The concerns and subsequent conversations regarding student research, the
role of practitoners, required course work, etc., prompted by Gary Lear's
post deserve a reply. As a caveat, let me state, I do not speak for the
Professoriate, and have no idea in whose class the assignment were given,
the motivation for giving the assignment, nor the level of students who
contacted Mr. Lear. Recognizing these limitations, my response to Mr. Lear
is as follows.
1) My experience corresponds to your complaint that many/most students
apparentely do no know how to use the library, at least for research
purposes. The tragic fact is that funding for many/most state universities
has not kept up with costs. This often results is very large classes.
(Currently, I teach, at the junior level, one section of 431 students and
one section of 184 students.) It would take a heroic teacher to require
papers in such large classes. (I am not one). Therefore, many students
never write term papers period, or at least until they are in classes,
whose size does not make grading prohibitive.
When I again encounter those students as Seniors in the capstone policy
course, where the class size typically is 30-40, papers are generally
required. However, as I routinely schedule a classs period (1 1/2 hours)
in the library. Working with the Business Librarian, he has put together a
presentation to teach my students how to use the library to gather
information on countries, industries,and companies. Without his
presentation and hand outs, I think that many/most of my students would
also be the type that bothers Mr. Lear.
2. Many of us take certain types of knowledge for granted. However, as
one who typically brings philosophy, history, and science into my lectures,
let me assure you that I often make the mistake common to those who ASSUME
things. Many (probably most) of my students are from rural Texas, they are
first generation college students, they come from working class families.
If this is true of the students who approach Mr. Lear, then the Professor
may have accurately assessed that his students had little real knowledge
about organizations or what managers/leaders in those organizations do.
Thus, the assignment to go and "talk" to a real manager to find out what
they do. Real managers have more credibility than do texbooks. Thus
reading about Mintzberg's results, for example, is not as meaningful to
students as talking to a live person on the firing line.
3. If you treat students as the novices they are, then you realize that,
like other novices, their search patterns will be inefficient and often
incoherent. Therefore, I ask indulgence on your part. It is my hope that
someday, somewhere, some of these students will emerge as world class
managers, but it takes time: theirs, mine, and yours. We need your help
if we are to be successful.
4. On a related issue, involving student research and statistics, P.A.
Gantt suggested that a problem is that students are required to take a lot
of courses that have no practical value. Usefullness, it seems ought to be
the mantra of college courses and the goal of teaching. Usefulness for
what I ask. Richard Montgomery suggest that his education has provided him
with a "life long learning structure" that had enabled him to cope with new
problems. The research evidence, whether at the level of the individual or
the organization usggests that those who know more develop an "absorptive
capacitiy" that allows them to learn new things easier. Thus, the old
adage, "knowledge for knowledge's sake" has real practical benefits. The
Greeks use to say that the good life consists of "health, wealth, and
wisdom" While wisdom is clearly more than knowledge, extensive knowledge
coupled with experience is more likely to result in wisdom than ignorance
coupled with anything.
I remember a poem, by William Blake, one of many I was required to learn in
English literature as a Freshman in college (circa 1962). It goes
Does the eagle know what is in the pit
or will thou go ask the mole
can wisdom be found in a silver rod
or love in a golden bowl
Does this have any "practical" value? YES! It has enriched my life.
To illustrate the Julian Rotter's concept of "locus of control, " I often
recite William Henley's poem Invictus. Many of you are familiar with this
poem, or at least the last stanza, which goes:
It matter not how straight the gate
how filled with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.
Trust me, I never thought, in 1962, that I would have any "practical" use
from English literature. Oh how wrong I was.
Let me end this long missive by paraphrasing President John F. Kennedy.
Ask not what your local university can do for you. Ask what you can do for
your local university. Support the university of your choice. (But if you
have any money left over, please send it to Tech).
Regards to all on the firing line.
Kim Boal
--------------------------------
Kim Boal
College of Business Administration
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409
(806) 742-2150
KimBoal@ttu.edu