I feel that Business Education is an area that has few boundaries. Most often Business Education classes are not required classes or core in order to graduate. Therefore, teachers are able to interpret the curriculum guides they want or need to. It seems to me that flexibility to interpret curriculum can be both good and bad. Some teachers are able to teach usable content with instructional approaches that are meaningful. However, other teachers can interpret curriculum and only teach the bare minimum. Personally, I like the flexibility to emphasize the important content that is meaningful to the students and useful in the "real world".

Business Education includes many different courses. I think it is one of the most diverse subjects. A student has many choices within Business Education, for example Entrepreneurship, Information Processing, Accounting, Introduction to Business, Computer Science, Keyboarding, etc. Students have different interest however; they can choose an appropriate approach in which to learn about the Business World.

A person might question, Is Business Education at the high school level training for "work" or University? Should high school be only academic training? I think real life skills are taught in Business Education. These skills are ones that students can use lifelong. Some people believe that high school should be strictly academic training. However, much of the information and skills taught in Business Education can be used for career and educational success. Therefore, I think whether a student decides to go to University or pursue the work force the information and skills students receive in Business Education are valuable.

What do I think is the most effective instructional approach in Business Education? There isn't an easy answer for this question. As mentioned earlier, Business Education includes many different courses. Within the different courses are varied types of content. However, a course like Accounting is mostly direct. A course like Entrpreneurship can be very Experiential and Indirect. Again, because of the flexibility teachers can vary the instructional approaches, as they want. I believe teachers instructional approaches depend on their philosophy on teaching and learning. I believe my job, as a teacher is to provide students with content that is meaningful to them. I believe students must personalize information before they can really learn the information. Therefore, I think Indirect and Experiential learning are the most effective instructional approaches when teaching, especially, teaching Business Education. I realize other Business Education teacher will disagree, it depends on their philosophy and interpretation of the curriculum guides.

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