research paper

ACTIVITY BASED LEARNING IN COMMERCE EDUCATION – A NEED TO REVIVE

Abstract Commerce education is basically an education with a difference. It is the area which covers every corner of the society in transaction. In other words it can be said that the commerce education is the study of the structure and functions of commerce. In order to provide certain awareness among the students about the practical approach of the commerce in the daily walk of life an activity based training or education should be provided in the commerce stream. The same is proceeded in the system from the older times but in the tradition way. So it is essential that such an activity based learning of commerce education should be revived. Thus the paper consists of the elaboration of the system in commerce education, the modern themes to be utilised as an activity based learning in commerce education, and similarly the importance of the same with the present demand in the market is also well elaborated. While at last providing suggestions it is said that by adopting certain methods mentioned in the paper a sound, well defined and refined objectives of commerce education can be pumped in the students. It too provides a good knowledge and understanding of interdependence of heredity, growth and environment. The students will to be benefited by the qualities of effective work attitudes and behaviour such as punctuality, accuracy, concentration, self confidence, sense of individual responsibility and decisiveness.
Key Words: - Commerce, education, activity, accuracy, training, heredity, interdependence.
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Introduction
Commerce education is a type of training which, while playing its part in the achievement of the general aims of education on any given level, has for its primary objective the preparation of people to enter upon a business career, or having entered upon such a career, to render more efficient service therein and to advance from their present levels of employment to higher levels. In short Commerce education is the study of the structure and functions of Commerce. It includes three extensive areas of study:
Area 1: - Knowledge about commerce as a part of general education, needed by all people, non-commerce as well as commercial workers, for the purpose of handling individual commercial affairs successfully and for being intelligent citizens (including skills for personal use like typing).
Area 2: - Knowledge about commerce as background understanding, needed by all commercial workers, for the purpose of continuing commercial studies and advancing on the job.
Area 3: - Knowledge about commerce as specialised education, needed by all commercial workers for the purpose of gaining vocational competencies on different commercial jobs and on all job levels.
Our education system is structured in such a way that instruction occurs in groups. Groups instruction implies that organisation is necessary to establish routine procedures for accomplishing everyday tasks. These procedures may not be important as ends in themselves but they acquire significance because through them only the important business fo imparting knowledge and developing intellectual abilities of students is facilitated.
Nature of Commerce Education
The following characteristics will help in understanding the nature of commerce education:
I. Economic Activities:
Economic activities are taken up with a motive to earn profits. Commerce education deals with those activities which are undertaken for profit. It is the motive which is important and not the activity. Some activity may both be economic and non-economic. A trader buys goods to sell them again and earn profit while a consumer buys goods for consumption.
II. Exchange of goods and services:
Commerce education involves an exchange of goods and services for profit. The goods may be produced or procured from other sources. The purchase of goods should be to re-sell them. It means that goods should be purchased for trading purposes.
III. Earning Motive:
The motive for undertaking trading activities is to earn profit. Profit is an incentive or reward for undertaking commercial activities. Any activity which does not have the incentive of profit will not be a part of commerce. If a trader gives some goods as charity then it will not be a part of commerce because profit motive is missing. But if the same trader sells goods to customers, it will form a part of commerce because profit motive is present. So earning motive must be present in activities or transactions.
IV. Creation of Utility:
Commerce education creates place and time utility in goods. The goods may not be consumed at the place of production. These may be needed at different places. The goods are taken to those places where they are in need. Transportation facilities help in creating place utility in goods. The goods are also needed at different periods of time. It may not be possible to produce goods whenever they are demanded. The producers go on producing goods as per their capacity.
V. Regularity of Transactions:
The transactions should be regular. No isolated transaction will be a part of commerce. The sale of old furniture for replacing it by new is not a part of commerce. At the same time the sale of furniture by a furniture trader is commerce since the transactions are regular.
Scope of Commerce education
Commerce education has a wide scope. It deals with not only the activities related to transfer of goods and services but also with the development and promotion of trade and its allied activities. The activities relating to various branches of commerce will have to be properly understood. The study of trade will include internal and external (foreign) trade, wholesale and retail trade, mercantile agents associate with trade, etc. The foreign trade will be concerned with import and export trade and the procedures to be followed in such trade.
There are a number of hindrances in undertaking trade. These may relate to transportation of goods, raising of finances, storing of goods for future consumption etc. These hindrances necessitate the study of various modes of transport, banking activates, warehousing and insurance facilities. All these facilities will help in the development of commerce. Both internal and external trade need the use of cheques, bills of exchange, promissory notes, hundis, etc. The knowledge of drawing negotiable instruments is essential in financing of trade.
The customers will have to be made aware of the availability of goods and services in the market. The advertisement and salesmanship will help in promoting the products. Advertisement are playing an important role in the growth of trade. So these medias have become an indispensable part of commerce.
The communication services play a vital role in the promotion of business activities. The producers and traders need information about the terms and conditions of buying and selling, movement of goods in transit and information regarding payments. Whole of this information is sent through communication devices of post office, telephone, telex, etc. A number of time saving office devices like computers have also become a part of commerce. In a growing industrial world, marketing has become an important area. The activities like buying, assembling, grading, branding, packaging also need proper emphasis in commerce.
Every enterprise needs a suitable form of ownership organisation for its proper working. A choice has to be made out of the sole-proprietorship, partnership. Joint Hindu family firm, joint stock company and co-operative societies. Some under-takings are set up as public enterprises and public utilities. Commerce involves a study of various forms of organisation and their suitability in different situations.
Objectives
The objectives of teaching elements of Commerce can be as follows: -
1) To develop in the students knowledge of those business activities which affect every one regardless of their economic status. Every one is a participant in business activities in the normal everyday course of living. It is the purpose in elements of commerce to analyse those activities and to enable the students to understand, appreciate and perform them in the best possible manner.
2) To develop in the student an ability to improve his competency as a consumer of business activities. Every one is a consumer of the products of business. Through an improvement of consumer practices there should result an improvement of the activities of business enterprise and a consequent improvement of the welfare of the individual.
3) To educate students to make better use of the services of business and to help them to understand business as a major segment in community life.
4) To help students to develop the ability to use skill subjects on the job more effectively through an understanding of the functions of business that are facilitated by these skills.
5) To enable students to perform the job of a general office clerk more efficiently.

