Lesson Plan Critique

Baljeet Gill

Prepared for: Sunah Cho

ETEC 512
University of British Columbia
Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2

Lesson Plan Layout ........................................................................................................................................ 2

Critique & Learning Theories in ETEC 512..................................................................................................... 3

Behaviorism .............................................................................................................................................. 3

Constructivism .......................................................................................................................................... 4

Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development ................................................................................... 6

Changes to Lesson Plan............................................................................................................................. 6

Lesson Plans .................................................................................................................................................. 9

Updated Lesson Plan:................................................................................................................................ 9

Original Lesson Plan: ............................................................................................................................... 12

References: ................................................................................................................................................. 15

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Introduction
As a Business Education teacher at the Rick Hansen Secondary School of Business, I am

constantly searching for ways to bring worldly issues into my classroom. Often times, courses

such as accounting can become very rigorous in their delivery with a lot of time spent on

fundamental skills such as debit and credit theory and preparation of financial statements.

While these skills do make up a large portion of the curriculum for the course, I have found that

resources generally spend minimal time on a very important topic: Accounting Ethics. It is

imperative for my students to understand the importance of accounting ethics as being a

foundational stone on which accounting should be practiced. For these reasons, I chose to

critique an Accounting lesson plan on ethics created by Knowledge@Wharton High School; This

is a publicly available lesson plan once you have completed the free registration.

Lesson Plan Layout

Students are initially introduced to the profession of accounting through a video with Dr Peggy

Bishop, the Vice Dean of the Wharton MBA program. Next, students are given the task of

writing down what they think the words mean with the option of sharing personal or business

stories that they think relate to the topic. Once students have compiled their thoughts, two or

three are asked to share their ideas with the class. After the classroom discussion, a short video

on accounting ethics is shown with understanding checked through yet another classroom

discussion.

In groups of 3-4, students are now assigned an article to read and analyze. Students are

provided a worksheet to guide their discussion and assist in the analysis of the article. Each

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group is given between 3-5 minutes to present their findings from the case to the class they

are reminded to describe the case, and relate it back to the classroom discussion on business

ethics. Finally, students are asked to revisit their thoughts on ethics that they came up with at

the beginning of class and update or omit as they see fit based on the classroom discussion and

analysis of their case.

Critique & Learning Theories in ETEC 512

Although the lesson plan is very well designed, they are aspects of it that can be changed to

make it more effective for my students. First, I will provide some background on three learning

theories learned in ETEC 512 that will directly relate to my lesson plan.

Behaviorism
Behaviorism is the theory that human behavior can be explained and predicted based on

conditioning. In other words, we can help students to achieve certain behaviors through

methods such as positive or negative reinforcement, reward systems and clear expectations.

Behaviorism can be an effective tool in creating the appropriate classroom environment for

student learning to take place, and in some cases can also be the process through which

learning takes place.

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs state that we have five basic category of needs: physiological,

safety, belongingness, esteem and self-actualization (Lester, 2013). In order for the higher

needs such as esteem and self-actualization to be met, the lower needs must be satisfied. The

public school classroom is a place where students, in some cases with different life experiences

and backgrounds, come to learn. Creating an environment where all students feel safe,

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accepted and respected can be a challenging task and many educators utilize behaviorist theory

to create these conditions; when a behavior becomes unacceptable, it can be [unlearned and]

replaced with an acceptable one (Standridge, 2002, para.3). Further, as students basic needs

are fulfilled, they can focus on the journey to self-actualization, reaching their own full-

potential, and begin to take ownership of their learning and motivations behind learning. Here

we see that behaviorism is not the theory of learning, but rather used to create the conditions

where learning can take place.

If educators are wanting to encourage a deeper level of thinking when students are formulating

responses, behaviorism can be an effective tool to accomplish this. For example, if it has

always been acceptable for students to provide single answer responses, but now they are

required to provide more structured, thought-out responses, the teacher may need to model

and gradually shape the appropriate behavior. Here we see that the behavior itself requires

students to think at a deeper level and engage with the course content.

Constructivism
Fosnot (2013) describes constructivism as knowledge that is constructed by ones own

experience as opposed to transmitted truths - the reason why Glasersfeld (2008) states that

communication is not a conveyance of knowledge. In other words, students must take the

information that educators give them, process it, and finally relate it back to and build

connections with previous knowledge they have to make it their own.

