The Design of Teaching Protocols that Develop Creativity, Innovation and Innovative Thinking within Higher Education Business Schools - A Transfer of Best Practice from Design and Engineering Education Principles

DS 74: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Engineering & Product Design Education (E&PDE12) Design Education for Future Wellbeing, Antwerp, Belguim, 06-07.9.2012

Year: 2012
Editor: Lyndon Buck, Geert Frateur, William Ion, Chris McMahon, Chris Baelus, Guido De Grande, Stijn Verwulgen
Author: Styger, Lee EJ
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Sydney Business School, Australia
Section: Creativity in Design Education
Page(s): 481-486
ISBN: 978-1-904670-36-0

Abstract

Typically, the construct of innovation within business education has focused around the concept of developing innovative and creative leaders of business. This is particularly so in the higher educational fields and specifically so within the context of the global market positioning of many MBA programs currently. However, in many cases, it would appear that business schools are typically embarking on a journey of curriculum development from the point of the core teaching of business methodologies (i.e. silo thinking), rather than incorporating best practice from other disciplines such as those found in leading design and engineering education, where, for example, applied and immersive exercises and project based assignments embed learning and develop a richer knowledge base for the students. There are, however, significant challenges when attempting to transfer best practice from other educational disciplines into the business education environment. These include: designing the structural framework for the courses whilst incorporating relevant innovation, creativity and innovative thinking catalysts that are cross discipline and transferable within many cultural contexts simultaneously. Within this constraint, it is critical to design exercises that make sense to the multicultural and diverse student body, whilst being tangible, tactile and inclusive (i.e. immersed in the subject). Furthermore, the underpinning of complex theoretical principles, simply and effectively, is necessary if student learning outcomes are to be achieved. As such, developing assessment protocols that measure the understanding and application of curriculum material post the classroom environment is essential in maintaining learning momentum and knowledge retention. This paper discusses the current thinking, application and learning from the work to date on re-designing the framework and protocols for incorporating innovative and creative themes into higher business education. This paper also illustrates some of the high-impact accelerator learning sessions that have been developed from design and engineering educational principles and transferred into business education. Evidence is also provided to demonstrate how these protocols are remembered by the students post their graduation and how many students continue to use them in their professional practice.

Keywords: Education, design, benchmark, MBA, innovation creativity, teaching

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