Few suggestions for conducting various activities to be utilised while teaching commerce: -
1) The straight lecture: - the traditional and the most usual procedure by far for conducting classes at the college level is the straight lecture. Sometimes the teacher reads the lecture directly from his notes. Sometimes he has an outline prepared on a sheet of paper from which he develops his topic. The lecture should be prepared carefully in advance.
2) The lecture assignment with blackboard information: - The teacher supplements his lecture method with blackboard illustrations. He clarifies abstract principles with the help of illustrations on the blackboard. Though it is an improvement over the straight lecture method, it is also not of much help for secondary school students.
3) Question-answer method: - The more a teacher is able to develop students participation by question and answer activity between the teacher and the students, the more successful is the class. When the students ask questions, the teacher should honestly answer them if he can unless he feels they are definitely irrelevant in which case he should ask the students to look them up in the text book or reference material.
4) Problem-solving method: - The students should be enabled of solving problems of life. The students should apply their learning in solving problems they will meet. In this method, the teacher provides ample and appropriate opportunity to his students to practice applying their learning to problem solving.
5) The Demonstration method: - This method is generally used in skill building subjects but it can be used effectively in non skill building subject also like elements of commerce. For example after teaching how to open a savings bank account in a post office, the teacher can also demonstrate to hold the attention of the students. But the teacher must be clear in his mind about the purpose of demonstration in class. He should ensure the success of his demonstration by doing it once at least before he presents it to the class. He should be sure that all necessary equipment and materials are available and that it can be properly seen by all the students of the class. After the demonstration he should ask questions on those parts of the demonstration which he wants to emphasize.
6) Guest Speakers: - The teacher may invite an outside speaker for speaking on a specific assignment. The speaker should be such that his experiences seem within the realm of possibility. The guest speakers can provide on the job information, give demonstrations, use illustrations to stimulate and provide motivation to students. It is not necessary that the guest speaker should speak in the formal class-room situation but he may also speak in any meeting organised by commerce club or association.
7) Panel discussion: - The panel discussion is a way of ensuring class participation to get a job done, a concept taught. The panel permits students “to get into the act”. It helps the teacher to see the level of competence of his students in order to train them further. It brings the students to play an active role developing their own skills and setting their own standards for adequate performance.
8) Case Problem activity: - Under this method the class is divided into 4 or 5 discussion groups which consider the problems of Elements of Commerce. Each group elects a discussion leader and a reporter. The teacher fixes a time limit on the discussion and tells the class that each committee must give an oral solution to the problem. It should stress the principles involved.
9) Role played activity: - This is one of many forms of dramatic skills. It lays emphasis on individual performance and on the role of students. It is not rehearsed so it is free from restrictions of extensive preparation and rehearsal.
10) Scrap Book: - A scrap book is a collection of pertinent articles, advertisements, lables, reports samples and other items concerning a product, a job, a business organisation, or other factors related to an occupation. It is a long term project wherein the student gathers information that will help him in his programme of teaching. There appears to be no special outline for it.
11) LCD Projector: - The LCD Projector is rapidly gaining acceptance as one of the more valuable visual aids. Many teachers consider it a must in the modern classroom. It is operated from the front of the room by the teacher. Some of the advantages of this projector are that it can be operated from the front of the room, it can be operated in the regular classroom without darkening the room, it can deal with any material which can be photographed or drawn on a transparency, it permits the use of overlays, and it can be flash viewing.
Activity-based learning Activity-based learning or ABL describes a range of pedagogical approaches to teaching. Its core premises include the requirement that learning should be based on doing some hands-on experiments and activities. The idea of activity-based learning is rooted in the common notion that children are active learners rather than passive recipients of information. If child is provided the opportunity to explore by their own and provided an optimum learning environment then the learning becomes joyful and long-lasting.
Characteristics of activity-based learning The key feature of the ABL method is that it uses child-friendly educational aids to foster self-learning and allows a child to study according to his/her aptitude and skill. Under the system, the curriculum is divided into small units, each a group of Self Learning Materials (SLM) comprising attractively designed study cards for English, Tamil, Maths, Science and Social Science. When a child finishes a group of cards, he completes one "milestone". Activities in each milestone include games, rhymes, drawing, and songs to teach a letter or a word, form a sentence, do maths and science, or understand a concept. The child takes up an Exam Card only after completing all the milestones in a subject. If a child is absent one day, he/she continues from where he/she left unlike in the old system where the children had to learn on their own what they missed out on.
The Activity Based Learning (ABL) programme is an innovative, interesting and corroborated classroom transaction programme
The study has the following objectives:
To gauge the learning achievement of Commerce students.
To study the differences in achievement with regard to social groups, gender and location
To understand the factors of the learning environment offered
Teaching and Learning Materials
One of the primary objectives of the Baseline Study was to review whether the classroom environments were congenial for the teaching-learning process. One of the key teaching tools in every classroom is the blackboard. In this study, observers, teachers and students reported on the use of the teacher’s blackboard as well as the lower level blackboards in the classroom.
Class Management
The structure of the classroom and the flow of activities throughout the day are very important to the success of students.
Child Participation
The structure of the classroom and variety of activities can influence the potential for learning and interaction. Similarly, the lessons teachers plan and the way they execute their lessons helps determine the effectiveness of the teaching process.
The Teacher-Child Relationship
The importance of the relationship between teachers and their students is well documented. The teacher sets the tone of the classroom, and creates or diminishes an environment that encourages open learning and development.
Games
Games are truly universal in nature, it is the eternity that lubricates the body, the mind and the soul. As a true learner of Commerce education one should play certain games that can give a compelling idea to mind the business in the most perfect way just like the billionaires does. Games can be defined as an activity that gives some amount of excitement and enjoyment. Before some year, games were only played for having fun and time pass. But with the rise of video game and PC based games, things started changing, educational games were created to boost the intelligence and knowledge of the player. The main difference between the word "Games and Work" is that work is something which is done for getting some remuneration whereas games is played for getting happiness, joy and entertainment. But the entire topic is itself controversial in nature, because today many gamers are no less than professional who play for getting some kind of remuneration in form of money or rewards.
Conclusions
Average achievement of students increased significantly in all subjects
Gaps in achievement within gender, location and social groups was narrowed down:
More children shifted from low achievement range to very high and excellent achievement range
Dispersion in children’s achievement was reduced:
By adopting the above method a sound, well defined and refined objectives of commerce education can be pumped in the students. It too provides a good knowledge and understanding of interdependence of heredity, growth and environment. The students will to be benefited by the qualities of effective work attitudes and behaviour such as punctuality, accuracy, concentration, self confidence, sense of individual responsibility and decisiveness. The activity based education will provide a good proficiency of observation and records of behaviour, interests and development of the students. Similarly such an education will also help in providing a good knowledge, understanding and ability of fundamental processes and activities of learning and solving problems. The findings of the present study pointed out the possibility of developing creativity by employing certain teaching practices and thereby creating certain conditions in the classroom. This has got direct implications for both, the classroom teaching as well as teacher education programme in this country.

