Unknowingly, I have actually been using the deliberate method
for my BMAC 200 (Financial Accounting) class, which I taught for the first time
this semester. To begin with, I was
faced with the task of teaching accounting principles to IT students who do not
have accounting knowledge, who have limited business background, and who are
probably not so keen in learning accounting.
Moreover, I was faced with a busy schedule as I was teaching overtime
(24 contact hours per week), and I also had a System Wide Assessment (HCT’s standardized
tests for selected courses) to prepare my students for.
Given that I had limited time to cover what was prescribed
in the official course outline, I decided to concentrate first on doing
problems and exercises in class. Of
course, I gave out several in-class work and assignments to make them practice
their accounting skills. Also, we did
cover the theoretical part, but mostly in the context of while doing the
problems and exercises. There were even
2 chapters that I did not do lectures on. I was satisfied that my students had
no problem with Understanding and Remembering, but I saw that they struggled
somewhat with Applying when problems and exercises were dissimilar from what
they had done previously. I hope that
that whatever we did in class would suffice for vertical transfer if they were
to take additional accounting or finance courses.
I was also teaching 3 sections of ITEC 399 (ITEC 399), which
was one of the courses identified for HCT’s System-Wide Assessments. So that students would take my practice
sessions more seriously, I decided to assign a grading percentage for the
review exercises, albeit a very small one (5% of course work). I have seen weaker students ask others on how
to do several tasks, especially in preparation for exams. And I do encourage group studies. Anyway, I gave my first four marked reviews
in-class, but for a change, I gave the last one (which was most comprehensive
and more challenge) as a take-home assignment.
The marks for the last one was lower compared to the first four, but I
did see students with similar answers. I
hope they tried figuring out the answer together instead of just copying the
answer from one who has finished….One thing I should have tried is to ask
students to create their own questions.
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