Advances in Business Education and Training – serie

In today’s dynamic global business environment where knowledge is a main asset and learning becomes the most important process, Business Education needs to employ the right practices to develop future leaders. Businesses require graduates that become true experts. But can business schools indeed create learning experiences that address the needs of the global marketplace? Can they teach students to build learning organizations?The articles in this volume detail successful approaches developed by business educators and researchers. The approaches have been implemented to solve real problems and to provide students with the ethical and analytical abilities they will need to both compete and contribute to the betterment of others. The thematic part of this volume focuses on the potential of interactive on-line activities to promote business and economics education. They demonstrate the benefits that learning technologies can bring and show how to overcome potential problem issues.

This book aims to provide insight into the complexities confronting higher education today and to highlight tangible opportunities that exist to address such issues. We are in a constant state of flux and higher education needs to respond in more proactive, intentional and innovative ways to remain a relevant cornerstone to society and culture. The editors begin by asking how our collective reality might change if the complexity and uncertainty surrounding us were embraced and leveraged to serve the learner and society as a whole. They invite the reader to explore collaborative approaches to individualized learning pathways, networked learning and a reimagined ecosystem of academia. The chapters are arranged to inform the reader seeking knowledge on how to 1) reshape and redefine the 21st century university, with its evolving role in these transformative times; 2) design and implement courses that address the changing needs of the university and the non-traditional student; and 3) utilize research on innovative strategies with processes that promote organizational learning. The chapters profile the fluid nature of learning as it evolves in higher education and the workplace, often with a blurred line separating the two environments. Exciting ideas related to heutagogy, problem-based learning, innovative constructivist strategies, authentic learning and self-regulated learning all converge in this volume.

This volume explores two aspects of change within higher education: macro factors governing and influencing the institutional environment, and micro issues taking place within the institutions themselves. The first part of the book examines some of the micro issues that influence business and economics pedagogy. It presents reflections and analyses of teaching roles and values, the enhancement of the student learning experience with technology and real world experiences, and what students want and need to learn. The second part of the book looks at the wider institutional environment of change – the shifts in values, new stakeholders, and a change of focus toward developing skills students need to succeed in business. The book highlights the inter-related nature of these changes and shows that both aspects are important in motivating and inspiring students to be able participants in a 21st century global society. Its focus on interdisciplinarity, curriculum structures, and changing stakeholders helps to analyse the roles and models of business and economics education in addressing the needs of today’s global environment.

This book aims to provide insight into the complexities confronting higher education today and to highlight tangible opportunities that exist to address such issues. We are in a constant state of flux and higher education needs to respond in more proactive, intentional and innovative ways to remain a relevant cornerstone to society and culture. The editors begin by asking how our collective reality might change if the complexity and uncertainty surrounding us were embraced and leveraged to serve the learner and society as a whole. They invite the reader to explore collaborative approaches to individualized learning pathways, networked learning and a reimagined ecosystem of academia. The chapters are arranged to inform the reader seeking knowledge on how to 1) reshape and redefine the 21st century university, with its evolving role in these transformative times; 2) design and implement courses that address the changing needs of the university and the non-traditional student; and 3) utilize research on innovative strategies with processes that promote organizational learning. The chapters profile the fluid nature of learning as it evolves in higher education and the workplace, often with a blurred line separating the two environments. Exciting ideas related to heutagogy, problem-based learning, innovative constructivist strategies, authentic learning and self-regulated learning all converge in this volume.

This volume explores two aspects of change within higher education: macro factors governing and influencing the institutional environment, and micro issues taking place within the institutions themselves. The first part of the book examines some of the micro issues that influence business and economics pedagogy. It presents reflections and analyses of teaching roles and values, the enhancement of the student learning experience with technology and real world experiences, and what students want and need to learn. The second part of the book looks at the wider institutional environment of change – the shifts in values, new stakeholders, and a change of focus toward developing skills students need to succeed in business. The book highlights the inter-related nature of these changes and shows that both aspects are important in motivating and inspiring students to be able participants in a 21st century global society. Its focus on interdisciplinarity, curriculum structures, and changing stakeholders helps to analyse the roles and models of business and economics education in addressing the needs of today’s global environment.

