Many educators struggle to use their face time with students, freed-up by asynchronous ABL assignments, effectively. One important puzzle piece to deepen students’ understanding of concepts and theories, and create a vibrant, engaged classroom, is the transfer of theories and concepts to practice. A year-long project to enhance Theory-Practice Integration (TPI) in education, led by Nico Schauerte, combined educational literature, depth interviews with teachers and practitioners, and a large-scale student survey to uncover ways to strengthen TPI across the curriculum – for the benefit of students and teachers.
“Many of us already include practical examples, case studies, or guest lectures, but it turns out that the spectrum is much broader than this, and that the way in which we integrate these elements matters” Nico Schauerte explains. Especially the personal exchanges with educators and practitioners internationally have generated insights that he found valuable also for his own teaching: “There are the usual suspects, but are you including such simple things like a ‘management summary’ slide to show what the concepts and methods taught today are used for in industry? Or have you ever let students work on ‘cartoon cases’ in your teaching? I hadn’t heard about these before and now integrate them regularly.”
Some insights require organizational intervention, such as establishing more systematic relationships, but other initiatives are so simple that everyone can embed them in their own courses without much effort. Nico set up a Canvas repository of TPI initiatives for everyone to access and draw from (https://canvas.vu.nl/courses/85803). For a short glimpse, here are three tips for educators that aim to strengthen the bridge between theory and practice:
Tip 1. Start Small
The good news is teachers do not have to revise their entire course. Start with small steps such as the mentioned “management summary” slide, or connect concepts and methods to real-world job requirements (“Who would use this in a company and for what purpose?”). Low-hanging fruits are numerous, spanning measures like complementing academic articles with practitioner write-ups (e.g., Harvard Business Review), showing how a method is integrated in popular software packages (e.g., SAP), requiring external online assignments to be completed (e.g., Google Analytics, Coursera), or having working students share their own company use case of a concept.
Tip 2. Resonate with Students’ Lifeworld
Speaking of which, examples, cases, and assignments work better when they correspond to students’ daily experiences. Teaching becomes more effective when students can personally relate to the material. Talk about products or service they know and use. For example, showing live website visits, real LinkedIn profiles, and retail stores from their neighborhood can bring theories to life. Teachers can go even a step further and have students prepare and present material for class from their own experience.
Tip 3. Use Gen AI to Your Advantage
A common issue is that teachers would like to use written case studies and real-world analyses, but some students come unprepared. Besides pre-written mini cases, which are widely available, generative AI can help generate brief industry scenarios or condense existing cases, newspaper articles, and practitioner write-ups into shorter pieces. This way, students can read and work on the case assignment in class—no lengthy preparation necessary. Another great way to prepare material with AI is to generate a period-long, fictitious (company) case, including synthetic data and varying management decisions that students work through each week.
There are many ways in which teachers can bring their materials to life. Students appreciate stronger TPI, as it clarifies why they learn something and how they might need it. TPI also represents the missing piece of the active blended learning transformation that the school is striving for by using synchronous teaching in a meaningful way. TPI workshops, as piloted for the marketing master, can help bring the concept into SBE’s different departments. With ABL and TPI in conjunction, we can make education better for all stakeholders.
For more information, please visit the project page (https://canvas.vu.nl/courses/85803) or contact Nico Schauerte directly (n.schauerte@vu.nl).