Enhancing management education: How do experiences outside the classroom matter?

Abstract

We use principles of participatory action research (PAR) to investigate differences in learning by business students resulting from an experiential course in their curriculum. Our research is framed by Fink's (2013) learning framework classifying student learning into cognitive and behavioural dimensions. As part of PAR, the students participated in this type of action learning through engaging with a community, reflecting on their experiences and participating in the research process. Through a content analysis that explores student learning reflections through the lens of Fink's taxonomy, we explore learning that is linked to the development of humanistic management. We compare how course delivery methods impact the learning of the students and how this difference is manifested along the human dimension. We find that a field-based experiential learning course provides a different learning experience, richer in the humanistic perspective than a traditional on-campus lecture. As part of the PAR, students reflected on their significant learning experiences a year after their initial experiences and demonstrated learning along the human dimension that had lasted and influenced their career decisions. We contribute to the literature on experiential learning in the context of a business curriculum by expanding the importance of place-based learning as a way of learning humanistic principles. We find that over time, students reflect more on behavioural rather than cognitive experiences.