First time in Europe for AACSB teaching seminar
Recently, for the first time ever, a Teaching Effectiveness Seminar, organized by AACSB International (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), was held in Europe. The venue was Jönköping International Business School, Sweden and Dr Earl Simendinger, tenured professor at the University of Tampa and Master teacher at AACSB, taught two groups of JIBS and other Jönköping University faculty during two separate seminars.
The AACSB Teaching Effectiveness Seminar was developed and co-delivered for the first time in 2006 by Dr Simendinger. He continues to coordinate and is the sole facilitator of the bi-annual seminar normally offered by AACSB in their home city of Tampa, Florida. Participants gain knowledge, skills, and tools needed to balance the call for scholarship with the creation and delivery of relevant, student-focused courses.
“The purpose of the seminar is to help faculty become better teachers, interact better with students and help them in the real world. For example, I tell the class that they only do their students disfavour if they give them all the answers for the test or tell them what to focus on. Instead they should be fair to all students whilst encouraging and challenging them to think”, says Dr Simendinger.
The seminar outline states that the seminar “provides innovative methods and a framework for effective teaching in today’s increasingly competitive academic environment”. This is the first time that this seminar has been offered in Europe.
“The JIBS participants are a really good group, heavily engaged and interactive, and they have many good suggestions. The seminar is directed towards faculty and PhD students, the latter are often not taught about teaching. One of my key ideas is for them to adopt the idea of being a ’course architects’. I want them to see the strength of having a macro approach to designing their courses”, says Dr Simendinger.
One of the participants in the seminar was Duncan Levinsohn , doctoral candidate in Business Administration at JIBS:
“I found several of Dr Simendinger’s ideas interesting and useful. I especially liked his idea of the ’course architect’ as it resonated a lot with what I’ve been reading recently about the importance of design thinking in organizations and entrepreneurship. I think students often find it useful to get a visual road map of a course or a theory. But Dr Simendinger was also quite provocative in a positive way, talking for example about the importance of obtaining the resources necessary to carry out effective teaching and suggesting we lobby university management about this! All in all, it was two fun and thought-provoking days.”
Further information:
The following members of JIBS staff participated in the seminar (either 13-14 or 16-17 August):
Anna Piwonska, Veronika Pereseina, Johan Klaesson, James Dzansi, Rashid Mansoor, Urban Österlund, Tina Alpfält, Peter Warda, Hjunjoo Kim Karlsson, Börje Boers, Kajsa Haag, Sara Ekberg, Zehra Sayed, Naveed Akhter, Leona Achtenhagen, Therese Norman, Björn Kjellander, Quang Vinh Evans Luong, Adele Berndt, Mart Ots (School of Education and Communication), Diogenis Baboukardos, Anna Sellin, Amin Soheili, Erik Wallentin, Bertil Carlsson, Vivian Vimarlund, Duncan Levinsohn, Huriye Aygören, Imran Nazir, Khizran Zehra, Anna Jenkins, Anna Blombäck, Mattias Nordqvist, Monika Wilinska (School of Health Sciences), Magnus Taube, Hamid Jafari, Lucia Naldi, Massimo Baú, Marcela Ramirez-Pasillas.
Dr. Earl Simendinger
Dr. Simendinger is a tenured professor of management in the Sykes College of Business at the University of Tampa, formerly a tenured professor at Central Michigan University. He has co-authored or co-edited nine books and published over sixty articles in health care, management, and teaching journals. He is an active business consultant as well.
Information regarding AACSB
AACSB International (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) is a global, non-profit membership organization of educational institutions, businesses, and other entities devoted to the advancement of management education. Established in 1916, AACSB International provides its members with a variety of products and services to assist them with the continuous improvement of their business programmes and schools, among other things these types of seminars that provide global professional development opportunities for business school administrators and faculty.
More on AACSB www.aacsb.edu