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The theory of constructivism works closely with our definition of knowledge. A clear distinction

should be made between knowledge and true belief. In his text What Is This Thing Called

Knowledge, Pritchard (2014) distinguishes between true belief and knowledge - a distinction I

have come to accept. True belief is not sufficient for knowledge because not only does one

have to have a belief in a proposition, the belief must be true. Furthermore, we must eliminate

the element of luck from the equation; we have to be able to have success that is creditable to

the agent (Pritchard, 2014, p. 6). In other words, in order for us to be knowledgeable about

something, we must have a true opinion about it and not have any element of luck in the

formation of that opinion students should be able to give us an answer to the question

Why?.

We, as educators, can often forget that students dont have the same experiences as us and

thus cannot perceive the information as we do unless we are able to have them go through

these experiences as well; as Fosnot puts it we cannot afford to forget that knowledge does

not exist outside a persons mind (Fosnot, 2013, p.199). From an educational perspective, it is

imperative that student experience and context be very close to the top of the list during

curriculum and lesson design - in order to make learning meaningful, students must be able to

not only experience and construct knowledge, they should also be encouraged to build on

previously constructed knowledge.

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Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development
Vygotskys theory of learning was the idea that human activities take place in a cultural context

and can be best understood when considered in their historical context. He strongly believed

that individuals learned through the interaction with others. Further, in relation to his theory

on the zone of proximal development, Vygotsky argued that the Zone is the distance between

the collective group problem-solving possible for a child today and the independent problem-

solving emerging from that context that will be possible tomorrow. (Briggs, 2010, p.64)

Changes to Lesson Plan

The changes that I made the lesson plan on Accounting Ethics by the Wharton High School

implement much of the technology that is available to me at the Rick Hansen Secondary School

of Business.

First, all of our students are required to bring their own device to school (recommended device

is a ChromeBook due to cost) and so Google Apps for Education will be used extensively to

create and support an environment of collaboration and community. In the opening activity

students were asked to consider what Ethics and Ethical mean, but we pay no attention to the

cultural implications of this. The demographics of our school are such that we have large south

Asian population and my students definition may be different if we consider factors such as if

their parents are immigrants, or if the student is a recent immigrant (I want to be clear, I am not

distinguishing that one is better than the other, it just may be different). Some students

because they are English Language Learners, may have never heard these words before. To

address this, I will allow students to research on their devices as they are formulating their own

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definitions. This will allow those that need additional information to still be able to think about

the content.

Second, instead of having 2 or 3 students share their thoughts, I will create a shared Google Doc

and ask that students collaborate as a class to input their thoughts on ethics. The purpose of

this change will be to not only have the entire class participate and feel like their ideas are

being heard, but more importantly give those students that would otherwise be hesitant to

share in class (language barrier, shy) a voice. Expectations of proper etiquette while working

with a shared document have already been covered so student behavior is not a problem.

For task three, the only addition I made was to identify key academic language used in the

video and ask students their thoughts and definitions of the words; certain classes may struggle

more with this, so additional time may be required for students to try and construct meaningful

definitions (not just what I tell them).

The articles provided in this lesson plan are great and cover ethics in accounting so well, that I

utilize them a little bit differently in my lesson. First, I assign a single article to the entire class

and we read it aloud together. The purpose of this activity is to allow students as a class to ask

questions and discuss the article and the underlying ethical issues. We complete the worksheet

together as a class and this allows me to not only model the expectations of the activity, it

allows students another chance to interact with the content in a supported environment. I

then assign the second and third articles to the class and they complete the task as in the

original lesson plan.

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I feel strongly that these changes to the lesson plan will engage the class at a deeper level and

help them to understand and construct their own knowledge and beliefs in regards to the

complex idea such as ethics. Further, my hope is that with this meaningful understanding,

ethics will become a cornerstone in the students beliefs about how business should be

conducted.

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Lesson Plans
Updated Lesson Plan:
Accounting Ethics

Submitted By: KWHS Summer Educator

Updated By: Baljeet Gill, BBA, B.Ed.
Date: May 30, 2011
Subject(s): Accounting
Grade Level(s): 11, 12

Overview:

This lesson is designed to get students thinking about the concept of business ethics,
specifically in regards to accounting. Three Knowledge@Wharton articles that are
appropriate for high school students have been selected to support the lesson. By
working in small groups and presenting information out to the larger group, students are
exposed to some of the ethical challenges that have faced the accounting industry in
the U.S. and throughout the world. Students will be exposed to academic language that
relates to both accounting and business and English language learners are given
specific consideration.

NBEA Standard(s):

Accounting, I. The Accounting Profession

Accounting, VII. Compliance

Knowledge@Wharton High School Article:

Peggy Bishop Lane on Why Accounting Is the Language of Business

Standards:

Develop a working knowledge of individual income tax procedures and

requirements to comply with tax laws and regulations.
Demonstrate the skills and competencies required to be successful in the
accounting professional and/or in an accounting-related career.

