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Using Social Constructivist Pedagogy to Implement Liberal Learning in Business Education
Author(s) -
Chandler Jennifer D.,
Teckchandani Atul
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
decision sciences journal of innovative education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1540-4609
pISSN - 1540-4595
DOI - 10.1111/dsji.12073
Subject(s) - creativity , social constructivism , pedagogy , mathematics education , implementation , critical thinking , process (computing) , constructivist teaching methods , face (sociological concept) , sociology , philosophy of education , teaching method , higher education , computer science , psychology , political science , social science , law , social psychology , programming language , operating system
This article outlines how decision sciences instructors, by pairing Liberal Learning (LL) philosophy with Social Constructivist Pedagogy (SCP), can lead the way in transforming business education. It outlines how these educators can cultivate more critical thinking and creativity in their classrooms in order to prepare students for the ‘real problems’ they will face in today's complex and global world. Instructors can accomplish this when they adjust ‘how’ they teach (rather than ‘what’ they teach) so that students become active learners rather than passive listeners. The purpose of the article is to outline the outcomes advocated by the LL philosophy (Colby, Ehrlich, Sullivan, & Dolle, 2011), and describe how SCP, a pedagogical process, can help decision sciences instructors achieve these outcomes (Vygotsky, 1978). Instructors essentially become facilitators of discussion and dialogue rather than the sole distributor of knowledge in the classroom. Two sample implementations of SCP and LL are also discussed.