Internationalizing the Assessment Criteria to Build Cross-Cultural Competency

ABSTRACT

International business programs, universities with international students, and educators who seek to internationalize their teaching need to make informed decisions about teaching, testing, and assessment criteria. The infusion of American business curricula throughout the world as well as the need to train American business students for leadership roles in global contexts calls for teaching and assessment practices which explore a plurality of cognitive, affective and behavioral pedagogical strategies. This article considers traditional education and assessment in China in light of American educational practices currently used for assessment in business training. It explores how an understanding of modern Confucianist values can shape assessment choices in both American and overseas programs as an example of developing cross-cultural awareness. The authors call for an assessment process in business education which draws from a plurality of methods adapted to teaching, learning and testing for global awareness.     

Living (not learning) ethics

Much has been written recently about both the urgency and efficacy of teaching business ethics. The results of our survey of AACSB member schools confirm prior reports of similar surveys: The teaching of business ethics is indiscriminate, unorganized, and undisciplined in most North American schools of business. If universities are to be taken seriously in their efforts to create more ethical awareness and better moral decision-making skills among their graduates, they must provide a rigorous and well-developed system in which students can live ethics instead of merely learn ethics. A system must be devised to allow students to discover and refine their own values rather than simply learning ethical theories from an intellectual point of view.After reviewing the literature on business ethics in undergraduate curricula, we make a series of recommendations to deliver experiential ethical education for business students. The recommendations include student and faculty written codes of ethics, emphasis on ethical theory within the existing required legal environment course, applied ethics in the functional area capstones using alternative learning, a discussion of employee (and employer) rights and responsibilities during the curriculum capstone course, and a public service requirement for graduation. These recommendations may be implemented without substantive additional cost or programming requirements.Joseph Solberg is an Assistant Professor of Business Law at Illinois State University. His teaching and research interests are centered on the legal and ethical environments of business and the pedagogy of business ethics. He is a member of the American and Midwest Academies and Legal Studies in Business.Kelly Strong is an Assistant Professor of Management at Illinois State University. His teaching and research interests include business ethics, business and society, and strategic issues management. He has published articles in the Journal of Business Ethics and other scholarly outlets in the areas of ethics education, business and society, and ethical decision making.Charles McGuire, Jr. is Professor of Business Law and Chair of the Finance, Insurance and Law Department at Illinois State University. His interests are in the areas of business law and the legal environment of business as well as government regulation. He has published text-books and supplements on the legal environment of business in addition to scholarly works in the American Business Law Journal, among others.     

Development Through Business: What Do American Business Students Know About Emerging Markets and Opportunities in Africa?

This article investigates how Africa is taught in business and examines African and American student perspectives on business in Africa. Conclusions find that African students, business students or not, had more knowledge about business and economic structures than American business students; however, learning about successful case studies on business in Africa proved to motivate both students and faculty. The nexus between international development and business is emphasized and training business students to seek potential partnerships with African businesses is underscored. The article ends with educational recommendations and cites the advantages of introducing students to emerging opportunities in business on the continent.     

The Efficacy of Using an Experiential Exercise in Teaching International usiness

A three-group experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an experiential game versus a lecture on the role of culture in international business as a teaching and learning, tool. Ten learning outcomes were defined and a survey instrument was used to obtain student responses. Pretest and posttest scores of the questionnaire for the two treatment groups and the control group were analyzed to determine the extent of student learning about the subject. Statistical analysis indicates that the game is at least as effective as a conventional lecture yet involves the students to a far greater degree in the learning process.     

How to Add Philosophy Dimensions in Your Basic International Business Course

This article aims to assist professors in introducing concepts of self, philosophy, religions, the universe, existential dilemmas, etc., in their basic international business classes. Using active learning and five-member student teams, a student organized and administered conference adds a very useful dimension of knowledge sacrificing only one teaching day. The article, capitalizing on more than 25 years of international business teaching and conference experiences, provides “how-to” suggestions to organize similar events.     

The case of flow and learning revisited

Many business schools are criticized for being ineffective in helping students learn proper management skills and knowledge. Flow theory has been cited as being helpful in many learning environments in that flow experience can enhance student learning. The authors conducted a study of 315 students in an undergraduate operations management (OM) class to assess learning outcomes and flow experience. Results show that student learning performance and flow are related. Implications and suggestions for further research are provided.     

