Education is not and should never be confused with the marketplace; however, in the brief snapshot of economic history below lays an example with educational application.
As the United States trudged through the economic recession of the
1970s and 1980s, it was increasingly apparent that a customer-driven
model for business was generating greater success than the traditional
U.S. production model (Peters & Waterman, 1984). In fact, many
U.S. businesses were rapidly falling onto the market's endangered
species list. Why did this happen? To paraphrase the popular wisdom
of the time, the most successful businesses of the late 20 th century
promoted:
- A team concept to production and distribution
- A greater sense of ownership among employees
- Creativity and out-of-the-box thinking
These three traits, many theorists claimed, explained why some corporations were thriving while others suffered (Hiebeler, Ketteman, & Kelly, 2000). For U.S. businesses, the proof was in the profit statements. Desperately, U.S. corporations began adopting the best practices of the most successful organizations (including many exemplary Japanese corporations) and by the mid 1990s, the U.S. economy was rebounding.
Regardless of one's opinion about how similar or different the corporate world is to higher education, our understanding of student learning and engagement can be informed by our understanding of the concepts of productivity and satisfaction.
If the three business characteristics noted above were rewritten for the classroom, they would propose that effective teaching and learning successfully promote:
- Collaborative learning opportunities
- Student centered teaching and learning
- A variety of instructional strategies
When instructors facilitate students' ownership-taking in the learning
process, through a variety of instructional methods, student learning
and engagement improve (Weimer, 2002). This approach is particularly
important for students with backgrounds that have been traditionally
underrepresented in U.S. education. Students whose identities vary
from the historical majority bring experience and knowledge to the
learning environment that is often unrecognized and undervalued.
They have also experienced a lifetime of social cues that suggest
they are less capable than their majority peers, which in traditional
classrooms may become a self-fulfilling prophecy (Steele & Aronson,
1997).
By purposefully involving all students in the learning process and giving credibility to the importance of their previous knowledge, students are more likely to engage with fellow learners and the course material. Using a variety of instructional strategies provides students the opportunity to gain confidence in learning styles with which they are comfortable and to build competence in learning styles with which they previously may have struggled. The collaborative, student-centered, and multiple-strategy approach to teaching and learning is fundamental to multicultural education.