A Borrowed Approach for a More Effective Business Education

Have business programs become “too focused on scientific research?” and “graduating students who are ill-equipped to wrangle with complex, unquantifiable issue?” In the April 2006 issue of the Journal of Management Education, Campbell et al. argue the deficiencies in undergraduate business education must be addressed with changes in pedagogy rather than changes in curriculum. Unfortunately, specific recommendations beyond team projects and team teaching are scarce. One strategy for obtaining new ideas is to examine the pedagogy of other professional programs and see what, if anything, business schools could learn. The purpose of this article is to examine one of the primary pedagogies used by nursing schools to integrate theory and practice, clinical laboratories. By adopting the clinical model, business schools will simultaneously improve student learning, offer a new assessment approach to evaluate learning, and provide businesses with more relevant information about employment potential.