Let them have the syllabus

My thesis statement: Higher School Certificate Business Studies students should be given the syllabus in all their exams.

Let me explain.

If you’ve taught or studied Business Studies for the HSC you know the importance of the syllabus. The syllabus is key. I don’t think I’ve experienced another subject where a useful activity (no cap: is 100% useful) is to have students fill in the blanks on syllabus with some sections missing.

Let me be clear: I’m not criticising the prominent role the syllabus plays in Business Studies. To succeed, students must know their syllabus back to front. This is because questions in Business Studies are prescriptive, in the sense that they require students to identify the specific part of the syllabus and then include the relevant content from that specific section.

At present, students do not receive the syllabus in the HSC exam. I think we should revisit this and consider supplying them with the syllabus. 

My reason is this. If we don’t supply the syllabus, the emphasis is on students spending their time memorising the syllabus and then applying the content. The primary focus is on memorising. Application sits second. 

But I would argue that memorising is a lower-order skill. Think back to Bloom’s Taxonomy. The skill of “remembering” is all the way at the bottom of the taxonomy. The ‘meat’ of exam questions — the analyse, explain, justify and so on — sit much higher up. 

Click through for more information. Source: Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching

Let’s imagine all students had the syllabus in the exam. They would go into the exam knowing the focus would be on applying syllabus knowledge, rather than remembering how the syllabus is structured. 

And consider things from a teacher’s perspective. We could dedicate more time to applying content, such as through practice examination questions and modelling great processes to answer such questions. This would replace the need to continually come back to the precise structure of the syllabus.

Maybe one criticism of my proposed approach would be that the examination would be much easier for students. I’m not sure about this. During the Delta outbreak in Sydney, we conducted the Trial HSC exams online and made them open book. The results were in line with class averages and students did not perform above their previous efforts.

Having the information is only part of the battle. The key to success is how you apply the content. 

If we extend this all to the workplace, memorisation is generally a less valued skill. We can Google the answer or chat to a trusted colleague. Obviously there are exceptions — I can think of medicine and law — but should we be instilling in students the greater value of application versus remembering?