Connor Taylor Misconceptions in business

The podcast episode discusses misconceptions in business studies and the importance of identifying and addressing these misconceptions. Misconceptions are views or opinions that are incorrect due to faulty thinking or understanding. They can hinder learning and must be corrected. In business education, there are many misconceptions, such as the belief that a SWOT analysis does not need to be updated. Teachers can use various strategies to identify and correct misconceptions, including class discussions, concept maps, and research activities. The Pigott's Theory of Cognitive Development and exit tickets can also be effective tools. It is crucial to ensure successful teaching through these misconceptions. Overall, it is important to address misconceptions in order to facilitate clearer learning and reduce barriers. Well, it's another week and you guys know what that means. Welcome back to another episode of Worldly Misconceptions, where we discuss misconceptions that happen around the world in different teachings. Now as you guys remember, last week we discussed misconceptions in industrial technology. This week, a bit of a different topic. We will be discussing misconceptions that are around business studies. Now a lot of you guys may not know, but I am a business teacher along with health and physical education, so this is kind of like my specialty. Without blabbering on too much, we might as well get into this week's podcast episode. So there are very different interpretations of what a misconception is, like we've talked about before. But just for a recap for those who haven't heard before, misconception means, according to the Oxford Languages Dictionary, it states that a misconception is a view or opinion that is incorrect because it's based on faulty thinking or understanding. Now it's extremely important to identify and address misconceptions surrounding ideas, topics and practices. This is because inaccurate prior knowledge of misconceptions can be a significant barrier to an individual's ability to take on new information and learn new things. Research shows that misconceptions are not isolated incidents, they are however normal outcomes of learning. People can form different misconceptions due to exposure to inaccurate information, faulty reasoning and misinterpretation of information or material that they see, hear or read. Now I know I do it all the time, I develop misconceptions about things every day in whatever I do. So identifying misconceptions are one factor, however addressing these misconceptions is also extremely important. It is extremely important to address misconceptions in education if an individual's prior knowledge is inaccurate, they are more likely to misinterpret, misunderstand or even disregard the new information that they are learning. If misconceptions are not identified and addressed, this can cause major barriers, like we said, to student learning and success in the classroom, therefore leading to the creation of further misconceptions. Misconceptions can also be subject specific, like we've talked about before, like we're talking about today, but today we are talking about business education. So within business education, the teachings from the QCAA, for those of you who don't know what that means, that is the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, the syllabus, there are many profound misconceptions, some being due to lack of evidence or teaching and some being purely opinionated. With each topic of business, there are many misconceptions. Some of these are business is too general, it costs too much money to start a franchise, employers have no time, entrepreneurs are young, businesses are hard to run, all the business markets are competitive and so on. Within the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority Business Senior Syllabus, there are many topics and units in which all have misconceptions surrounding them. One prominent unit is Unit 1, Business Creation, in specific Unit 1, Topic 2. Unit 1, Topic 2 refers to the creation of business ideas within the specific subject matter of this syllabus unit. Students are given the opportunity to select data and information relating to a potential competitor for a business idea to analyse strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, also known as a SWOT analysis, as well as interpret their relationships and patterns in the competitor's SWOT analysis to draw conclusions about the implications of the business idea. One misconception to highlight with the SWOT analysis is a lot of students think that once you complete a SWOT analysis, it does not change. You don't look at it, it doesn't need to be reopened and remodelled, however, this is not true. A SWOT analysis is a strategic business tool that enhances planning and management techniques. SWOT analysis allows a person or organisation to identify strengths and weaknesses that are internal to a business and opportunities and threats that are external to a business. Many think that once the initial SWOT analysis is conducted, there are no more changes needed, however, SWOT analysis needs to be continually updated and reviewed. This is due to continuously changing internal and external environments to the business or businesses. This misconception has been identified through teaching Year 11 Business Studies while on Professional Placement. In the past, it was seen that students didn't understand the full extent of the SWOT analysis and shared the common misconception. Now, this misconception needs to be identified and addressed using teaching strategies and pedagogy. Now, through discussions with other supervising teachers, colleagues, it has been evident that educators can use many different strategies and pedagogical frameworks to identify misconceptions in learning. Teaching strategies that can be used to identify misconceptions in business are using class discussions about the chosen topic prior to instruction, using KWL chart in classes. The students compare and discuss ideas with their peers by using talk talks and engage everyone's understanding of the topic at once. By allowing students to compare and discuss ideas, they're able to draw their connections between common misconceptions and move forward to correct these misconceptions. There are also various teaching strategies and pedagogical frameworks that allow teachers to correct misconceptions. This can be done by providing student-centered activities, having student debates and justification of ideas. Develop and justify concept maps with the students and ask students to research their misconceptions. So researching their misconceptions allows them to fully understand about their misconceptions but also why they might think that that is a, you know, why they think that SWOTs don't change or, you know, whatever the misconception may be. A pedagogical framework that allows teachers to identify misconceptions is Pigott's Theory of Cognitive Development. Pigott's Theory of Cognitive Development enables students to construct an understanding of the world around them in specific assimilation. Students can then experience the discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in the environment. It's also specific to subject matter in Unit 1 and Subject 2. Students can learn about constructing SWOT analysis for a local business to identify the viability of the business's location services. Once completed, the misconception of SWOT analysis do not change over time, can be identified and the misconception can be addressed and thought through alongside identifying and addressing misconceptions. It is also extremely important that teachers ensure they are successful with teaching through these misconceptions correctly. There are many strategies to gauge whether or not this effective teaching has occurred and teaching of this misconception is successful, such as brainstorming, open classroom discussions, quizzes, summaries and reflections. However, one method to check that teaching has been effective is exit tickets. Now, exit tickets allow the students to summarize what they have learned during the lesson or experienced to the best of their ability. So you give the students the exit ticket, they fill it out, they give it back to you, you're able to gauge what they have just learned during the lesson. It is completed just before the end of class, probably in like the last five minutes and every student needs to submit one on their way out. Now, that basically wraps it up for today. Just to recap, it's extremely important to identify and address misconceptions in business. This can be seen through the use of identification strategies to make misconceptions visible to teachers and students to allow clearer learning abilities and to reduce barriers to learning. It's also evident through the use of pedagogical approaches and teaching strategies to effectively teach through misconceptions. I would like to thank each and every one of you again for always popping in every week to our nice little discussions and I look forward to seeing you next week where we will discuss misconceptions in health and physical education. See you later.