Business Management Teacher Support Material Summary

Diploma Programme

Business management teacher support material.

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The International Baccalaureate Organization, a not-for-profit educational foundation.

Website

ibo.org

Copyright

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2022. All rights reserved. License requests should be sent to copyright@ibo.org.

IB Mission Statement

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

IB Learner Profile

The IB learner profile represents 10 attributes valued by IB World Schools:

1. Inquirers: We nurture our curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and research.

2. Knowledgeable: We develop and use conceptual understanding, exploring knowledge across a range of disciplines.

3. Thinkers: We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyse and take responsible action on complex problems.

4. Communicators: We express ourselves confidently and creatively in more than one language and in many ways.

5. Principled: We act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness and justice.

6. Open-minded: We critically appreciate our own cultures and personal histories, as well as the values and traditions of others.

7. Caring: We show empathy, compassion, and respect. We have a commitment to service.

8. Risk-takers: We approach uncertainty with forethought and determination; we work independently and cooperatively to explore new ideas.

9. Balanced: We understand the importance of balancing different aspects of our lives—intellectual, physical, and emotional—to achieve well-being for ourselves and others.

10. Reflective: We thoughtfully consider the world and our own ideas and experience. We work to understand our strengths and weaknesses.

Business Management Teacher Support Material

• Guidance on approaching teaching and learning.

• Suggestions for unit and lesson plans.

• Responses to frequently asked questions.

Teaching Based on an Inquiry Approach

Inquiry is important because:

• It is motivating and promotes learning.

• It strengthens skills like transfer, communication, and self-management.

• It is a necessary part of learning due to the amount of available information.

• It engages students in real-life authentic contexts.

Inquiry in the DP

The IB philosophy revolves around inquiry. Students should:

• Develop their natural curiosity and skills to become autonomous lifelong learners.

• Think for themselves to approach complex problems.

• Apply their knowledge critically and creatively.

Inquiry in the Business Management Classroom

• Shared language between students and teachers is needed to discuss learning.

• Inquiry learning requires higher-order thinking.

• Teachers should challenge students with tasks that require analysis, predictions, and reflection.

• Investigation and questioning drive inquiry.

• Skills are taught explicitly to enable students to “learn how to learn”.

Example

How environmentally sustainable is the shift to using electric cars as opposed to petrol-fueled cars?

Inquiry Classrooms

• Nurture curiosity.

• Are flexible and accept different opinions.

Example

A class debate on evaluating the impact of culture on business behavior.

The Inquiry Teacher

• Listens, interacts, and engages with students.

• Asks questions to challenge thinking.

• Helps students link their investigation to an authentic context.

• Allows students to discover for themselves and make decisions about their learning.

• Uses a variety of teaching strategies and makes connections between ideas and disciplines.

• Collaborates with other teachers.

• Uses subject-specific terminology.

• Uses a wide range of resources.

• Encourages participation.

• Knows their students well.

• Establishes a well-connected community of learners.

• Challenges higher-order thinking through authentic tasks.

• Thinks about what is going on and doesn't assume.

• Tells students to find out for themselves.

Inquiry Questions

Three types of questions:

1. Factual: Knowledge/fact-based, content-driven, skills-related, supported by evidence.

   • Can be used to explore terminology in the statement of inquiry.

   • Encourage recall and comprehension. Questions can start with what or how.

2. Conceptual: Enable the use of facts and concepts to debate a position, promote discussion, explore significant ideas from multiple perspectives.

   • Can be contested, have tension, may be provocative.

   • Encourage synthesis and evaluation. Questions can start with how or why.

3. Debatable: Enable exploration of big ideas, compare and contrast, explore contradictions.

   • Lead to deeper disciplinary and interdisciplinary understanding.

   • Promote transfer. Questions can start with to what extent.

Levels of Inquiry

1. Structured inquiry: Teacher leads, class engages in one inquiry together.

2. Controlled inquiry: Teacher chooses resources.

3. Guided inquiry: Teacher chooses topics/questions, students design products/solutions.

4. Open/free inquiry: Students choose topics without reference to any prescribed outcome.

How to Develop the Levels of Inquiry in Business Management

• Case studies/simulations: Use problem-solving steps.

