Date of Visit: 12th June 2006

Wilberforce College

The day was organsied by Yootha Arnott and Steve Lawrence. The conference covered Thinking Skills for Business Studies students.

In particular we dealt with lateral thinking, vocabulary, coursework, cheat sites, mind maps, planning and maximising of grades. The key was class participation and ‘robust discussion’. One interesting conclusion was that the reason that some people do badly at Business Studies and others do not is in part owing to poor thinking skills. It has long been held by The Oxford School of Learning that Business Studies is a very easy subject provided you have basic skills to do with comprehension, numeracy, analysis and evaluation.

Post conference comments:

Yootha Arnott, Network Co-ordinator:

““Dear Chris – this is just to thank you for leading the training day for Business Studies teachers at Wilberforce College in Hull on 12 June. I understand that the day went well, apart from being based in a south-facing room on one of the hottest days of the year!! I hope that it was a good day from your point of view also.”

Neil Pinder – Teacher of Business Studies , Wilberforce College, Saltshouse Road, Hull, HU8 9HD – UK:

“I received all of the resources that you e-mailed. Can I once again thank you for your input on Monday and thank you for the material. My colleagues and I have discussed a number of the issues that you have raised. One of our priorities in teaching was to develop a more holistic approach to teaching rather than focus on modules. Although we have really improved our teaching and learning styles, we had all agreed that it was time to change tack. Your input was helpful in allowing us to come to a decision.”

Marie Cammish:

“Thanks for Monday – we had an interesting, if hot, day. Al and I have already tried the newspaper article thing to get them thinking first lesson back and it worked well.”

A comprehensive manual was produced for this conference. This was later adapted into the book ‘Thinking Skills for Business Studies Students’.

See image gallery for conference pictures