Transforming Education.

Denis Saulnier—an education technologist and one of over fifty leaders in education who attended last fall’s summit on the future of business education—this week gave a breakdown of his experience at the event and had this to say:

Overall, an incredibly impressive—and more importantly, inspiring—event for those concerned with business education and education in general.

That’s great—most of us came away from the event feeling the same way, having deeply explored and debated some of the Big Questions presented in two case studies prepared for the event*:

1. What should be the end goal of business education?
2. What are the most pressing challenges facing traditional business schools, and do any of these really threaten the sustainability of the current models?
3. Does business curriculum or pedagogy need a serious overhaul? If so, what needs to be done?
4. Who is the most qualified to prepare graduates for productive and meaningful lives in business, and how should these teachers be recognized and rewarded?

Denis elaborates on some of the finer details of these questions in his post and goes on to write:

[I] really hope these [cases] are used in business and/or educational classrooms in the future. [I]t was a great way to frame and discuss these problems and do so in a way that “walked the talk” regarding experiential learning and business case-method pedagogy. 

*You can find the cases here: The Unsettled Future of Business Education and A New Frontier.

In my experience, university faculty typically fall into two camps: (1) teachers who care deeply about their students, and (2) political types who care more about their own prestige. Sadly, the professors most often featured in the press come mostly from the political group—teachers are too busy teaching to waste time on political spin.

In September, we were blessed to gather at Acton a roomful of educational and business leaders of the first type—teachers and leaders who care about students—to have a serious discussion about future challenges and opportunities in business education.  

Over fifty business educators and entrepreneurs from Harvard, Rice, the University of Texas at Austin, Baylor, and more than a dozen other universities from around the country came to discuss the following questions:

1. What should be the end goal of business education?
2. What were the most pressing challenges facing traditional business schools, and did any of these really threaten the sustainability of the current models?
3. Did business curriculum or pedagogy need a serious overhaul? If so, what needed to be done?
4. Who was most qualified to prepare graduates for productive and meaningful lives in business, and how should these teachers be recognized and rewarded?

Here are the two cases discussed at the event: The Unsettled Future of Business Education and A New Frontier.

UPDATE: Video of conference participants.