• Debating: Use TOK questions.

• Revision exercises: Use multiple-choice questions and true/false statements.

• Presentations in student groups: Analyze different pricing strategies.

• Teamwork: Develop a product/service based on a survey.

• Reflection on their process of learning: Use the KWHLAQ chart.

KWHLAQ Chart

• K: What do I know?

• W: What do I want to know?

• H: How do I find out?

• L: What have I learnt?

• A: What action will I take?

• Q: What new questions do I have?

Case-Based Learning (CBL)

Students study historical or hypothetical scenarios.

• CBL can be more structured than PBL.

• Cases are chosen to illustrate specific issues.

• In CBL, students can study theories and provide solutions.

Experiential Learning

• Involves direct engagement in the phenomena being studied.

• Can be structured around site visits, field trips, work experience, etc.

• Students learn from their own experience.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

In PBL, students analyze and propose solutions to a real-world problem.

The students usually operate in teams or collaborative groups and work through a problem-solving process to:

• Define the problem precisely.

• Find out what they know and what they need to know.

• Decide how to proceed to find out what they need.

• Gather all the information.

• Analyze all the information gathered.

• Create possible solutions.

• Work through the feasibility of each one.

• Narrow the possibilities down to their best, justifiable solutions.

Teaching Focused on Conceptual Understanding

Concepts:

• are broad and important organizing ideas

• are important for interdisciplinary and disciplinary development

• help students develop the ability to tackle complex ideas and discuss the “big ideas”—it helps discover why they study a unit or content

• allow students to move from concrete to abstract thinking

• facilitate the transfer of learning to new contexts

• are based on what the student knows, understands and can do

• are used by teachers for inquiry and debate in class (Erickson 2002).

Teaching through concepts leads to:

• deeper understanding of the subject group

• appreciation of ideas that transcend disciplinary boundaries

• engagement with complex ideas, including the ability to transfer and apply ideas and skills to new situations (Erickson 2008).

Two-Dimensional Model vs. Three-Dimensional Model

• Two-dimensional model: Traditional, focuses on facts and skills.

• Three-dimensional model: Emphasizes concepts, deep knowledge, and higher-order thinking.

Example

Exploring business objectives from an ethical perspective.

• Content: business objectives

• Skills: thinking and communication

• Concept: ethics

Activities to Support Student Understanding of Concepts

• Frayer Model: Define the concept and state its characteristics.

• Visible Thinking Routine: "I used to think, now I think…"

• Articles or Videos: Connect content to concepts, content, or context in business management.

• Card Game: Connect a concept to any business management content learned.

Example

Using the topic crowdfunding—to what extent is crowdfunding a sustainable source of finance for a business?

Teaching Developed in Local and Global Contexts

• There is a connection between knowledge and application of knowledge, knowing and doing, and between content and context.

• Contexts make learning authentic.

Examples

• Discussion of business events and issues in the news.

• Use current news articles for creating data response questions.

• Use of online resources to provide up-to-date information for analysis.

Teaching Focused on Effective Teamwork and Collaboration

• Teamwork is a form of collaboration where groups with one common goal work effectively together to pursue it.

Characteristics of Effective Teams

The team must have:

• a clear, elevating goal

• a results-driven structure

• competent team members

• unified commitment

• a collaborative climate

• standards of excellence

• external support and recognition

• clear differentiation [in the roles of each team member] (Larson, LaFasto 1989).

Possible Teamwork Activities for Business Management

• Idea Building Blocks

• “Shark Tank”

• Classify This

• Open Ended Questions

• Peer Collaboration

• Cards Revision Exercise

Teaching Differentiated to Meet the Needs of All Learners

Differentiated teachers consider:

1. Differentiation by content

2. Differentiation by process

3. Differentiation by product

4. Differentiation in the learning environment

Teaching Informed by Assessment (Formative and Summative)

• Formative Assessment: Aids the learning process, monitors progress.

Examples

• Brief written summary of a lecture or lesson

• Student-teacher presentations

• a completed graphic organizer

• a quiz, which can be scored by the student or teacher

• Summative Assessment: Used at the end of the learning process, evaluative.

