Students learn best when they are engaged in a variety of ways of learning. Business studies courses lend themselves to a wide range of approaches in that they require students to discuss issues, solve problems using applications software, participate in business simulations, conduct research, think critically, work cooperatively, and make business decisions. When students are engaged in active and experiential learning strategies, they tend to retain knowledge for longer periods and to develop meaningful skills.

These include:

Our theory of assessment and evaluation follows the Ministry of Education’s Growing Success document, and it is our firm belief that doing so is in the best interests of students. We seek to design assessment in such a way as to make it possible to gather and show evidence of learning in a variety of ways to gradually

release responsibility to the students, and to give multiple and varied opportunities to reflect on learning and receive detailed feedback.

Assessment is a systematic process of collecting information or evidence about a student’s progress towards meeting the learning expectations. Assessment is embedded in the instructional activities throughout a unit. The expectations for the assessment tasks are clearly articulated and the learning activity is planned to make that demonstration possible. This process of beginning with the end in mind helps to keep focus on the expectations of the course. The purpose of assessment is to gather the data or evidence and to provide meaningful feedback to the student about how to improve or sustain the performance in the course. Scaled criteria designed as rubrics are often used to help the student to recognize their level of achievement and to provide guidance on how to achieve the next level. Although assessment information can be gathered from a number of sources (the student himself, the student’s course mates, the teacher), evaluation is the responsibility of only the teacher. For evaluation is the process of making a judgment about the assessment information and determining the percentage grade or level.

Assessment is embedded within the instructional process throughout each unit rather than being an isolated event at the end. Often, the learning and assessment tasks are the same, with formative assessment provided throughout the unit. In every case, the desired demonstration of learning is articulated clearly and the learning activity is planned to make that demonstration possible. This process of beginning with the end in mind helps to keep focus on the expectations of the course as stated in the course guideline. The evaluations are expressed as a percentage based upon the levels

of achievement.

A variety of strategies are used to allow students opportunities to attain the necessary skills for success in this course and at the post-secondary level of study. To facilitate learning, the teacher uses a variety of activities engaging the whole class, small groups, and individual students.

The assessment will be based on the following processes that take place in the classroom:

Some of the approaches to teaching/learning include

The evaluation of this course is based on the four Ministry of Education achievement categories of knowledge and understanding (25%), thinking/inquiry (25%), communication (25%), and application (25%). The evaluation for this course is based on the student’s achievement of curriculum expectations and the demonstrated skills required for effective learning.

The percentage grade represents the quality of the student’s overall achievement of the expectations for the course and reflects the corresponding level of achievement as described in the achievement chart for the discipline.

A credit is granted and recorded for this course if the student’s grade is 50% or higher. The final grade for this course will be determined as follows:

• • 70% of the grade will be based upon evaluations conducted throughout the course. This portion of the grade will reflect the student’s most consistent level of achievement throughout the course, although special consideration will be given to more recent evidence of

• • 30% of the grade will be based on a final exam administered at the end of the The exam will contain a summary of information from the course and will consist of well-formulated multiple choice questions. These will be evaluated using a checklist.

Resources:

Resources required by the student:

• • Access to voice recording or video recording tools (webcam, cellphone, )

• • Microsoft Excel

• • Microsoft Word

• • Microsoft PowerPoint

• • Microsoft Access

• • Microsoft Publisher