Common Core Standard(s):

CCR Standard for Reading: Read closely to determine what the text says
explicitly and to make logical inferences from it, cite specific textual evidence
when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
CCR Standard for Reading: Determine central ideas or themes of a text and
analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

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 CCR Standard for Language: Demonstrate command of the conventions of
standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Objectives/Purpose: Students will be able to describe what business ethics means,

and be able to present real-life examples of companies that have not been ethical
and/or solutions that have been made to help ensure that companies are acting
ethically.

Knowledge@Wharton Articles:

Feeling Burned by Accounting Scams in the U.S.? Just Look Overseas

Lehmans Demise and Repo 105: No Accounting for Deception
Accounting for the Abuses at AIG

Resources/Materials: (including one or more KWHS articles used in this lesson)

Knowledge@Wharton High School video glossary term Business Ethics given

by Professor Hussain Waheed
http://kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu/term/business-ethics/
Business Ethics Student Worksheet (1 per group; groups of 3-4 std)

Activity:

1. Watch the video by Peggy Bishop Lane on Why Accounting is Language of

Business
2. Do Now: On the board are the words Ethics and Ethical. Students should spend
the first 5 minutes writing down what they think those words mean. If they have
any personal stories or if they have heard any stories in the business world or
elsewhere, they could also write about it. Students may choose to use their
devices during the construction of their definition, but all information used must
be in their own words and students must be prepared to defend their definition
with examples. (5 mins)
3. Teacher has created a shared Google Doc and posts it to Google Classroom.
Ask students to access the document and add their thoughts on the word Ethics
and Ethical. Remind students about expectations when collaborating on a
shared document. (5 mins)
4. While students are collaborating, teacher should be monitoring the document and
formulating questions. The educator can call on a few of the definitions if they
are vague or incomplete.
5. Teacher introduces that todays lesson is on business ethics, specifically in
accounting. As a class watch the video of Professor Hussain Waheed talk about
business ethics. As a whole class talk about the video to make sure the class
understands. Then play the video again one more time. (10 mins)
6. Choose one of the articles in the resources and read as a class. Go through the
activity of completing the worksheet and discussing potential ethical issues. This

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 will further solidify the expectations and also allow students who are still unsure
about definitions another chance at comprehension.
7. In groups of 3-4 students, students will be given an article to read and
analyze. Each article is taken from K@W and focuses on business ethics, but
each has a different focus. Each student is to read the article and then work with
their group to fill in the worksheet. The groups will then be asked to report out at
the end. Each group will be given a 3-5 minutes to present the article. Groups
should use their answers from this worksheet to help prepare. Groups want to
make sure to describe the article, highlight the important facts and relate it back
to the class discussion on business ethics. (20 mins)
8. Each group presents. (10 mins)
9. Wrap-Up: Students should go back to what they wrote at the beginning of the
class about ethics and ethical. Spend the last few minutes adding to the
description or changing it based on the class experience.

Tying It All Together:

This lesson can be implemented at a variety of times throughout the course of the
year. If introduced at the beginning, it might set the stage for how the class will run and
how ethics should be at the heart of everything. It could also be implemented during the
year when an ethical problem is playing out in the classroom as students are getting
more and more into the content of accounting and figuring out there are ways to take
shortcuts. This lesson can also be a nice conclusion as a way of wrapping everything up
and giving students something to think about. This lesson can be implemented at any
point in time and tied into a variety of lessons.

What Worked and What I Would Do Differently:

Teacher should anticipate some common student responses to ethics and some
personal questions they might have. Teacher should think about how they want to
answer those types of questions and the direction they are willing to allow the
discussion to go.

Although the articles are from the broader Knowledge@Wharton network, they should
be manageable for students in high school to read, discuss and present. There might be
some words or phrases that are challenging. On the worksheet, there is a space for
groups to write these down. A follow-up lesson could be to have students go to the
computer lab and look up these terms or phrases and then present what they mean.

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Original Lesson Plan:
Accounting Ethics

Submitted By: KWHS Summer Educator

Date: May 30, 2011
Subject(s): Accounting
Grade Level(s): 9, 10, 11, 12

Overview:

This lesson is designed to get students thinking about the concept of business ethics,
specifically in regards to accounting. Three Knowledge@Wharton articles that are
appropriate for high school students have been selected to support the lesson. By
working in small groups and presenting information out to the larger group, students are
exposed to some of the ethical challenges that have faced the accounting industry in
the U.S.

