Examining the Transformation from Academic Teaching to a Mixture of Academic and Practical Instruction: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

This research was conducted based on a pre-requisite business subject for the degree of the Bachelor of Business (At university level). The research investigates the effectiveness of moving from academic teaching to a mix of academic and practical aspects of instruction. It presents and discusses four main sections of the literature related to academic instruction, practical instruction, vocational instruction and researchers’ model. A gap was diagnosed that there is importance of adopting a mix of academic and practical method and its positive effects on the outcome of education and students’ performance. Nevertheless, the researcher found a gap that needed bridging. The samples are chosen from two levels (instructors and students). Three instructors and eight students were interviewed using Semi-structured interviews and nine students were interviewed using group written interviews. The study adopted the narrative analysis to analyse participants’ responses and, steps lead to building a theory that enabled the researcher to familiarize models and find differences as well as similarities of the analysed data so that the researcher utilizes the results to answer the research questions with reference to the literature review. Results of this research indicated that Students’ acceptance of the idea of mixing academic and practical instructions has been confirmed and students expect to perform better in the other business subjects as well as in the marketplace due to implementing the mixed instruction method in business subjects. Besides, it is clear that there is conformity between the results of interviews and the views of the accounts of the literature review that the mixed instruction is more effective and more beneficial for students when they embark on other business subjects and when they inter the practical marketplace. As for the type of organization change, there is also conformity between the results of analysis and the literature review accounts that the mixed instruction will lead to performance efficiency at three levels; instruction, output and the workplace. From the results of the analysis and to achieve the desired change, it is important to follow the steps set in the ‘change model’ mentioned in the literature review. Hence, the application of the researcher’s model of mixing academic and practical instruction (literature review above) will hopefully reflect positively on the performance of students in the other university business subjects and the marketplace, thus, overcoming the deficiency of the lack of practical instruction in Business subjects.