Discussion: View Thread

Ruth seems to speak for many of us who are employed as providers
of institutional learning. This is not my term, but that employed by
Peter Vaill in Learning as a Way of Being, a 1996 Jossey-Bass book he
wrote while he was at GWU). If you like my thinking, something I always
love to hear, then you'll recognize is roots in Peter's work. He was my
mentor during my doctoral studies at the University of Connecticut. The
book jacket summarizes: "...Vaill offers a thoughtful critique of the roots
of management education and argues that, if managers are to navigate the
waters
skillfully, institutions of higher learning must, above all, teach managers
how to integrate the discipline of learning into their very being. Such
learning must be marked by self-direction (apropos to our current
discussion),
willingness to take risks (hardly helped by our spoon feeding), and
integration
of the learning that life teaches outside the institution." I have been
trying to work out in Vaill's more promising land (for students) for a
number
of years, doing so mainly with undergrads in a public college. I'd like to
wrap my career with the ability to no longer say that I am "trying" to
enact my teaching role in the model I derive from Peter and other persons
of courage, but that I DO teach that way. Time is running short (and so
am I).

David


-----Original Message-----
From: Ruth H. Axelrod [mailto:raxelrod@gwu.edu]
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 9:28 AM
To: MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Subject: Re: MBA


David--

I like your thinking and would like to start a discussion on how people
are implementing a more learner-centered process.

I am trying to move in that direction, but doing it by baby steps within
the current educational paradigm. For example, I just finished a
syllabus for a leadership course that revolves around a self-selected
developmental project. However, I still have an assigned text (a
management book, actually) and some readings. I am always torn between
my conviction, based on the huge body of research in adult learning,
that adults learn (that is, internalize, retain and use) only what they
consider interesting and valuable, and the mandate to provide (impose on
them) a broad-based body of knowledge. I would, if I could, guage the
impact of my courses by measuring their knowledge, understanding and
skills one, two and five years from now rather than at the end of the
course.

Ruth

"Fearon, David (Management)" wrote:
>
> I am enjoying the discussion of how to build the better MBA (my
> interpretation).
> It is a neat coincidence that Siva's message came up in my mail just after
I
> finished a conversation with our graduate assistant Harald who is a
student
> in our MBA from Germany. He was telling me how, in his system, the
> student is left with the choice to learn mainly on his or her own (not
> literally,
> but it is my translation). If they arrive at the exams ready and pass,
then
> the
> lectures, labs and tutorials that are also available are for those who
felt
> they
> needed them. That was said in the context that he sees our
> American system being highly teacher-directed. (I call it spoon feeding;
he
> is far more polite to call it that.). Harald likes aspects of both our
> systems, it seems. However,
> I am left tonight with the self-imposed requirement to see if my hand is
too
> heavy
> on that proverbial "spoon". I surely do not think any of us should be
> inadvertently releasing to the future people whose independence of mind
and
> self-directed learning ability has been subordinated to our need to be
> "in charge" of their knowledge development.
>
> Thank you all for attention to this subject.
>
> David
>
> David S. Fearon, Ph.D.
> Professor of Management
> 467 Vance Academic Center
> Central Connecticut State University
> New Britain, CT 06057
> fearon@ccsu.edu

Linda, I hope more persons on this List tell us about these
practices - right out here where our words pop up in each others'
mail screens. My sabbatical time is being spent right now examining
knowledge management and organizational learning. I do so for several
reasons, but central to my interest is the future role of managers
in knowledge creation. First, their own (which you are surely serving in
your course design); then the knowledge creators with and for whom they
work. I'll not try to define knowledge in this message (I have lost count
of how it is defined in the many books and articles I have read since June).
I come from a social constructivist perspective. The knowledge managers
and their cohorts create is their reality of the moment, including and with
particular reference to what their organizations are meaning to them. I
know
our ME tradition is for students to witness how we enact knowledge before
their eyes (there in the classroom or on-screen), yet, it is they who are
out there being organizational and business learners. Linda's methods
take the spotlight off her and turn it to those whose practices might
even bring us to a better world some day. Let's wish her learners
Godspeed.

David


-----Original Message-----
From: Linda Wing [mailto:lwing@usinternet.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 10:04 PM
To: MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Subject: Re: MBA


David, there are an increasing number of faculty which are working with
learners, avoiding that spoon-fed technique. I'm one of those faculty.

I use an amazing repertoire of learner research, learner led events,
presentations, papers, as well as text book work. These different teaching
techniques result in vastly different outcomes for the learner; at least
that's the feedback I get on course evaluations. In addition to the vastly
different formats chosen for learning exposure and learner experimentation
with the materials, I also have some of the work assigned to teams of
learners. This additional learning method results in learners exchanging
opinions, and something of their lense of looking becomes known to their
team mates as they share information.

This is all by way of saying that there are design alternatives which
foster an environment of creativity, having to dig for information, and
having to present projects in vastly different projects, using many
different methods of investigation.

I teach strategy at the graduate level, and these techniques result in not
only a knowledgeable learner, but one who has confidence in his/her ability
to influence, relay information and lead based on what they believe to be
true about the material they are working with.

Just thought I'd share a landscape through an entirely different lense.

Food for thought,

Linda



At 05:02 PM 10/11/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>I am enjoying the discussion of how to build the better MBA (my
>interpretation).
>It is a neat coincidence that Siva's message came up in my mail just after
I
>finished a conversation with our graduate assistant Harald who is a student
>in our MBA from Germany. He was telling me how, in his system, the
>student is left with the choice to learn mainly on his or her own (not
>literally,
>but it is my translation). If they arrive at the exams ready and pass,
then
>the
>lectures, labs and tutorials that are also available are for those who felt
>they
>needed them. That was said in the context that he sees our
>American system being highly teacher-directed. (I call it spoon feeding; he
>is far more polite to call it that.). Harald likes aspects of both our
>systems, it seems. However,
>I am left tonight with the self-imposed requirement to see if my hand is
too
>heavy
>on that proverbial "spoon". I surely do not think any of us should be
>inadvertently releasing to the future people whose independence of mind and
>self-directed learning ability has been subordinated to our need to be
>"in charge" of their knowledge development.
>
>Thank you all for attention to this subject.
>
>David
>
>
>
>David S. Fearon, Ph.D.
>Professor of Management
>467 Vance Academic Center
>Central Connecticut State University
>New Britain, CT 06057
>fearon@ccsu.edu
>