ABSTRACT
In the past, the great majority of my students in “Fundamentals of Management” have been part-time, working adults, and the design of the course has been largely driven by my view of adult learning. I employ a four-point cycle: Students are presented with a new theory or skill; they test or apply that theory or skill at work; they report back findings in a “teach-each-other” format; and they write an analytical critique of what they have learned. (See Ottaway, “Improving Learning for Adult Part-Time Students,” in The Department Chairperson’s Role in Enhancing College Teaching, Jossey-Bass, 1989.) Assignments are organized around this cycle; several assignments are also intended to make students more aware of this learning process — the analysis of the journal (assignment 3) for instance. I am convinced that part-time, adult students have a better learning experience when the pedagogy is designed to utilize their work or life experiences in the learning process. My pedagogy was tested against traditional lecture teaching and found to attain “a significantly higher merging of classroom materials with workplace realities and an increased awareness of the complexities of organizational life” than those taught by traditional methods (see W.B. Fox, “Utility of an Andragogical Approach to Management Education: An Empirical Investigation,” The Organizational Behavior Teaching Review, Vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 97–114). https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003448136/72e9a7a2-5ec1-480f-af90-7150ef33189b/content/ufig3_3_1.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