Examples

• End of term or semester final examinations

• End of unit or chapter tests

• IB external examinations

Useful Visible Thinking Routines from the Harvard Zero Project

• What makes you say that?

• Think, puzzle, explore

• Think, pair, share

• Circle of viewpoints

• I used to think, now I think …

• See, think, wonder

• Connect, extend, challenge

Approaches to Learning (ATL)

• ATL skills can be learned, taught, improved and developed incrementally and are directly linked to the IB learner profile.

Skills Categories

• Communication

• Social

• Self-management

• Research

• Thinking

Thinking Skills

• Thinking is classified into higher-order skills and lower-order skills and this is shown clearly in Bloom’s taxonomy.

Activities That Develop Students’ Thinking Skills

1. Using their knowledge of both CAS and business management, students can practice higher-order thinking-transfer skills. One example could be studying the feasibility of generating funds for a CAS project using business management financial tools (transfer).

2. Individually, students select newspaper or magazine articles that discuss a certain business problem or issue. Preferably, the issue should be related to one of the four business management key concepts (sustainability, creativity, change, ethics). The students then write a 300 to 500 word essay that aims to provide solutions to the issue at hand. This is good practice for the SL/HL internal assessment (critical thinking).

3. Reflection on the learning experience of a certain topic: working in groups or individually ask students of the topic you want them to consider. Give them time to have group discussions and reflect on their understanding of the topic. Ask the students write a response using each of the following sentences.

   • I used to think

   • But now, I think … (Harvard visible thinking routines) (critical thinking).

4. Use mind maps to visualize the contents of each unit. The teacher can show the students how to draw the first mind map after which the students can practice this skill on their own. Ask students to make another mind map to make visual connections between the topics and the key concepts in the course. (critical thinking).

5. Games: the students along with the teachers design a creative game to challenge their knowledge of certain topics and ideas (creative thinking).

Communication Skills

Communication is about exchanging information, thoughts and messages. Proper communication is essential for clear well-expressed ideas, thoughts and points of view (King 2013).

Activities That Develop Students’ Communication Skills

1. In small groups, students select a product. They can be given the choice of promoting it through traditional methods or using social media. Discussions with the whole class can take place later to discuss the 7Ps of the marketing mix applied, and to compare both methods the students used.

2. For a creative advertising activity, students can film themselves. Each student must have a different role in the film to complete the activity. When they share the advertising to their classmates they reflect on the process and the roles they undertook.

3. To show the importance of international-mindedness in the IB, in small groups or individually, students present the main cultural habits in their countries. Each group or student can then introduce their country’s main product or food within the context of the seven Ps of the marketing mix. If the class has only one nationality, students can be allocated cities or states for the task.

4. Essential agreement can be used to set the rules and means of communication and to ensure a proper two-way communication exists between all class members and the teacher.

5. Videos can be used, for example, to represent the different styles of leadership evident in organizations. In groups, students can film themselves in different contexts to show the different leadership styles.

Social Skills

Social skills involve working cooperatively with others. This could include effective teamwork, media networks, delegation and sharing of responsibility.

Activities That Develop Students’ Social Skills

1. In pairs, students create a chart comparing the different types of business organizations. Then each pair chooses one type of organization to explain and present to the whole class. The other members of the class then seek to identify the main similarities and differences with their chosen organizations (collaboration).

2. Groups of students are assigned different human resource (HR) motivational theories to study in class; they then summarize the most important aspects of that theory. After this the students share their ideas with one another. Each student then individually draws a chart of all the types of theories including the main ideas of each theory (collaboration)

3. With the integration of technology, students collaborate (in and out of class) to answer extended response questions using past papers. Collaboration can take place between students in different schools or countries (collaboration).

Self-Management Skills

Self-management mainly revolves around organization, affective and reflection skills.

Activities That Develop Students’ Self-Management Skills

1. Debate opposing points of view on different topics, (affective) examples may include the following.:

   • Are all managers good leaders?

   • Is quality the most important feature for success in the market?

   • Is legal always ethical?

   • Are promotional practices affected by culture?

