LEARNING TO LEARN

1
LEARNING TO LEARN

• Prior Knowledge
• Intellectual Capital
• Managing Intellectual Assets
• Morality of Teaching

2
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE(Article by Svinicki)

• Word Association - Cardinal
• Jargon - no prior experience with words
• Student goal - incorporate new information into
  existing memory

3
INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL(Article by Stewart)

• Intangible assets of skills,
• knowledge, and information.
• How do you operate and evaluate a
• business when knowledge is its
• chief resource and capital?
• Intellectual assets are valuable.

4
MANAGING INTELLECTUAL ASSETS(Article by Stewart)

• 1. Define the role of knowledge in a business
• 2. Assess competitors strategies and knowledge
  assets.
• 3. Classify your portfolio - what do you have?
• 4. Evaluate - what is it worth?
• 5. Identify gaps.
• 6. Assemble knowledge portfolio.
• 7. Repeat Steps 1-6 ........

5
LEARNING TO LEARN(Article by Boehrer)

• Is teaching more than the conveying knowledge?
• Can teachers teach anybody anything?
• What is the difference between knowledge and
  knowing?

• Recommendations
• Learning is not passive.
• Learn what the problems are.
• Recognize that learning is your problem
  (opportunity).

6
LEARNING TO LEARN

• How can you calculate the return on your
  education investment?
• What will you be doing five years after you
  graduate from Baylor?
• RECOMMENDATIONS
• Learn to learn and learn to like it.
• Study whatever subject you like, but recognize
  that you can broaden your skill base considerable
  by choosing elective courses wisely.
• Develop life skills that will enable you to
  provide value to a variety of organizations.

7
LEARNING TO LEARN(Article by Smith)

• Recommendations
• Learn to ask questions. If you have a question,
  you can be certain that many others have the same
  question.
• True competence does not mean mistake free. It
  means well thought out judgment and decisions
  based on available information and experience.

• Is it okay to make mistakes?
• Is competence really being able to solve problems
  w/o hesitation?
• What reactions do you expect if you tell a
  professor (a friend) that you do not understand
  something?

8
THINKING
Thinking

• CRITICAL THINKING
• THE DEATH OF MANAGEMENT
• CHALLENGE DESTRUCTIVE THINKING

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CHALLENGE DESTRUCTIVE THINKING(Forms of
Dysfunctional Thinking)

• All or nothing thinking
• Over-generalization
• Mental Filter
• Disqualifying the positive
• Jumping to conclusions

• Magnifying and minimizing
• Emotional Reasoning
• Should Statements
• Labeling and Mislabeling
• Personalization

10
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

• Critical Thinking
• Identification of principles and rules which can
  be generalized
• Existence of a framework for analyzing and making
  global sense of incoming information
• School Teachers
• passiveness
• success comes from conformity, not innovativeness
• inability to see abstractions
• intellectually limited attitudes

11
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

• Critical Thinking Model
• Recognize / Desire problem
• Gather information
• Form tentative conclusions
• Test conclusions
• Evaluate and make decisions

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THE DEATH OF MANAGEMENTThe idea that a good
executive could think through any problem is an
absurdity.

• Assumptions
• A good manager should be able to manage any
  enterprise, anywhere and anytime.
• The best management is based on true science,
  resting upon clearly defined laws.
• All problems can be solved by quantitative
  analysis.
• Questions
• Should business schools focus on general
  management?
• Can business schools take inexperienced people
  and educate them as managers?

13
CRITICAL THINKING(Article by Kurfiss)

• Questions
• Must acquisition of knowledge precede critical
  thinking?
• Are students capable of thinking before they
  know a lot?
• Why are questions from students rarely heard in
  the classroom?

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CRITICAL THINKING(Article by Kurfiss)

• RECOMMENDATIONS
• Learn to ask questions.
• Seek classes or sections of classes that have
  ....
• writing assignments
• presentation requirements
• case analyses
• group work
• open discussion opportunities
• instructors who encourage questions

15
Creativity
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CREATIVITYAcme Widgets

• SCENARIO
• You are the CEO of a 6 billion dollar widget
  manufacturing corporation. You are walking
  outside and you see a groundskeeper raking
  leaves. You notice the rake has only five teeth.
  It used to have thirty-one.

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CREATIVITYAcme Widgets

• CONVERSATION
• You ask What are you doing?
• The reply Raking leaves.
• You ask Why are you using that rake? Youre
  not picking up many leaves.
• The reply Because thats what they gave me to
  use.
• You ask Why didnt you get a better rake?
• The reply Thats not my job!