现代教育技术的发展对教学模式的影响

我们原有的教学模式多是以教师为主的一言堂式，忽视了学生的学习主体性，这是不利于学生个性发展的。随着现代教育技术的不断发展，网络技术和多媒体技术在教育领域得到了广泛应用，教学模式也随之改变。强调师生互动的新的教学模式应运而生，这耍冬謦盖了传统的教学模式，也更有利于学生的身心健康。     

Teaching information technology alongside business analytics: Case study

Business analytics can be described as the statistical analysis of data to make decisions and meaningful conclusions. As the demand to advance the curriculum of undergraduate business education increases, courses in business analytics aim to provide students with fundamental skills in critical thinking. Educators have found that spreadsheet applications that include statistical features are easy to use and facilitate student learning. The authors analyzed student performance in an introductory business analytics course that used Microsoft Excel as a statistical tool by comparing scores from this introductory course with those from an information technology course in which only Excel skills were learned.     

The Team Teaching of Business Ethics in a Weekly Semester Long Format

This article describes our team teaching of asemester long course in business ethics taught oneevening a week to mostly part-time MBA students. Wediscuss the differences and similarities in ourbackgrounds, disciplines, and preferred teachingstrategies. Our team teaching approach, thesubject matter, and teaching strategies are alsodiscussed. A typical session of the course is brieflydescribed. We discuss how student performance isevaluated. Finally, we provide some thoughts on teamteaching a business ethics course and briefly commenton our redesign of this business ethics course in afour Saturday schedule.     

Authentic simulated startups: Bringing the real world into the classroom

In this changing world, college graduates require new skills to be successful in jobs that may not yet exist. The authors describe an innovative instructional approach to teaching organizational behavior grounded in Kolb’s model of experiential learning and problem-based learning. Specifically, the sample class is scaffolded across the semester by having student teams create and remain part of an authentic simulated startup business and engage in continual reflection. Data come from surveys of 151 undergraduates across six semesters. Students report developing the ability to work on a team and with diverse people, gaining an understanding of oneself, and learning about real-world business.     

Multiple student learning objectives in basic business statistics: Strategies,assessment, and recommendations

The basic business statistics course is ideal for incorporating multiple objectives related to program learning goals common at most business schools. Along with quantitative reasoning skills, activities are described that allow the measurement of student outcomes related to oral communication and ethics. Strategies include the hidden curriculum approach, term projects involving real data, class presentations, and an emphasis on the ethical use of statistics. These approaches are implemented across multiple sections over multiple semesters, illustrating the untapped potential of this course for achieving multiple learning goals as well as how results can be used to refine assessment methods and improve instruction.     

Group Work and Multicultural Management Education

Globalization changes the composition of the adult classroom, increasing diversity and bringing new associated teaching and learning problems; problems with group work. Educators may have goals to teach transferable multicultural group working skills yet learners find such work more challenging, showing a propensity to form groups containing students more like themselves i.e. unicultural. Using survey data from MBA students spanning 25 countries, this empirical article documents an investigation into methods and techniques used to create groups for teaching and learning in diverse classrooms and considers the arguments for and against a range of approaches. We conclude the educational goal directing the use of group work, student stage and the need for attaining affective and performance outcomes are important determinants of group allocation methods.     

The Greening of Business Schools

"New modes of thinking" are necessary to meet a new set of complex environmental challenges-greenery, globalization, diversity, complexity and acceleration of technological change of the 1990s. The green challenge to business schools is to articulate, develop, and deliver environmental education for managers as an effective tool for a sustainable world economy and society. Every business student must have at least broad understanding of the social, political, ethical, technological, economic, and ecological context of global business. The challenge of educating business leaders for a global future requires a new portfolio of capabilities, commitments. and visions on the part of business school faculty, the multinational corporations, and other stakeholders in management education. Business schools around the world have an obligation to present the ecological challenge as clearly to students as to faculty members. The more environmentally conscious business student community of the 1990s probably will demand to have structured learning opportunities about environmental issues and their impact on business management- with a superordinate goal of improving environmental sensitivity and environmental performance of individuals and their institutions.     

