The Importance of Professionalism in the Workplace

Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  CTE Lesson Plan

• CTE Course Info and Benchmark Notes

  
  

  Career Cluster: Marketing, Sales & Service

  Program Name: E-Commerce Marketing

  CIP Number: 0252020802

  Course Name: E-Commerce Marketing

  Course Number: 8827200

  Course Type: Career Preparatory

  CTE Standard(s) or Benchmarks:

  01.07 Demonstrate professional behavior, etiquette, and acceptance of feedback. 

  02.01 Identify and apply effective workplace communication skills (i.e., verbal, nonverbal, written and electronic).

• Unit Outline

  
  

  This lesson is designed to be used with the case study, "Training Day: The Importance of Professionalism in the Workplace." See CPALMS resource ID# 209769. 

• Career Connection

  
  

  In this lesson, students will research proper business etiquette and effective workplace communication. Through this research they identify the following: appropriate business communication, elements of professionalism, and methods of giving and receiving feedback.

• Learning Objectives

  
  

  Students will be able to:

  • Conduct research on professionalism, communication, and feedback in the workplace.
  • Paraphrase research findings.
  • Identify elements of professionalism and business etiquette.
  • Analyze workplace communication (verbal, nonverbal, written, and electronic).
  • Identify positive feedback techniques and appropriate ways to respond to feedback in the workplace.

   

• Prior Knowledge

  
  

  Students should be familiar with:

  • Working collaboratively in a group.
  • The concept of feedback.
  • Conducting online research using a variety of sources.

• Guiding Questions

  
  
  • Why are professionalism and effective communication essential parts of the workplace?
  • What are different types of communication?
  • What is feedback?

• Procedure

  
  
  1. To introduce the lesson, pose the following question to the students in whole group, “Why are professionalism and effective communication essential parts of the workplace?”  Students can submit their responses orally, via an online discussion platform, or written on a notecard/sticky note. 
  2. Introduce the categories that the students will be identifying/researching: types of business communication, professionalism, feedback. Teacher can create a table on the board to define each category before assigning the reading of the case study.
  3. Teacher can choose to discuss these categories in whole group or assign to students for small group discussion. Notes can be added to the board to ensure that the students have a working concept of each category.
  4. Distribute the case study, Training Day: The Importance of Professionalism in the Workplace" (see CPALMS resource ID # 209769) to pairs or small groups and direct students to read and discuss. 
  5. Display the following suggested questions for students to discuss during and after reading the case study. Students can record their answers directly onto the case study handout, in journals or digitally.
  • • For each category discussed (communication, professionalism, feedback) identify an area where Alexis did not follow proper business/workplace etiquette.
    • Discuss Mary’s actions when dealing with Alexis, would you make any changes to her decisions and how she went about addressing her concerns?
    • What are some ways that the managers of the marketing firm could have dealt with this situation differently?
    • Are there any other supporting members of the marketing firm that could have helped Alexis? If so, explain who they are and what their supporting role could have been? 

  6. Set the purpose of the student activity. Students will conduct online research on proper business etiquette, elements of professionalism and ways to give and receive feedback. Students will record their answers on the Professionalism Research Graphic Organizer (see attachments).

  7. Provide students with time to conduct research.  Circulate the room to check-in with students, provide support and redirect as needed. 

  8. Students can share the research in pairs or group and collect/record any information that they found valuable from other groups on their organizer.

  9. To bring the lesson to a close, teacher can choose to revisit the discussion question and original chart made at the beginning of class and add new ideas to their definitions and/or share out orally how their ideas of workplace communication and professionalism have changed. 

   

• Teacher Notes

  
  
  • The research portion of the lesson can be done in pairs or groups of up to 4. 
  • This is the first lesson in a two-part series. See CPALMS Resource ID#209912 for pat two, lesson Professionalism in the Workplace: A Training Guide. 
  • Teacher can provide students with possible researching websites. Suggested websites include:
    • https://youth.gov/ 
    • U.S. Department of Labor: https://www.dol.gov/  

• Optional

  
  

  Extension Ideas: 

  • As an extension activity, the teacher can have students write a journal response answering the Guiding Question based on the research the students conducted.
  • The teacher can choose to have the students write a possible Outcome Scenario based on the case study, incorporating what they learned from the research portion of the lesson.