1 The BM: Making active learning a reality and the challenges ahead for the Business School Anna Jones University of Melbourne Visiting Fellow, University.

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The BM: Making active learning a reality and the challenges ahead

for the Business SchoolAnna Jones

University of MelbourneVisiting Fellow, University of

Gloucestershire

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Research Method

• Qualitative interviews (30-90 mins)• 20 interviews (19 to date)• Audio recorded, transcribed in full, de-

identified• Core team, people who teach into the BM,

people who have been involved in various ways, management

• Analysis – emergent, themes identified, cross checked, refined

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Analytical Framework

• Activity systems theory (Engström 1999,2001) does not assume a unified approach but takes into account varied perspectives, histories and multiple layers of practices, rules and conventions

• Takes into account the local • Places human activity within the collaborative,

historical and cultural• Action taking place in and upon context

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• Takes into account conflict in social practice• Examines the transitions within and between activity

systems • Considers multiple perspectives and networks of

interacting systems• Considers the tensions between interacting systems• Role of contradiction or disturbance (Blackler et al

2000) as a source of change• Incoherences, inconsistencies and paradoxes are

integral elements of activity systems. The disturbance becomes apparent when people interpret situations in different ways and so the inherent dilemmas become clear (Blackler et al 2000)

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AdvantagesManagerial •Differentiates U of G

•Recruitment•Retention•Identity for BM

Pedagogical Teaching•More interesting•Better student engagement

Learning•Authentic•Engaging, interesting, enjoyable•Replicates uncertainty•Employment outcomes•Integrated

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‘this is forcing us to think about how we can do a better job of educating students, think about how we can do a better, it is a great opportunity’

‘we will challenge students to actually know where they stand’

‘it much better replicates the messy situations that students will have to face once they get into the workforce’

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Concerns

• Structural

• Personal

• Pedagogical

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Structural concerns

• Leadership and change – should not be personality driven

• Achieving integration, reverting to silos

• Planning

• More about QA and bureaucracy than content

• Seen as silver bullet

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‘It [the new BM] has to change the culture slightly because in the past everyone wanted to teach their own little bit and has been very defensive of that…[the attitude was] I’ve got to come in and do my bit of this because I have to defend my subject’.

‘The initial promise is that change will be easy and not too time consuming but there are continually changing goalposts, QA becomes an issue, there are an array of bureaucratic and strangling constraints and people are constrained to think within structures.’

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Interpersonal concerns

• Lack of communication

• Disengagement

• Whose agenda is it?

• Loss of control

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‘There are lots of people who don’t know what is going on’

‘The problems will be that either the staff can’t cope, the students can’t cope or certain members of management can’t cope’

‘People are not willing to tell staff to fit into the new shape of the degree, do something that is unfamiliar’

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Pedagogical concerns

• Insufficient grounding in 1st year• 1st year – 2nd & 3rd year model• Curriculum mapping• Teaching outside area of expertise• Active learning• No clear direction or focus• Simulation• Will it be any different?• Loss of depth

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‘If I was looking from the outside in I guess the things that would concern me would be … getting the co-ordination right, getting the assessment right, not confusing the students, getting them on board right from the start.’

‘How is it going to be assessed? That will be interesting.’

‘The BM is just a bit of everything but not enough to be an accountant or a finance person or even a manager.’

‘People have to have a clear idea of what they are doing’

‘The degree is the wrong way around’

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Potential Roadblocks

• Structural

• Personal

• Pedagogical

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Structural roadblocks

• No disciplinary or departmental home

• Horizontal and vertical integration

• Students not understanding the structure

• No time for serious re-design

• Perceived lack of open-ness

• Staffing

• Money

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‘BM doesn’t have a home in its own right. People fly in as experts in a particular area and they leave again and no one really has ownership. I might talk to my colleagues about what they are doing but I don’t really know.’

‘There just doesn’t feel like there is the chance to step back and breathe and say, let’s think conceptually, what do we really want? What are we going to do?

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Personal roadblocks

• Not all staff feeling included in the process

• On-going concerns about the changes

• Reliance on a tight team

• Reliance on others can be limiting

• Reliance on personal good will rather than process

• Morale, lack of respect for academic staff

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‘getting buy-in from all or most staff’‘some people are generally resistant to change’‘Teaching with others may limit one’s creativity as

you can’t do something if [a colleague] is moaning’

‘the whole things will unravel, people will pull out, the changes won’t go far enough, it will be driven by a too limited pool’

‘It’s like a factory … it runs a bit like a school, like a factory’

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Pedagogical Roadblocks

• Coverage

• Integration

• Student resistance, dissatisfaction

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‘we need to think about what the course as a whole needs rather than what the individual staff member needs’

‘students might not feel as if they belong to someone’

‘there may be resistance from students – from the good ones who have succeeded using other forms of learning and the weaker ones because it does not provide them with structure’

‘getting coverage across a sufficient range’

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Needs

• Managerial

• Communication

• Resources

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Managerial

• Overt support

• Practical support

• On-going support

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Communication

• Open-ness, clear lines of communication• Structured, open ways of involving staff• Team building• Structured and regular meetings, clear forum for

sharing information, teaching, planning• Investigating student expectations• Evaluating the program• Information about what has been successful in

other institutions

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Resources

• Money – for time release, guest speakers, field trips, money that is not tied to external agendas

• Library resources

• Time

• Professional Development

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‘You’ve got to convince people otherwise you’ve lost them really. So staff training definitely and real academic staff training. Pitched at the right level and it needs to be decided on not by central departments, or even budget holders who’ve got an agenda to pursue but people within the department who say this is what we really need. It think definitely the active learning and PBL stuff is absolutely essential, its really fulfilling as well’

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Moving Forward

• Away days with management involvement• Team cohesion and empowerment (small

things like lunches make a huge difference), commitment to each other

• Clarity regarding available resources• Development for support staff• Lines of communication between support

staff, BM team, management• Marketing

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Some Recommendations

• Ongoing, regular, formalised, open, inclusive communication structure that goes across staff rather than through individuals

• Targetted professional development around curriculum design and assessment

• Developing notions of active learning as they apply in the BM

• Broadening the locus of control

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Professional Development

• Targetted, local, contextual, provocative• Arising out of BM rather than imposed from outside• Pitched at an academic levelEg• Curriculum design: aims, objectives, teaching

assessment• Active learning: practical, what is it in the BM context,

teaching and assessment• Teaching large classes• Reflection• Classroom management• Project based or enquiry based learning

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Some key questions for BM

• How is knowledge understood?

• What are the learning goals?

• How are they best taught?

• What will be the structure of the curriculum?

• What will the teaching activities be?

• How will they be assessed?

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Concept mapping

• What (if any) is the prerequisite knowledge?

• Is there a hierarchy of knowledge?• What are the key concepts?• What are the skills or attributes?• What are the relationships between

concepts• What are the relationships between

content and attributes?

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Development of objectives

• Attributes of a BM graduate

• Curriculum objectives

• Specific objectives

• Teaching

• Assessment

• Reflection and review

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Academic Development Programme

1. Attributes of a BM graduate

2. Detailed concept mapping of the degree programme

3. Curriculum design

4. Enquiry based learning/teaching

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Suggestions for first meeting

1. Overview of the program and responsibilities of staff members (Jim)

2. Questions and discussion (the group)

3. Initial formulation of the key objectives of BM (the group)