AAT Teaching

Seanyin111

Im a fully qualified AAT member and have recently started my teaching qualification, and was just wondering if anyone has any good sound advice to give on teaching AATs at level 2 and 3?

StuartW

Good for you, @Seanyin111 - you might find this AAT Comment article on teaching accountancy useful (although it's a couple of years old).

Seanyin111

Brilliant link, thanks StuartW

StuartW

@welshwizard might be able to offer some tips on this front, as well...

SandyHood

Seanyin111 excellent move.
I would expect that your training as a teacher will require you to have classroom experience. Try to have an AAT class you practice your teaching skills on.
You need to bring a number of factors together. I have always found that relevant examples from my own accountancy experience help me to explain points, and improve my communication of those points. I have found that asking the students lots of questions also helps. The more you know about the experience a student has had the more you can customise your approach. I would also build flexibility into any lesson plan. Cover the topic in the way the students need on that day rather than using a rigid pre-prepared sequence. Planning is useful but being prepared goes beyond having a plan.
I also spend a lot of time checking understanding using questions. Often I go back to the old paper based exams and use questions from them to judge whether I have got my message across at the standard they need for their exams.
Finally, use an approach where you are comfortable. Other people may be successful with the way they teach, but think about whether their approaches suit you rather than blindly trying to copy.
All the very best
Sandy
sandy@sandyhood.com

welshwizard

Hi

Moving to teaching changed my life! The moment the 'lights go on' is absolutely awesome as is the moment I hand assessment results/feedback over to someone who was written off by their school. Sadly, we see a lot of people (often older) returning to education with little or no self-confidence. These students need not just teaching but also nurturing because often they turn out to be the cream of the crop. These are the ones I love to see succeed as they travel enormous distance from day 1 on Level 2 to the last day on Level 4. Finding ways to boost confidence is just as important as writing shed-loads of questions.

As for advice - as Sandy says, planning and preparation is key. Make sure you have plenty of practice questions in a number of formats - after all, we're teaching them to be competent as well as to pass assessments. Make sure your scheme of work 'flows' well - e.g. in ACPR teach non-current assets acquisitions and depreciation followed by disposals. Also remember that sometimes, you will need to take a little bit of extra time to teach topics. Build flexibility in to your schemes of work and lesson plans.

Don't be afraid to experiment - I did with some self-marking spreadsheets to get my students more experience answering tasks on computer because, as one of my more mature students said this week, "It's very different doing it in computer to paper based tasks." Sometimes experiments go horrendously wrong - don't dwell on the disaster, instead, learn from the experience and try to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again. Whilst a good lesson is great for everyone, a lesson where it all goes pear-shaped gives you plenty to reflect on and opportunity to switch things around. A good point to note is that you should make sure you don't try to pitch the lesson too high and that you don't try to cover too much on one session - seeing students almost sobbing with information overload is a dreadful thing (yes, I did this in my second ever lesson so have vivid recollection of the scene).

Also, remember that you may be a teacher but, equally, the student is actually coming to learn and, in order to learn, they need to actually take some ownership and do the work. I have regular 'chats' with students (sorry, learners) to remind them that all I'm doing is giving them the tools to become competent - it's up to them to do the work and, if necessary, do a little bit more than the minimum.

You'll hear a lot of talk about visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners and there being a preferred learning style - in reality, I find a combination of all three works well - yes some prefer to watch what is going on but they also need to 'do' it to reinforce what they've seen. Talking whilst you teach is also important to explain the processes. Sometimes you need to go over things two or three times in different ways to get a particular point over - this is not your fault (or the learner's) it's just the way people learn differently. Some will pick things up quicker that others and, sometimes, cope differently in different units - it's interesting to see how sometimes a 'good' student can excel in one part (e.g. financial accounting) but struggle in another (e.g. management accounting).

Sadly, one of the problems in teaching (certainly in FE Colleges) is that full-time jobs are like hens' teeth and you will need to be able to teach more than just one subject area to give yourself a chance of beating the other applicants. Remember that because you teach AAT, you could also teach bookkeeping and accounting units on BTEC Business courses.