References: -
1) M.S.Khan, Commerce Education, Sterling Publishers Private Limited, New-Delhi.
2) M.N.Deshmukh, Creativity in Classroom, S. Chand & Company Ltd., New Delhi.
3) Haradway, M., Testing and Evaluation in Business Education, South-Western Publishing Co., Cincinnati.
4) Poham, Schrag and Blockhus, A Teaching and Learning System for Business Education, McGraw Hill, Gregg Division.
5) Shilt, B.A., Business Education – A Retrospection, South-Western Publsihing Co., Cincinnati.
6) Cooley, M.C., Continuing Education for Business, South Western Publishing Co., Cincinnati.
7) Price, R.G., Improved Methods of Teaching Type-writing, The Eastern Business Teachers Association, New York.
8) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activity-based_learning_in_India.
9) http://www.educationforallinindia.com/evaluation-of-activity-based-learning-of-tmail-nadu.pdf.

References: - 1) M.S.Khan, Commerce Education, Sterling Publishers Private Limited, New-Delhi. 2) M.N.Deshmukh, Creativity in Classroom, S. Chand & Company Ltd., New Delhi. 3) Haradway, M., Testing and Evaluation in Business Education, South-Western Publishing Co., Cincinnati. 4) Poham, Schrag and Blockhus, A Teaching and Learning System for Business Education, McGraw Hill, Gregg Division. 5) Shilt, B.A., Business Education – A Retrospection, South-Western Publsihing Co., Cincinnati. 6) Cooley, M.C., Continuing Education for Business, South Western Publishing Co., Cincinnati. 7) Price, R.G., Improved Methods of Teaching Type-writing, The Eastern Business Teachers Association, New York. 8) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activity-based_learning_in_India. 9) http://www.educationforallinindia.com/evaluation-of-activity-based-learning-of-tmail-nadu.pdf.