The Business School, Cheltenham

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New BM Making Active Learning a Reality and
Challenges Ahead for the Business School
Jim Keane Anna Jones
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Agenda

• Jim - New BM
• Dr Anna Jones interim findings and discussion

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Background

• Old BM
• large range of modules
• large number of staff involved
• cross departmental
• no line manager responsibility
• Conversion rate fallen from 26 to 16 in 6 years
• Total student numbers on BM SH and Joints, fallen
  from 459 to 276 in 6 years

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New BM

• Responding to opportunities within university, in
  particular the new academic year, CeAL expertise
  and resources, and (possibly) Institute of
  Sustainability.
• Draft consultation report issued January 2008,
  discussed at BM course board 25th January, full
  team meetings were then held 30th January and
  10th March.
• Other meetings held with some tutors and HoDs on
  9th and 29th April, 16th June and 18th September
• Time to start developing what has emerged from
  this process.
• Level 1 what BM is basically about (project)
  level 2 decision making both operationally and
  functionally level 3 contemporary BM strategic
  issues
• AL sustainability authentic assessments
  integration

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New BM
Project
BMN101 Management Development
BMN102 Business Contexts
BMN103 Management Contexts
BMN104 Perspectives on Business Management
Level 1
BMN205The Reflective Manager
BMN211 Inter-national Field Trip
BMN201 Managing Business Operations
BMN204 Managing at the Inter-national Level
FM233 Accounting and Finance for Decision Makers
BMN202 Managing HR
BMN203Marketing for Decision Makers
Level 2
Placement (Optional)
FM306 Corporate Account-ability
BMN304 Strategic Marketing Principles
BM333 Dissertation OR
BMN305 Leader-ship Change
BMN307 21st Century Global Operations Mgt
BMN301 Building Sustaining Strategy
BM399 Investi-gative Study
Level 3
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Issues

• Lost momentum, but this can quickly be regained
• More communication within the team
• Key is building a supportive team who are
  committed to an active learning pedagogy as much
  as is practically possible
• Virtually all of New BM can be delivered by 12
  staff
• BM colleagues who are not involved
• Level 1 project
• Not perfect by any means this is a heuristic
  process and there are risks
• Validation!

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Next Steps

• Meeting of full team early January 2009 to begin
  development of New BM (Wednesday 14th
  January?)
• Facilitator will be Angela Tomkins
• Hoping for CeAL support and involvement
• Already some examples of good AL practice being
  tested by tutors

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Dr Anna Jones
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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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Advantages of the Change

• 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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Structural Concerns

• 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 thatthe attitude was Ive 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

• There are lots of people who dont know what is
  going on
• The problems will be that either the staff cant
  cope, the students cant cope or certain members
  of management cant 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

• 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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Structural Roadblocks

• BM doesnt 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 dont really know.
• There just doesnt feel like there is the chance
  to step back and breathe and say, lets think
  conceptually, what do we really want? What are
  we going to do?

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Personal Roadblocks

• getting buy-in from all or most staff
• some people are generally resistant to change
• Teaching with others may limit ones creativity
  as you cant do something if a colleague is
  moaning
• the whole things will unravel, people will pull
  out, the changes wont go far enough, it will be
  driven by a too limited pool
• Its like a factory it runs a bit like a
  school, like a factory

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Pedagogical Roadblocks

• 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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• Youve got to convince people otherwise youve
  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
  whove 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 input
• 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 level
• Eg
• 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

• Attributes of a BM graduate
• Detailed concept mapping of the degree programme
• Curriculum design
• 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)