Abstract
When I think of the single change that would most successfully transform our teaching practice and leverage truly significant benefits, it would be to bring much more of what learners already know into the classroom so that it can be shared, examined, refined and improved. At present, it would seem that the majority mode of teaching in the areas of ethics and social responsibility does a rather poor job of this, tending instead towards silencing the wisdom that is in the room in order that external perspectives can be more easily “instilled”. From many years of experimenting with a wide variety of approaches to teaching the subject, I find this to be deeply suboptimal and would seriously suggest that we ought to shift our practices in ways that make learners’ perspectives our primary material of interest.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arlow, E. (1991). Personal characteristics in college students’ evaluations of business ethics and social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 10(1), 65–69.
Baron, J. (1998). Thinking and deciding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bean, J. C. (2011). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking and active learning in the classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Biggs, J. (1999). What the student does: Teaching for enhanced learning. Higher Education Research and Development, 18(1), 57–75.
Boud, D., Cohen, R., & Sampson, J. (2001). Learning from and with each other. London: Kogan Page.
Case, J. (2008). Alienation and engagement: Development of an alternative theoretical framework for understanding student learning. Higher Education, 55, 321–332.
Clegg, S., & Ross-Smith, A. (2003). Revising the boundaries: Management education and learning in a post-positivist world. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2(1), 85–98.
Felton, E. L., & Sims, R. R. (2005). Teaching business ethics: Targeted outputs. Journal of Business Ethics, 60(4), 377–391.
Floyd, L. A., Xu, F., Atkins, R., & Caldwell, C. (2013). Ethical outcomes and business ethics: Towards improving business ethics education. Journal of Business Ethics, 117(4), 753–776.
Furman, F. K. (1990). Teaching business ethics: Questioning the assumptions, seeking new directions. Journal of Business Ethics, 9(1), 31–38.
Gentile, M. C. (2010). Giving voice to values: How to speak your mind when you know what’s right. Ann Arbor, MI: Sheridan Books.
Gray, D. E. (2007). Facilitating management learning: Developing critical reflection through reflective tools. Management Learning, 38(5), 495–517.
Herrington, J., & Herrington, A. (2006). Authentic learning environments in higher education. London: Information Science Publishing.
Kauchak, D., & Eggen, P. (2012). Learning and teaching: Research-based methods. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Laditska, S. B., & Houck, M. M. (2006). Student-developed case studies: An experiential approach for teaching ethics in management. Journal of Business Ethics, 64(2), 157–167.
Leach, L., Neutze, G., & Zepke, N. (2014). Assessment and evaluation in higher education. London: Routledge.
Malcolm, J., & Zuckas, M. (2001). Bridging pedagogic gaps: Conceptual discontinuities in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 6(1), 33–42.
McDonald, R. (1993). An open letter to North American business ethicists. Journal of Business Ethics, 12(8), 661–662.
McDonald, R. (2013). A practical guide to educating for responsibility in business and management. New York, NY: Business Expert Press.
McWilliams, V., & Nahavandi, A. (2006). Using live cases to teach ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 67(4), 421–433.
Menzel, D. C. (1997). Teaching ethics and values in public administration: Are we making a difference? Public Administration Review, 57(3), 224–230.
Pintrich, P. R. (2004). A conceptual framework for assessing motivation and self-regulated learning in college students. Educational Psychology Review, 16(4), 385–404.
Singer, P. (2010). The life you can save: How to do your part to end world poverty. New York, NY: Random House.
Smith, K. A., Sheppard, S. D., Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2005). Pedagogies of engagement: Classroom-based practices. Journal of Engineering Education, 94(5), 87–101.
Solberg, J., Strong, K. C., & McGuire, C. (1995). Living (not learning) ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 14(1), 71–81.
Stiglitz, J. (2010). Freefall: America, free markets and the sinking of the global economy. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
Ulrich, P. (2008). Integrative economic ethics: Foundations of a civilized market economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Waples, E. P., Antes, A. L., Murphy, S. T., Connelly, S., & Mumford, M. D. (2009). A meta-analytic investigation of business ethics instruction. Journal of Business Ethics, 87(1), 133–151.
Williams, S. D., & Dewett, T. (2005). Yes you can teach business ethics: A review and research agenda. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 12(2), 109–120.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McDonald, R. Leveraging Change by Learning to Work with the Wisdom in the Room: Educating for Responsibility as a Collaborative Learning Model. J Bus Ethics 131, 511–518 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2477-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2477-0