2. Giving students feedback on their assessment in order for them to reflect on their mistakes. Students can be allowed to self-grade based on the feedback before the teacher releases the actual mark awarded on that assessment (reflection).

3. The teacher collaboratively organizes with the students the expected tasks deadlines for the upcoming month in order to agree on all the set dates in the calendar (time management/ organization).

Research Skills

• The two main clusters of research are: information literacy and media literacy.

Activities That Develop Students’ Research Skills

1. In small groups, students identify a gap in the school community with the aim of developing a good or service. To do so, they use primary research methods for example interviews, surveys or questionnaires. Based on the results obtained the students then write a proposal to the school leadership community on next steps (information literacy).

2. In groups, students define possible inquiry questions to provoke discussions that guide and prepare them for their external examinations (information literacy).

Primary and Secondary Skills in Business Management

• Students need these skills to reach their learning objectives in the business management course and beyond.

Primary Skills

• Are usually stated explicitly in the learning objectives of the course and assessment objectives of the IB summative assessments.

Secondary Skills

• Implicit skills that are often interdisciplinary and transferable to other subjects.

The Business Management Toolkit

A set of tools that provides synthesis and connectivity to the course units. These tools can be classified as situational, planning and decision-making tools.

Classifications

1. Situational tools: Assist businesses in assessing their internal and/or external aspects.

2. Planning tools: Assist businesses in project preparation and implementation.

3. Decision-making tools: Assist businesses to consider various factors before deciding on a particular venture.

• Three sections of unit planners: Unit planner examples, Sample lesson plans, Useful lesson plans.

Multilingualism and the Four Dimensions of Teaching

• Activating prior understanding and building background knowledge

• Scaffolding learning

• Extending language

• Affirming Identity

Table 1 Contrasting business approaches

Table 2 Contrast between 20th century and 21st century skills approach

Circular Business Models

1. Circular supply models

2. Resource recovery models

3. Product life extension models

4. Sharing models

5. Product service system models (or product as a service models)

• Links to freely available resources to supporcircular models.

External Assessment: Paper 1

• Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

• Weighting Standard level: 35%; higher level 25%

Structure

• Section A: students answer all structured questions in this section based on the case study (20 marks)

• Section B: students answer one out of two extended-response questions based on the case study (10 marks)

Content

Questions will draw from the five units of the syllabus.

Examination Advice: Advise the students on section A and B command terms as well as how to write answers, draw diagrams, specific writing advice, avoiding irrelevance and to always read the question after writing.

Teaching Advice: Teachers give tips on pre-release statements, avoiding predicted questions, studying real businesses/real-world examples and on always providing original thought when in section B as it displays your evaluation of the overall answer.

External Assessment: Paper 2

• Time SL: 1 hour 30 minutes, HL: 1 hour 45 minutes

• Weighting Standard level: 35%; higher level 30%

Structure

• The structures of SL paper 2 and HL paper 2 are similar.

• In section A, both SL and HL students answer all questions here

• In section B, student answer one of 2 questions ( 20 Marks total).

• Students use calculators for all answers

Contents:

Questions in this paper are drawn from the five units of the syllabus.

• Examination Advice: Discuss with the students how questions can be quantitative , the time allocation for each question to manage time, and for students do their workings.

External Assessment: Paper 3 (HL only)

• Time 1 hour 15 minutes

• Weighting: 25%

Designed to assess strategic analysis and evaluation within the context of a social enterprise.

Range Of Views On A Social Enterprise:

• mission focused

• surplus (profit) invested in its mission

• Ownership tied to its mission with wide community involvement

• Ethically transparent and accountable

• Trade generated income

• Has own assets ” locked ”

Examples Of HL Social Enterprises

• Akina

  • Thankyou

  • The Cookie Project

The Triple Bottom Line (3-BL): Social, environmental (ecological), and financial.

Structure Of Paper 3:

• Stimulus material based on a fictitious social enterprise will be provided

• Three compulsory questions that students should answer:

  • Question 1 is worth 2 marks.

  • Question 2 is worth 6 marks.

• Question 3 is worth 17 marks.

Internal Assessment

The business management internal assessment (IA) is the same for SL and HL students

Internal assessment =A business research project + three to five supporting documents.