The comprehensive business exam: Usefulness for assessing instructional and student performance outcomes

The authors explore the results of the Comprehensive Business Exam (CBE) administered to business majors during their senior-year business capstone course. The study results identified students' SAT and grade point average as a predictor of CBE performance, and variables that explain the correlation between CBE performance, SAT score, and grade point average are discussed. This study expands the research stream by demonstrating how faculty can use CBE information to more deeply assess student learning at both the course and instructor level than is possible with the Major Field Test for Bachelor's Degree in Business.     

LearnSmart,adaptive teaching,and student learning effectiveness: An empirical investigation

Facing the growing number of digital natives entering the classroom, business professors look for innovative ways to enhance the student learning experience. The authors focus on the online interactive learning tool LearnSmart (McGraw-Hill, New York, NY), and examine its impact on student learning effectiveness by testing the direct and indirect relationships among perceived competence, perceived challenge, instructors, perceived value, and satisfaction with LearnSmart. Constructionism served as the theoretical foundation for this study. About 215 students at a public university in the United States took the survey and 197 valid responses were received. Regression analysis results showed that the use of LearnSmart improved students' perceived competency, thus increasing their perceived value of using LearnSmart, as well as their satisfaction with LearnSmart. Perceived value was also found to mediate the impact of perceived competency on satisfaction with LearnSmart, and the instructor played a significant role in facilitating and improving student learning. Perceived challenge impacted student's perceived value of using LearnSmart, but it did not influence satisfaction with LearnSmart.     

论商务文化对国贸专业英语教学的影响 ——以高职院校为例

伴随经济全球化进程加深,国际贸易的发展跌宕起伏,亟待重新整合社会需求,培养更具商务文化意识的复合型国贸人才。以高职院校为例,从国贸专业英语教学的理论与实践切入,发掘商务文化的内涵,思考商务文化嵌入对英语教学的影响。语言教学需以传授语言文化背景为基础不断深化学生对语言结构形式的语用能力,国贸专业英语教学则应建构以商务文化为框架的丰富化、高效化、交际式、品质化教学模式。商务文化对国贸专业英语教学发挥基础性、多元化的作用,自觉树立商务文化意识、处理商务交际障碍、辩证把握母语文化与目的语文化关系是促进教学成果、提升学习效率、灵活商务交际、对标能力素质的必由之路。     

Developing International Business Managers Through International Study Visits to China

Globalization is a key factor in the success of business organizations today, impacting many aspects of management performance. Understanding the global business environment has therefore become a key objective in the teaching of international business on Executive MBA programs. Drawing on the theory of experiential learning, this study examines the relationship between program structure and learning activities of an international study visit (ISV) to China and the learning experience for Executive MBA students. The findings indicate that learning experience may be most effective where the structure of an ISV incorporates certain activities that promote experiential and deep-level learning. Educational implications are discussed.     

Short-term global business immersion courses: Short-term program,long-term effects?

This article explores the potential impact of short-term global business immersion courses designed for undergraduate students at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. As part of the Global Foundations Core curriculum, the school offers students a unique opportunity to study a country or region in depth in the classroom and then participate in an accompanying short-term study program abroad. In this article, multiple Kelley faculty who teach global immersion courses offer context-specific strategies and insights into classroom teaching and observed outcomes for student learning. Research shows that short-term study-abroad programs can offer transformative opportunities for students when intentionally designed as part of curriculum, affecting attitudes toward environmental citizenship and shaping global careers. The Chronicle of Education reports that even short study-abroad programs can have a lasting effect. To date, the Kelley School has not measured for standardized learning outcomes across its 14 existing global immersion courses, so this article does not offer commentary on program-wide student learning. However, through analyses of their on-campus course design and respective overseas program activities, Global Business Immersion program faculty share insights into student learning as observed in their individual programs. Our intent is to capture the impact of the courses through the lens of faculty program directors and student participants in three programs across three continents. In addition, we contribute to future research on similar global academic initiatives and add to the expanding body of knowledge on the impacts of short-term study abroad.     

Teaching problem solving and database skills that transfer

The main goal of teaching a database application is to prepare students to use the application as a tool to gather information and to solve problems. This study investigated two approaches to teaching problem solving with database applications with the goal of preparing students to transfer their problem solving and database skills to solve an ill structured business problem. The findings reveal that neither the problem solving instruction approach nor the problem solving discovery approach improved students' transfer of problem solving skills. Students continue to have difficulty selecting efficient database procedures to support their problem solving processes. Further research is recommended.