This is the 2009 volume in the Advances in Business Education & Training Book Series. The Series aims to foster advancement in the field and to serve as an international forum for scholarly and state-of-the-art research and development.This volume offers challenging thoughts on constructing meaningful learning both within the academy and in collaboration with outside stakeholders. It comprises two major sections: research into business education and best practice in business education. The research contributions explore the incorporation of theoretical frameworks and the exploitation of clicker technology in classroom practice, the integration of reflective writing into work placements to support learning, the exposure of ideas about morally leading change and its impact on leadership aspirations, large group business learning, self-theories, goal orientations and achievement motivations, and Chinese students’ perceptions of intercultural competence in tutors. Other research contributions look beyond the business school to explore entrepreneurs’ perceptions of their existing business model. The best practice contributions discuss master thesis supervision, MBA study tours designed to increase global exposure, the use of authentic learning materials in career writing courses, and cross cultural innovations.

In today’s dynamic global business environment where knowledge is a main asset and learning becomes the most important process, Business Education needs to employ the right practices to develop future leaders. Businesses require graduates that become true experts. But can business schools indeed create learning experiences that address the needs of the global marketplace? Can they teach students to build learning organizations?The articles in this volume detail successful approaches developed by business educators and researchers. The approaches have been implemented to solve real problems and to provide students with the ethical and analytical abilities they will need to both compete and contribute to the betterment of others. The thematic part of this volume focuses on the potential of interactive on-line activities to promote business and economics education. They demonstrate the benefits that learning technologies can bring and show how to overcome potential problem issues.

Advances in Business Education & Training is a Book Series to foster advancement in the field of Business Education and Training. It serves as an international forum for scholarly and state-of-the-art research and development into all aspects of Business Education and Training. This new volume deals with several aspects of the challenge to design learning in and for a changing world. The first part concerns program development.  How to build curricula that are future-proof? Principles to innovate our curricula are identified. It answers the question how we can incorporate the need for change in our thinking about curriculum-development and identify the necessary elements to incorporate in our curricula. The second part focuses on the increasing diversity of students and employees within our schools and organizations, in terms of culture, language, and perception of ability, gifts, and talents. This offers a range of opportunities, but at the same time can possiblyjeopardize some processes that are taken for granted. Chapters in this part analyze the processes that play a crucial role in dealing with this diversity and identify educational practices that can help to harvest the potential that lies within this diversity. The third part of this book digs further into the possibilities that are opened up by the implementation of ICT-support in our learning environments. E-learning provides tools to adapt these environments to the needs of an increasingly diverse student-population. In the last part we focus specifically on the workplace and how learning can be designed in such a way that employees are equipped for a shifting workplace. On the one hand it is looked how training can affect performance in the workplace. Does learning transfer to the work environment? On the other hand it is questioned how one can design affordances to trigger learning in the workplace.

Core concepts in education are changing. For example, professional performance or expertise is not uniquely the fruit of specialist knowledge acquired at professional schools, but the sum of influences exerted by a complex web of continuous learning opportunities for which an individual is well (or ill) prepared by their schools and their workplace. The key contributory factors to professional expertise are how professional schools connect to professional practice, how schools prepare graduates for continuous learning, and how the workplace endorses continuous development. Thus, the question this volume addresses—how to design learning and working environments that facilitate the integration of these three elements—is at the heart of contemporary pedagogical theory. The authors also ask a second vital question: how do we educate learners that go on to maximize their life’s learning opportunities by regulating their own ongoing learning? Learning at the Crossroads of Theory and Practice argues that with the theory of learning at a crossroads, this is an unprecedented opportunity for learning about learning. The book sheds light on different elements of this challenge: integrating theory and practice in business education, generating and fully exploiting workplace learning opportunities, and enriching our classrooms by coupling theoretical knowledge with the richness of real-life experience.

Advances in Business Education & Training is a Book Series to foster advancement in the field of Business Education and Training. It serves as an international forum for scholarly and state-of-the-art research and development into all aspects of Business Education and Training. This new volume deals with several aspects of the challenge to design learning in and for a changing world. The first part concerns program development.  How to build curricula that are future-proof? Principles to innovate our curricula are identified. It answers the question how we can incorporate the need for change in our thinking about curriculum-development and identify the necessary elements to incorporate in our curricula. The second part focuses on the increasing diversity of students and employees within our schools and organizations, in terms of culture, language, and perception of ability, gifts, and talents. This offers a range of opportunities, but at the same time can possiblyjeopardize some processes that are taken for granted. Chapters in this part analyze the processes that play a crucial role in dealing with this diversity and identify educational practices that can help to harvest the potential that lies within this diversity. The third part of this book digs further into the possibilities that are opened up by the implementation of ICT-support in our learning environments. E-learning provides tools to adapt these environments to the needs of an increasingly diverse student-population. In the last part we focus specifically on the workplace and how learning can be designed in such a way that employees are equipped for a shifting workplace. On the one hand it is looked how training can affect performance in the workplace. Does learning transfer to the work environment? On the other hand it is questioned how one can design affordances to trigger learning in the workplace.

This is the 2009 volume in the Advances in Business Education & Training Book Series. The Series aims to foster advancement in the field and to serve as an international forum for scholarly and state-of-the-art research and development.This volume offers challenging thoughts on constructing meaningful learning both within the academy and in collaboration with outside stakeholders. It comprises two major sections: research into business education and best practice in business education. The research contributions explore the incorporation of theoretical frameworks and the exploitation of clicker technology in classroom practice, the integration of reflective writing into work placements to support learning, the exposure of ideas about morally leading change and its impact on leadership aspirations, large group business learning, self-theories, goal orientations and achievement motivations, and Chinese students’ perceptions of intercultural competence in tutors. Other research contributions look beyond the business school to explore entrepreneurs’ perceptions of their existing business model. The best practice contributions discuss master thesis supervision, MBA study tours designed to increase global exposure, the use of authentic learning materials in career writing courses, and cross cultural innovations.

This book tackles the latest challenges in education in the business sector, outlining how the students of the future must be taught to adapt to a highly fluid business environment in which their ability to acquire new skills and collaborate with others is more important than possessing facts. Taking its cue from the growing body of theory advocating multi-faceted and often multilingual education, the book focuses on ‘competences’ and collaborative, team-oriented, project-based learning.Beginning with a set of studies on the differences in individual learning and ways of supporting students, the volume moves on to a collection of papers on learning at the level of the group, which include material on team learning, and the sharing of knowledge in problem-based learning. The editors view these factors in education as an inevitable feature of pedagogy, reflecting the fact that knowledge, and its acquisition, is increasingly collaborative in our working lives, and especially in business. A final section applies the principles developed in the first two parts at an organizational level, evaluating the enormous implications these developments in our ideas about learning have for the educational institutions charged with teaching future generations. Combining research and theory with practical factors in business education and training, the volume provides wide-ranging perspectives on developing best practice in the sector.

This book tackles the latest challenges in education in the business sector, outlining how the students of the future must be taught to adapt to a highly fluid business environment in which their ability to acquire new skills and collaborate with others is more important than possessing facts. Taking its cue from the growing body of theory advocating multi-faceted and often multilingual education, the book focuses on ‘competences’ and collaborative, team-oriented, project-based learning.Beginning with a set of studies on the differences in individual learning and ways of supporting students, the volume moves on to a collection of papers on learning at the level of the group, which include material on team learning, and the sharing of knowledge in problem-based learning. The editors view these factors in education as an inevitable feature of pedagogy, reflecting the fact that knowledge, and its acquisition, is increasingly collaborative in our working lives, and especially in business. A final section applies the principles developed in the first two parts at an organizational level, evaluating the enormous implications these developments in our ideas about learning have for the educational institutions charged with teaching future generations. Combining research and theory with practical factors in business education and training, the volume provides wide-ranging perspectives on developing best practice in the sector.