Article 2018

Closing the 21st-Century Knowledge Gap: Reconceptualizing Teaching and Learning to Transform Business Education

Journal of Transformative Education
Journal · Vol. 16 · Issue 3 · pp. 197-219
Abstract

The 21st century is seeing dramatic shifts in the business environment. In order for organizations to adapt to these shifts, they must be more flexible and learning oriented. To thrive in this environment, organizational leaders must facilitate and build the capacity for learning throughout the organization. Organizational leadership is looking for employees to bring more than technical competencies or subject-matter expertise to their work; they are requiring specific learning-oriented competencies such as critical thinking, problem-solving, agility, adaptability, initiative, communication, and collaboration among others. To that end, business education is under heavy criticism for failure to produce the workforce needed to meet the demands of the 21st century. We set out to develop a conceptual teaching and learning model anchored in transformative and constructivist perspectives of learning that engages the whole learner in learning, reflective practice, and interactions with learning facilitators, other learning agents, and actors in a learning context. © 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Business education Innovation Experiential learning Reflection 21st-century skills Personal Growth transformative learning

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
School of Business, Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Oakville, ON, Canada
Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC, Canada
Funding & Acknowledgements
Grant: SHER-CPR4-I-Full
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by a grant obtained by Faculty of Business Professors Ginger Grant and Golnaz Golnaraghi in a Productivity and Innovation Fund from the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities (now called The Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development; Project # SHER-CPR4-I-Full) and conducted at Sheridan College’s Pilon School of Business in Ontario, Canada. The grant enabled the researchers to create a research team that resulted in extensive primary and secondary research, successful prototyping, the redesign of several business courses, and the development of a transformative teaching and learning model.
References 10 References
1 Adams, Paul, Exploring social constructivism: Theories and practicalities, Education 3-13, 34, 3, pp. 243-257, (2006)
2 New Directions for Higher Education, (2014)
3 Change, (1995)
4 Steps to an Ecology of Mind, (1972)
5 Experiential Learning A Handbook for Education Training and Coaching, (2013)
6 Belton, Valerie, Developing the reflective practitioner - Designing an undergraduate class, Interfaces, 36, 2, pp. 150-164, (2006)
7 Berdrow, Iris, Bases of competence: A framework for facilitating reflective learner-centered educational environments, Journal of Management Education, 35, 3, pp. 406-427, (2011)
8 Social Construction of Reality, (1966)
9 Becoming A Critically Reflective Teacher, (1995)
10 Understanding Gregory Bateson Mind Beauty and the Sacred Earth, (2008)
Quick Actions
Full Text via DOI
Citation Metrics
38
Times Cited (Scopus)

References 10
Document Identifiers