18
CREATIVITYAcme Widgets

• Whats wrong here?
• Who is responsible?

19
CREATIVITY(Article by McCormick)

• Im convinced that such musings are the key to
  business and social vitality.

20
CREATIVITY(Article by McCormick)

• Creativity comes when we allow our minds to
  wander freely.
• What impact does technology have on our
  creativity?
• How hard should organizations strive to make the
  work environment conductive to creativity?
• RECOMMENDATIONS
• Time spent lost in thought is not wasted.
• Be wary of technology as it cannot think for you.

21
The Frame of Mind to Be Creative

• Imagine new products
• Imagine new methods
• Develop new ways of doing things
• Build unusual alliances

22
The Frame of Mind to Be Creative

• Everyone is smarter, faster
• Everyone is creative...only if you want to be

Only if you want to be
23
The Frame of Mind to Be Creative

• TRAITS OF CREATIVE PEOPLE
• Powers of observation
• Curiosity want to learn
• Ability to identify issues others missed
• Talent for generating large numbers of ideas
• Persistent questioning of the norm
• Ability to see established structure in new ways
• Perseverance through abjection
  

24
The Frame of Mind to Be Creative

• Think Big
• Seek out diverse friends
• Build tolerance for bad ideas
• Discipline your creative urges
• Creativity is not a sometimes thing

25
Machines Smarter Than Us? (article by Port)

• Intelligent computers are inevitable
• Will Silicon life transform civilization?
• Will machines subjugate humans?
• Will machines behave like people?
• Speed/complexity of computers doubles every 18
  months
• It wont take long to duplicate the brain

26
Copycats (article by Gomes)

• Start-up imitation winnowing
• Is the Internet different?
• Network effect a few large players dominate
• Small stores cater to neighborhoods

27
Copycats (article by Gomes)

• Why the Internet explosion?
• Low barriers to entry
• register a .com name
• design Web pages
• Much capital available for Internet ventures
• imitation is easy

28
Copycats (article by Gomes)

• Marketing the site
• If you are first market it
• If you are second new and improved
• you can learn a lot by watching

29
Building Wealth (article by Thurow)

• No one ever becomes rich by saving money
  (talents).
• Sometimes successful business must cannibalize
  themselves to save themselves.
• Two routes other than radical technological
  change can lead to high growth.
• High rate of return opportunities
• sociological/development disequilibriums
• Making capitalism work in a deflationary
  environment is much harder than making it work in
  an inflationary environment.

30
Building Wealth (article by Thurow)

• There are no institutional substitutes for
  individual entrepreneurial change agents
• Not society that values order above all else will
  be creative but without some degree of order,
  creativity disappears.
• A successful knowledge - based economy requires
  large public investments in education,
  infrastructure and research and development.
• The biggest unknown for the individual in a
  knowledge - based economy is how to have a career
  in a system where there are no careers.

31
B-SCHOOL REPORT CARD

• B-schools were (are?) behind the times.
• No major curriculum changes for 20-25 yrs.
• Tomorrows B-school
• Technology based
• Customer driven
• Cross-functional

• Tomorrows B-school
• Leadership
• Innovation
• Communication
• Entrepreneurship
• Global Management
• Multi-function
• Thinking

32
The Dumbing Down of Higher Education

• More and more courses devoid intellectual content
• Dismantling of rigorous requirements
• drop off in natural sciences
• drop off in math
• average length of school year reduced
• Professors trade off research for teaching

33
The Dumbing Down of Higher Education

• Perceived vs. real value of courses content
  vs. fluff?
• Academic fads - do they help you compete?
• The value of teaching/learning methodologies

34
The Dumbing Down of Higher Education

• Timeless fundamentals
• High academic achievement
• Faculty dedicated to teaching
• Resistance to silly courses

35
Making Your Degree More Valuable

• Make sure youre on the right flight
• get involved in extracurricular activities
• Find time for outside projects
• Build your rolodex
• Choose internships wisely
• Get out of the Box

36
WHY BUSINESS MAJORS?

• When you major in X, why do you have to take
  courses in Y?(Recognize that employers have
  short- and long-term expectations.)
• Courses outside your major help you learn to
  think and communicate.
• Recognize that professionals require a broad
  based professional knowledge and an ethical sense
  in dealing with others.
• Be creative. Make the education you receive at
  Baylor pay off for you in many ways.

37
KEY QUESTIONS ......

• Why is a broad based education important?
• Where can you get a broad based education?
• What should be the objective of getting a college
  education?
• When does learning take place while you are
  attending college?
• Who can you learn from?
• How can you learn?

