Abstract
Students accrue the benefits of college education unevenly. In particular, students from minority, underrepresented groups who are often the first in their family to go to college are likely to accrue less benefit. At the same time, the effectiveness of different pedagogies is typically not examined from their perspectives. TILT aims to rectify this by modifying pedagogical implementations, with emphasis on the two underlying principles of access and relevance. This chapter identifies common pedagogies in college business education, such as lectures, case method, and problem solving, and discusses implementation of these pedagogies in a manner aligned with TILT. The experiences of doing so at a PBI (Predominantly Black Institution) are presented.
TopBusiness Education: Goals And Dimensions
Business is one of the most popular undergraduate majors in the United States. According to Hinrichs (2015), more than 10% of undergraduate Black students are business majors. For Hispanic, Asian, and White students, the percentages are 7.7%, 8.2%, and 6.5% respectively. Business students typically either go on to work for organizations, large and small, or look to start their own business ventures. Colleges also offer discipline-specific business programs, such as in Accounting, Finance, or Marketing. The graduate MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree has been de rigueur for corporate executives. MBA programs draw students from varied undergraduate backgrounds and are available in different formats—traditional, two-year, one-year, residential, part-time, online, and even specialized (Mangum & Wruck, 2011).
In discussing the goals of business education, Silk (1963) noted that while not everybody can become the CEO of a business, business education could and should lay the foundation for all students to have the perspective and means to gain from their experiences and grow in their professional lives. Jones and Iredale (2010) advocated an enterprise focus that would educate students on functioning as effective members of a market economy (consumer, employee, business owner) and as enterprising individuals in various environments (home, workplace, community, larger society). An enterprise approach is different from an entrepreneurship focus, which (as the authors characterized it) focuses more narrowly on starting a business.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Group Work: An instructional method where students are placed in groups and assigned work. There is a specific outcome expected of the group work. The criteria for evaluating group work often includes both this outcome as well as the effort itself.
Content: The materials taught in a course, including concepts, theories, techniques, and methods.
Lecture Method: An instructional method where the instructor determines knowledge to be communicated to students and delivers it. This includes both in-person and online classes. The distinguishing feature is that the learning is designed and mostly determined by the instructor.
Business Programs: College degree programs where the major is business (examples: BS in Business, BBA, MBA).
Online Education: Means of instruction where part or the entirety of interaction between the instructor and students is virtual. Online education includes hybrid, synchronous, and asynchronous modalities.
Case Method: An instructional method where students learn by analyzing a (business) case and proposing solutions. The case details a business situation and is written with specific learning goals, such as illustrating certain business concepts or techniques. The case method can be implemented in various ways: individual or group exercise; static (based only on information in the case) or dynamic (students gather and use additional information).
Pedagogy: A method of teaching (examples: lecture, problem solving, Case method, group assignment). We mostly use the term to mean the design of that method, with implied broad strokes of implementation. Actual implementation may differ in detail. In particular, different pedagogies may overlap, such as a group assignment being a case analysis. We assume that the choice of pedagogy (including its implementation) is up to the instructor.
Experiential Learning: An instructional method where students learn by experience, either as participants in workspaces or by discussing practical issues in classroom settings. The latter is also referred to as applied learning. In the former, student experiences are analyzed, evaluated, or otherwise discussed by the instructor.