The Classroom: a focus on thinking

Dunedin is a city of small cafes, cozy restaurants and friends

well-suited for good conversation.

I've been a professional educator for more than twenty-five years and this topic, the classroom experience, is one about which I am passionate. You would think that, over twenty-five years, pedagogies would change and we (as educators) would become more effective in facilitating learning. Yet, too often teachers, a term very loosely defined, continue to lecture at students who passively take notes under the premise that this person is providing right answers (i.e., pearls of wisdom) concerning whatever problem businesses may face: the idea is pure nonsense.

Not at the Otago MBA!

Remember, "right" answers do not exist in MBA-level discussions and everyone

in the classroom should actively engage in the discovery of knowledge.

The Otago MBA management team subscribes to an active learning model in which students participate in the learning process and daily practice their thinking skills, while demonstrating the ability to apply course material (e.g., from marketing, finance, economics) to complex business problems. In other words, we encourage shared inquiry as the path to becoming a self-reliant thinker, someone who can express him or herself with clarity and conviction; who can think conceptually (e.g., identify and define key terms); as well as contribute to the collaborative discovery of a deeper understanding of fundamental questions facing global businesses.

Our students are asked to adhere to essential guidelines for engaging in productive discourse in our small seminar-style classes:

• Resist overly quick judgments
• Avoid arguing from small-N experience (e.g., we did it this way) and opinion
• Support your reasoning using credible references (e.g., course materials)
• Relate comments to the ongoing discussion
• Strive for dialogue rather than a monologue
• Seek to include all others in the conversation
• Do not direct all discussions through the lecturer
• Consider questions as a good way to enter the conversation
• Avoid dominating with comments that are too lengthy or of little interest to others
• Use courtesy and civility in all communications
• Feel encouraged to continue lively debates outside the classroom

I will have much more to say about the importance of building powerful thinking

 skills in future posts: we consider this as fundamental to the transformation our students

 experience in our programme.

As always, I invite you to apply now.

David