Time to re-skill our educators!

In order to put learning on the agenda in French higher education and help the educator understand how students learn, a more detailed understanding of the generational characteristics of student cohorts, their epistemological beliefs and conceptions of learning, as well as their learning styles and preferences is advocated.

Source: ” The Pedagogical Challenges Facing French Business Schools in the Implementation of E-learning Initiatives; 2006 ”

The quote above might as well apply to any typical B-school across the globe. I am not here for a name-dropping but I experienced a similar pedagogical (or should I say, andragogical?) challenge in one of our most visible and illustrious B-schools, Indian Institute of Management- Calcutta! The vision statement of the premier B-school reads its aspiration to be a truly centre of excellence in all aspects of management education. The past records of its academic excellence and the cognitive prowess of its alumni would most certainly vouch for the high ground it claims. There are sizable number of  Indra Nooyis of the world who would proudly flaunt their alumni-status from this ivy-league institute. However, history has been unkind to the past successes as a future-guarantor of success.

Coming to the genesis of my writing this blog- I was completing the campus-leg of an executive program in Human Resources at the premier B-school last week and almost all the faculty unmistakably but unintentionally passed on to me (and I would make a safe bet that to many other fellow learners) the same very notion that the educators are possibly uneducated of the learning preferences of adult-learners and the evolving trends and techniques of pedagogy!

In the paragraphs below, I will explain three key adult-learning principles (of Malcolm Knowles fame) that were being ignored and what possibly could have been done,

1. Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences-Among 100 odd learners, we would’ve grossed an experience-base of 1000-odd years if not more, I’d guess. Relying on power-point presentations could have been expected of any bottom-rated institutions and I felt much to be desired from the faculty of IIM-C! Instead, if the materials were sent well in advance and different work-streams were formed to debate the issues then a deeper and long-lasting learning would have been ensured.The biggest spin-off could have been the wealth of tacit knowledge and know-how flowing far and across the class. Flipped-classroom could have been an excellent choice wherein these educators would have shone up as great facilitators of knowledge and experience.
2. Adults are relevancy oriented-  Adult-learners are selective about the content that they think would benefit them through application. Any learning practitioner would do well to prepare him/ herself to moderate and tune up the contents that have the highest probability of getting applied in day-to-day life. One such important topic was about Balanced-Scorecard (BSC) and the faculty was evidently a researcher of the subject but what snapped the interest-levels of many a learner was the fact that almost 95% of his time was consumed in explaining the theoretical framework of BSC thus leaving a very negligible time for review of real cases of BSC applications, examples and more importantly the practitioners’ challenges with the tools. Executives are primarily interested in experience-sharing, gathering knowledge and information about the ways to effective implementation and measuring the impact of their learning efforts. A case-based approach would have benefited the most.
3. Adults are internally motivated and self-directed- These executives who had spared resources to be back to the class didn’t need any extrinsic motivation, instead they looked for opportunities that would have improved their learning curve and equipped them to deal with real-world challenges.The fact that these learners were mostly the millennial and hence, technology played a key part in their lives. Modern collaboration tools such as micro-blogging ( a twitter back-channel discussion for example), QR-codes etc. would have proved to be more engaging and fulfilling for most of them. These techniques would have made the learners engage with the content in the best way possible and the peer-learning more permanent. When will we see these premier B-schools and their academicians keeping pace with the industry and practitioners?

It was with an intent to scribe a running commentary on the practices in the most illustrious of B-schools, I wrote the above and not to show anyone down. When  the world looks up to the academic might of these institutes with an awe, it’s time for our educators re-skilled and kept pace with the changing time and practices notwithstanding the fact that Knowles wrote these principles many decades back. Only then these pantheons of knowledge can claim to be the true catalyst churning out leaders capable of innovation, managing change and transformation in real-sense in this VUCA world.

It’s time to re-skill our educators!

Please share your experience with going back to the school and build a meaningful conversation around the pressing theme.