decision to have a typed schedule pasted on a suitable place in his bed room so as to be school in time. In the class-room the teacher may then start the work with an exercise in tabulation or in short-hand, the students may be interested to write the names, of his friends, in short hand. In this way the class work will start with writing of any new word in which the student shows his interest.
There may be many a real life problems that may be presented to the students and he may be helped to solve it. In this way student may be motivated in the topic and may be helped to learn by problem solving.
More about it is discussed under the head Teaching of Competencies. (Article 4.8)
The examples of sub-conscious learning given by Douglas, Blend ford and Anderson, “A teacher once had in a class a girl who was unusually expert in taking dictation on the stenotype. She quite often was hired to record discussion and proceedings at conventions and important Board meetings.
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She had the reputation of never missing a word in her recording, yet while she was recording she habitually was reading a book or magazine at the same time. She has developed her skill so highly that it was completely atomized; her fingers reached instantly when the sound of the voice reached her ears. She had actually found that her records were more accurate when she deliberately kept her minds off her work.”
The six steps of learning skills
Dr. Khan opines, ‘There are six steps which are necessary to achieve mastery of the skill. They are pre-test, teach-test, the result, adopt the procedure, re-teach, re-test, and continue the process till the actual mastery is achieved”. The use of their steps is essential to the skills teacher. The use of demonstration should be made in achieving mastery of skills. It is better for the teacher to demonstrate than to simply tell to the students. Demonstration is helpful because the student makes it a habit to practice the demonstrated technique. The effectiveness of the learning of skills can be checked by sufficiently practicing the skill.
To achieve *he stage of automatization in any skill it should be practiced a number of times. The fingers of the typist should move at a fairly good speed when he types a letter from his short-hand notes this skill is developed only after several years of practice. To start with, he learnt type-writing from printed matter, then he learnt shorthand. With practice he learnt to write accurately, speedily and with perfection. Afterwards he must have learnt to type-write from his ” short-hand notes. With sufficient practice he has now reached a stage when he does not spell the words as they are typed, his eyes now see short-hand outlines that represent the words, sounds and phrases and he now correctly spells out every word. He inserts all the needed punctuations as a habit without any extra effort. Thus now he has reached a stage of automatization.
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Modern pattern of experts
The features of expert patterns as enunciated by Tonne are as follows:
(I) Establishment and maintenance of a steady, even flow of motion all practice should be directed towards the acquisition of such a flow, even in the initial stage, at the expense of accuracy.
(II) Easy and economical movements.
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(III) Related performance unhampered by nervous tension and hurry.
(IV) Concentration upon the task at hand.
Teaching of competencies
It is agreed by all that the first step in the learning of Commerce Education is the learning of facts and skills. It is highly desirable for everyone to be capable of application of the skill, understanding and attaining competency in solving the problem.
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Problem solving activity in the practical aspect of the skills learnt in any commerce subject. Let us take the example from accountancy. A successful accountant must be a practical person, should be able to record dealings properly and in a comprehensible manner so as to be understandable to the Chief Executive or the employer, and the Government department.
In a similar way a company secretary should be fully capable of taking a dictation in short-hand and then type it out correctly, neatly and efficiently. She must also be capable of sending out the letter in good professional way.
Teaching of understanding and application
To teach understanding and application is a very complex task and is much more difficult in comparison to teach mere facts and details. For teaching of understanding and application the teacher is required to be an expert on the subject and fully skilled in the subject. This type of teaching can be impacted by a process that would consist of understanding application and competency problem solving on the part of the teacher himself. The level of attainment of these factors is also different in teaching the important elements.
Expressing himself on this topic Dr. Khan opines, “If the students understand any fact properly and are capable of applying the principle based on these facts, the problem is likely to be solved easily a good office worker must develop such competencies which can help him in coping with the difficulties involved in performance of his job. For example, if he is an accountant, he should be able to prepare his books of accounts properly and he should have this understanding of the accounts so that in case there are any mistakes in recording he should be in a position to find out such mistakes with ease The competencies of problem solving can be attained if understanding has been developed and capacity of applying learned principles has been attained.
Steps for Problem-solving
Various steps of problem-solving process are as follows:
(i) To Determine the Problem
For solving the problem it is essential to clearly outline and determine the problem. It would be desirable to have some significant and interesting problem.
(ii) To Fix the Limit of the Problem
For every problem there are certain levels and limits. We have to tackle any problem only at the level of capability of the students and limits be fixed with this in view.
(iii) To Know the Existing Knowledge of the Students
For fixing the limits of the problem in accordance with the level of the students’ attainment it is essential that the teacher knows about the existing knowledge of the students.
(iv) New Facts should be acquired
It is essential to acquire some new facts which shall be needed for teaching activity and application of the skill.
(v) Problem Solutions should be Determined
There could be number of probable solutions to a problem. It is desirable to discuss the merits and demerits of all such possible problems and thus the best solution be determined.
(vi) Application of the Solution
The best solution having been determined it should then be applied to solve the problem.
Unit method of teaching
This is one of the methods of teaching generally used by teachers and »s considered to be one of the best methods of teaching
“Unit teaching as it is being carried out at present involves: (i) board comprehensive problem, (ii) a series of related learning’s for the entire group and individual learning in terms of specific needs, abilities or interests of students, (iii) a plan for evaluation of outcomes. Usually Unit teaching involves three stages as follows:
(i) The planning stage in which problems are clarified, alternate plans of work considered and decisions reached as to how the group shall proceed, (ii) an extended working stage in which there is much group discussion library research, investigations, experimentation, individual and committee work, and the like, and (iii), a culminating phase in which results are brought together, conclusions are reached and results are evaluated”.
“It should be obvious that unit teaching is not only concerned with units of subject matter, but is equally concerned with a process of teaching which takes into account modern psychological principles of learning dealing with individual differences, goal sharing pupil teacher planning and pupil self-evaluation while these characteristics cannot be claimed as the role property of the unit method. This method lequires the inclusion of these characteristics in its plan and operation before true unit teaching can be achieved or claimed
Dr. Khan gives a clarification of unit method in his book ‘The Practice of Teaching in Secondary Schools” by taking up the Morrison plan. He writes as follows:
The Morrison plan for teaching gave rise to unit teaching. “Much of the unit” teaching now found in high schools may be traced directly or indirectly to influence the Morrison Plan. Like Herbert, Morrison too had five teaching or learning steps in his plan. Various steps of Morrison Plan are as under:
(i) Exploration.
(ii) Presentation.
(iii) Assimilation.
(iv) Organization
(v) Recitation.
Though the steps in Herbert Plan and Morrison Plan are similar, yet there are certain major distinctions between the two. Some of these distinctions are as follows:
(i) Herbert Steps were for a single recitation or class-room period where as Morrison Plan is to be used over several periods.
(ii) Herbertion steps can fit into any kind of learning but it was claimed by Morrison that attitudes of understanding, appreciation, special abilities and skills are quite different products of learning and so they need different teaching techniques.
(iii) In Herbertian method learning is presented in fragments where as in Morrison Plan learning is taken as whole to be most effective.