Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | A | Academic Exchange Quarterly

A problem-based learning approach to leadership.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

This paper argues the case for a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach to the learning and teaching of Leadership. The problems confronting two very different leaders, Mordechai Rumkowski and Josephine Baker, are suggested and discussed in terms of some key concepts from leadership studies. Their responses are evaluated as a possible exercise in PBL.

The Problem-Based Learning Approach

Problem-Based Learning began with the Ancient Greeks, was revived by Dewey, continuing through medical and health schools to the present day in many disciplines. It has been described as "... an instructional method that challenges students to "learn to learn", working cooperatively in groups to seek solutions to real world problems." (Duch, 2001: 1).

PBL has been contrasted with traditional instruction, where students prepare for a class by reading from prescribed texts. A checklist of defining characteristics of PBL instructional strategy has been proposed by Bridges (1992:5-6), and Leadership Studies can be seen to fit. First, the starting point for learning is a problem, that is, a stimulus for which a student lacks a ready response. Leaders have clearly faced a major problem, which could be: the survival of the group, or extreme prejudice, in other words, one that any student could face as future professionals, actually or metaphorically. Second, the knowledge that students are expected to acquire during their professional training is organized around problems rather than disciplines. Although academia is organized into disciplines, problems often overlap many disciplinary boundaries. Third, students individually and collectively assume a major responsibility for their own instruction and learning. Most learning in the discipline of leadership occurs within the context of small groups rather than lectures "the integration of specific courses and classroom contexts for enhancing students' critical-thinking skills and for developing both a collective and independent ownership of knowledge." (Eck and Mathews, 2000: 12).

The instructional design includes theories of leadership combined with a case study method that is appropriate where behavior cannot be controlled or manipulated (Merriam, 1988:8). In addition, the study of leadership requires an imaginative leap to gain insight in a process called by Merriam "... discovery of new meaning ..." that is, a heuristic approach (Merriam, 1988:13).

Theoretical Approaches to Leadership

The relationship between leadership and profound political change is obvious, but between the academic disciplines of political science and leadership studies, the relationship is implicit rather than explicit, so that one commentator has observed that the analysis of the role of leaders in the political process has been dominated mainly by historians and psychologists (Kets de Vries, 1990). As the following case studies in leadership will reveal, there are many insights waiting to be drawn out by the PBL group, such the controlling...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!