NBEA Standard(s):

Accounting, I. The Accounting Profession

Accounting, VII. Compliance

Knowledge@Wharton High School Article:

Peggy Bishop Lane on Why Accounting Is the Language of Business

Standards:

Develop a working knowledge of individual income tax procedures and

requirements to comply with tax laws and regulations.
Demonstrate the skills and competencies required to be successful in the
accounting professional and/or in an accounting-related career.

Common Core Standard(s):

CCR Standard for Reading: Read closely to determine what the text says
explicitly and to make logical inferences from it, cite specific textual evidence
when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
CCR Standard for Reading: Determine central ideas or themes of a text and
analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
CCR Standard for Language: Demonstrate command of the conventions of
standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Objectives/Purpose: Students will be able to describe what business ethics means,

and be able to present real-life examples of companies that have not been ethical

12 | P a g e
and/or solutions that have been made to help ensure that companies are acting
ethically.

Knowledge@Wharton Articles:

Feeling Burned by Accounting Scams in the U.S.? Just Look Overseas

Lehmans Demise and Repo 105: No Accounting for Deception
Accounting for the Abuses at AIG

Resources/Materials: (including one or more KWHS articles used in this lesson)

Knowledge@Wharton High School video glossary term Business Ethics given

by Professor Hussain Waheed
http://kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu/term/business-ethics/
Business Ethics Student Worksheet (1 per group; groups of 3-4 std)

Activity:

1. Do Now: On the board are the words Ethics and Ethical. Students should
spend the first 5 minutes writing down what they think those words mean. If
they have any personal stories or if they have heard any stories in the
business world or elsewhere, they could also write about it. (5 mins)
2. Teacher asks 2 or 3 students to share what they wrote. (5 mins)
3. Teacher introduces that todays lesson is on business ethics, specifically in
accounting. As a class watch the video of Professor Hussain Waheed talk
about business ethics. As a whole class talk about the video to make sure
the class understands. Then play the video again one more time. (10 mins)
4. In groups of 3-4 students, students will be given an article to read and
analyze. Each article is taken from K@W and focuses on business ethics,
but each has a different focus. Each student is to read the article and then
work with their group to fill in the worksheet. The groups will then be asked to
report out at the end. Each group will be given a 3-5 minutes to present the
article. Groups should use their answers from this worksheet to help
prepare. Groups want to make sure to describe the article, highlight the
important facts and relate it back to the class discussion on business
ethics. (20 mins)
5. Each group presents. (10 mins)
6. Wrap-Up: Students should go back to what they wrote at the beginning of the
class about ethics and ethical. Spend the last few minutes adding to the
description or changing it based on the class experience.
Tying It All Together:

This lesson can be implemented at a variety of times throughout the course of the
year. If introduced at the beginning, it might set the stage for how the class will run and
how ethics should be at the heart of everything. It could also be implemented during the
year when an ethical problem is playing out in the classroom as students are getting

13 | P a g e
more and more into the content of accounting and figuring out there are ways to take
shortcuts. This lesson can also be a nice conclusion as a way of wrapping everything up
and giving students something to think about. This lesson can be implemented at any
point in time and tied into a variety of lessons.

What Worked and What I Would Do Differently:

Teacher should anticipate some common student responses to ethics and some
personal questions they might have. Teacher should think about how they want to
answer those types of questions and the direction they are willing to allow the
discussion to go.

Although the articles are from the broader Knowledge@Wharton network, they should
be manageable for students in high school to read, discuss and present. There might be
some words or phrases that are challenging. On the worksheet, there is a space for
groups to write these down. A follow-up lesson could be to have students go to the
computer lab and look up these terms or phrases and then present what they mean.

14 | P a g e
References:

Briggs, K. A. (2010). Individual Achievement in an Honors Research Community: Teaching

Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. Honors In Practice, 661-68.

Edmonds, D. (2013). A truth should suffice. Times Higher Education, (2085), 30.

Fosnot, C.T. (2005). Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives, and Practice [Kindle Edition].

Glassman, M. (1994). All things being equal: the two roads of Piaget and Vygotsky.
Developmental Review, 14, 186-214.

Lester, D. (2013). Measuring Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. Psychological Reports, 113(1), 15 17.
doi:10.2466/02.20.PR0.113x16z1

Pritchard, D. (2013). What is this thing called knowledge?. Routledge.

Standridge, M.. (2002). Behaviorism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning,

teaching, and technology. Available online:
http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Behaviorism

Von Glasersfeld, E. (2008). Learning as a Constructive Activity. AntiMatters, 2(3), 33-49.

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