Handbook of teaching and learning at business schools: a practice-based approach

The focus for this weighty tome is on matters revolving around how best to enhance and enliven the business school experience for students, academic staff and recruiting organisations. The context for such preoccupations is continuing criticism of the existing business school education proposition, which fails to provide graduates with sufficient practical skills and capabilities to meet the demands of employers in the light of changing social and environmental challenges globally. One continuing concern is that business schools may be more concerned with maintaining their academic status and research ranking, in the competitive academic marketplace, rather than focusing sufficiently on imparting practical and business-focused skills of their graduates. Holding a business studies degree is no longer necessarily evidence of a student’s suitability for a business career to that the holder will have the necessary skills to prosper and survive in the workplace. Consequently, business schools have a ‘ ... renewed need to demonstrate, to students and potential employers, the value and effectiveness of the education they provide and therefore establish their basic legitimacy’ (xxi). The objective of the Handbook is described as seeking to ‘ ... instigate multiple angles from which to consider teaching and learning in business school’ (xxii). In this regard the forced familiarisation with online learning, combined with the addiction of social media activity across student populations globally, has forced the hand of many training and learning educationalists – both within and external to Business Schools – to become more experimental in their approach to, and proficient at, providing non-traditional vehicles for learning. The Handbook highlights several challenges confronting higher education in general, and the University sector in particular such as (i) the need to make more available provision for lifelong learning, (ii) a recognition of the student body as being increasingly critical and demanding consumers, (iii) a need to offer a range of delivery vehicles rather than relying on face-to-face – often lectures based – educational engagements, and (iv) the extent to which a business school degree is viewed by employers to be 100% relevant to the real world of business. Business Schools must also cope with competition from increasing numbers of specialist and professional bodies offering more practically oriented, and certified, business qualifications. In engaging with such contextual challenges, the Handbook follows a logical structure exploring the use of technology, the importance of academic staff development, a consideration of innovative and non-traditional ways of connecting with students, and of enhancing student employability. The 25 Chapters are organised into seven Parts as follows: