The Value of Prerequisites:The Value of Prerequisites

The Value of Prerequisites:
A Link between Understanding and Progression

Vicki Baard & Ted Watts
Macquarie University

e-journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Teaching
Vol. 2, Iss. 1, 2008

Summary- Lynn Barnsback
CTCH 602 Spring 2009

“The concept of progression which focuses on the advances in students learning over time is important for planning the structure of a curriculum.”
The article reviews the need for and use of prerequisites in regard to student understanding and progression. I choose to review this since I intend to teach a required course in a business school and wondered about the reasoning and research behind required prerequisites.

Prerequisites are a gate keeping tool, allowing for a minimum level of understanding that prepares students to take advanced subjects. At least this is how administrators and instructors view them. Students often question them, wondering why they must study something “not directly part of their major”. Most schools aim to have students learning over time and with progression, prerequisite coursed help fulfill that goal.

Baard & Watts studied Accounting/Finance majors taking a Principals of Finance course, a second year finance course, when Business Statistics was not made a pre-requisite for them. The study was done in Australia

They were able to conduct the survey on four years worth of grades by Accounting/Finance majors. The Statistics course is not required yet at the school, is only offered during one semester, and students are able to enroll into the program mid year, with some taking the Statistics class along with the Principals of Finance. Other students have an exception from the course. As a result there is data available on grades for students having taken the class, and others who have not. They broke the data out by average marks by sex, those who received exemptions, those without exemptions, those who completed the Statistics class and those who did not. The students who had completed the Business Statistics classes received the best grades. The students given exemptions for prior experience at other institutions also received good grades, though not as high.

The results showed that “performance in Business Statistics is useful in predicting performance in Principles of Finance”. They supported the claim that Business Statistics should be adapted as a pre-requisite for Principles of Finance. It concurs with previous studies for intermediate accounting students who also passed a prerequisite class and did better than other students in the accounting class. “Discipline-specific prerequisites provide students with a minimum level of understanding required to undertake advanced subjects and improve student’s chance of success”. While not studied specifically, it appears that prerequisites reduce the “risk of failure in advanced” subjects, thus helping students to learn and progress through their university careers.

After reading this journal, I feel armed with the statement “studies show that prerequisites help you do better in your major” and can say it to my students with conviction. Progression in learning is fundamental and will lead to their ultimate success.