UNE > News and Events > Browse by article > Hands-on approach to business earns national teaching award

Next $2.57 million grant for UNE wireless network December 19, 2005  

Previous Vice-Chancellor's farewell celebrates her achievements December 16, 2005 

Hands-on approach to business earns national teaching award

December 19, 2005

Dr Bernice KoteyA Senior Lecturer in the New England Business School has been presented with a special award for teaching at the 2005 Australian and New Zealand Association of Management (ANZAM) conference dinner in Canberra on 9 December.

Dr Bernice Kotey was selected as a finalist for the 2005 Pearson Education’s ANZAM Management Educator of the Year Award. Despite missing out on the main prize, the judges were so impressed with Dr Kotey’s nomination that they decided to present a finalist award for the first time.

Although honoured to be named amongst the finalists for the award, Dr Kotey was in no way surprised.

“I have been doing innovative things with my teaching for a number of years,” Dr Kotey said.

“My students describe my units as the most enjoyable they have participated in and feel they can talk to me on a personal level – I sometimes get asked to lunch.”

This ability to communicate confidently with students is just one small aspect of the criteria Dr Kotey had to meet to be eligible for the Educator of the Year Award.

After being nominated for the award by her head of school, Associate Professor Ian Eddie, Dr Kotey then had to write an application, meeting selection criteria such as: a passion for teaching, teaching methods, methods of assessment, and professional development in teaching.

Having met all the criteria with distinction, Dr Kotey was chosen as a finalist. However, she prefers not to dwell on her achievement and instead chooses to “focus on the teaching”.

“My teaching is focused on practical situations that occur on a daily basis in the world of business,” Dr Kotey revealed.

Rather than merely teach her students the theory of business, Dr Kotey prefers the school of hard knocks approach with each student running a simulated business and learning from their mistakes.

“My students really enjoy running their own simulated businesses,” Dr Kotey said.

“It gets so competitive. Students could be best friends outside my class but when it comes to running their business, no one wants to give away their secrets so they can maintain a competitive advantage.”

Dr Kotey has found that her "throw them in the deep end and watch them swim" approach encourages students to learn real world business practices very quickly and gives them the best opportunity to prepare for the world of business upon completion of their course.

“At first all the students want to do is sell, sell, sell!,” Dr Kotey said.

“Before too long however, they find that the more they sell, the bigger the loss they make – there is much more to a business than a sell at all costs attitude.”

Dr Kotey awards a prize to her top students at the end of each unit, with the winner based on the business with the ability to sustain profit the best.

As well as this simulated business project, Dr Kotey also runs business plan competitions and encourages her students to enter national business plan competitions, to further add to the practical skills her students have to draw from when they are set to work.

“It’s easy to start a business but you need skill and knowledge to build a business,” Dr Kotey said.

“My mission as a teacher is to cultivate these skills and knowledge.”

For further information contact Bernice Kotey on (02) 6773 2830 or Leon Braun on (02) 6773 3771. A photo is available to accompany this story.

Posted by Ben Glover at December 19, 2005 09:29 AM