38
SPECIALIZATION ???

• Why should you become a specialist?
• Why do you think total commitment to a job is
  questioned?
• Can a generalist be competitive?
• Remember that you are a business major. Thinking
  like a business major will allow you to become a
  specialist and a generalist.

39
Problem-Base LearningPreparing Students For The
21st Century(Duch, et.al)

• Problem-Based Learning
• organize ideas
• organize previous knowledge
• define problem
• specify learning issues
• categorize what you know(dont know)
• rank importance of issues
• assign responsibilities/accountabilities
• integrate new knowledge

40
ACTIVE LEARNING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

• How students spend their time
• Class ? 15 hours (or less)
• Work ? 21 hours (or more - 30)
• TV ? 7 hours (33)
• Leisure Reading ? 3-10 hours (38)
• Organized student activity ?
  
• 3-10
  hours (47)
• Informal conversation with other students 10
  hours (31)

41
ACTIVE LEARNING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

• Active Learning Strategies
• Study groups
• Journals and diaries
• Experiential learning
• Student research

42
THE END OF THE JOB

• The job as we know it is disappearing.
• The job is an artificial entity superimposed on
  work needed to be done.
• The job creates patches of responsibility.
• Together, but not as a team, work gets
  accomplished.

43
THE END OF THE JOB

• What Post-Job Organizations do ..
• hire the right people - those who work well
  without job descriptions
• have a flexible organization
• use project teams

44
Jobs Skills Before Credential

• THE EVIDENCE - strong, long-term growth in demand
  for people with problem solving skills.
• Problem solving skills will occur at all levels
  of an organization.

45
A Short Course in Human Relations

• The six most important wordsI ADMIT I MADE A
  MISTAKE.
• The five most important wordsYOU DID A GOOD
  JOB.
• The four most important wordsWHAT IS YOUR
  OPINION?
• The three most important wordsIF YOU PLEASE.

46
A Short Course in Human Relations

• The two most important wordsTHANK YOU.
• The one most important wordWE
• The least important wordI

47
Why Do Customers Leave?

• 1 die
• 3 relocate
• 5 buy from friends
• 9 prefer competition
• 14 judge all similar business based on one bad
  encounter
• 68 indifference, rudeness, or lack of service
  from employees

48
Generation Y(Newborne)
Boomers
Generation Y

• Jeep Wrangler
• Skateboard Triple Crown
• Delias
• Dawsons Creek
• Lilith Fair Sponsorship
• Leonardo Dicaprio
• Hard Candy
• The North Face

• Lexus LS400
• Major League Baseball
• GAP
• ER
• Superbowl Ads
• Harrison Ford
• Estee Lauder
• L.L. Bean

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contd Generation Y(Newborne)
Boomers
Generation Y

• Palm Pilot
• Nick at Nite
• Political Activism
• The Beatles
• Coke
• David Letterman
• Nikes

• Motorola Flex Pagers
• WB Network
• Volunteerism
• Spice Girls
• Mountain Dew
• Jenny McCarthy
• Vans

50
Generation Y(Newborne)

• How do firms cope with shifts in marketplace
  preferences?
• Shift in values
• High brand consciousness
• Respond to ads differently
• View adds in different places

51
Generation Y(Newborne)

• Cynical
• Purchase Involvement
• Debt
• Pragmatic
• Balance

52
The Work Ethic Redefined(Postrel)

• We live in a Knowledge Economy
• Jobs Have
• Educational Requirements
• Specific Skills
• Employee Discretion
• Response to the Unpredictable

53
The Work Ethic Redefined(Postrel)

• The Quintessential Employee
• Decision Maker
• Use of Good Judgement
• Intelligence
• Charm
• Independent Thinking
• Self-Expression

54
The Work Ethic Redefined(Postrel)

• The Knowledge Economy
• upsets the old career order
• rewards a different sort of person
• redistributes human capital
• discomfits those who view work ethic as only
  diligence, stoicism, patience, conformity.

55
WHY Life Skills?

• Your education should.....
• Free you from ignorance and prejudice
• Help you learn to think
• Inspire you to seek knowledge...
  continuously
• Stimulate a life-long curiosity to learn
• Your education should NOT narrow your focus.

56
WHY Life Skills?

• Work with others
• Learn from others
• Ask questions
• Be open to other points of view
• Learn to defend your point of view
• Dont automatically accept fact unless you know
  it to be true
• Challenge assumptions