Questions about Teaching Business Students

The NYT article and the Pestiside.hu article that promoted (that last word should be 'prompted' - thanks to the ever-vigilant autonomous commenter for finding my typos and bringing them to light - I hope you get out of the house today, sir) me to write today both indirectly address an issue that most teachers grapple with: the relationship between what a teacher wants to do, what a student wants, and what a university should do.

Last week, my little Undergraduate Writing Center here at the CEU Business School hosted a brown bag lunch discussion session. The focus of the session was Niall Ferguson's description of the banking meltdown in "Wall Street Lays Another Egg." Before arriving for the discussion session, students were asked to read the article. One student showed up. Just one. We talked for 15 minutes. Then the student politely suggested that I might re-think the set up for such voluntary discussion sessions if I want to foster student discussion.

You see, going in I assumed that undergraduates at a business school would jump at the opportunity to get their heads out of the textbooks - to look into some recent reporting and talk about the current events in the business world.

I think thoughts like this because I like education; I enjoy all aspects of the learning process. I read Friedman's op-ed from a couple of weeks ago and thought to myself, "I am teaching the people who will step into a job market after (or during) a new industrial revolution." With thoughts like that in mind, I want to offer these students a chance to be critical, to put their textbooks into context, to start painting a picture of the world they're going to participate in. In short, I am far too idealistic about what my students actually want out of their education.

The NYT article from last week is about major business schools doing some self-reflection: Did the growing focus on finance within MBA programs contribute to the current economic mess? Maybe it did, but does that mean instructors and institutions could've/should've shifted their emphasis towards corporate social responsibility or business ethics?

I think that's kind of like asking undergrads to read a long-form article on the banking crisis. It sounds like a good idea, but it's not what our students are here for.

It highlights an interesting challenge: My students want something from the program. I have teaching objectives I want to deliver. The two goals often do not align. But in the right environment, we should be able to walk our way through a dynamic learning experience that informs not only teacher and student, but may also affect the institutions and professions we each inhabit.

Yeah, I'm cursed with an all-to-potent strain of idealism.