Professors and students at NHH about teaching

See the videos in the YouTube playlist.

Developing autonomy and progression in student learning are key considerations when selecting teaching methods.

Case-based teaching	Teaching in large groups	Flipped classroom
Problem-based teaching	Team based learning	Blended learning and online learning

Case-based teaching

Advantages

• Based on reality
• Students learn to think independently, take decisions
• Promotes student activity, insight, experiences
• Closes the theory-practice gap
• Engaging and fun
• Helps students to see connections and patterns

Comments

Case-based teaching is a very popular form of teaching in many international educational institutions (such as the Harvard Business School) because it creates a framework for academic discussions at a high level in which the students actively participate and challenge each others’ knowledge and opinions.

The basis for the session is a case – a situation, event etc. that can illustrate one or more issues that are relevant to the subject. The situation should be real (or inspired by a real case) and allow for different proposed solutions to be debated. The students prepare by receiving a paper from the teacher containing the case itself, a summary of particularly relevant reading material and reflection questions that can encourage students to problematise and reflect on the different aspects of the case.

The academic discussion in the teaching session is facilitated by the teacher. It is important that as many people as possible participate. The teacher asks an opening question and steers the discussion with follow-up questions and comments. Case-based teaching can be performed as a single class or as a consistent method in all teaching sessions in a subject. Some schools also use the discussions as a basis for evaluation of the students.

Read more

• NHH Executive Case Library
• National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at the University at Buffalo
• Website of the Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard Business School with useful information and practical tip

Contacts at NHH

• Karin Thorburn
• Carstein Bienz

Teaching in large groups

Advantages

• Creates an overview of the topic
• Structures the students’ work for a period
• Ensures a review of particularly difficult topics
• Motivates the students
• It is possible to problematise the topic and challenge the students

Comments

Lecturing is a traditional and widely used teaching method in higher education. In his book “Råd og tips til deg som underviser” (advice and tips for the teacher), Professor Arild Raaheim gives 17 tips for increasing the learning outcome before, during and after lectures. According to Raaheim, there are many ways of preparing a good lecture. Largely, it is about establishing a good dialogue with the students. It is about listening to the students’ input and avoiding the use of irony and humour at the students’ expense. It is also important to attempt to establish a dialogue with the students at an early stage of the lecture. This increases the probability of their active participation later.

Raaheim believes that teachers should endeavour to involve the students in the teaching and promote activity. One concrete tip from the book is to use “buzz” tasks, where students are given a couple of minutes to discuss issues with the person sitting next to them. The idea is that the students are given the time and opportunity to process the material they have just been hearing about in different ways.

Read more

• Raaheim, A. (2013). Råd og tips til deg som underviser. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.
• Lecturing, Center for Teaching, Vaderbilt University
• Louis Deslauriers, Ellen Schelew, Carl Wieman, Improved Learning in a Large-Enrollment Physics Class

Contacts at NHH

• Frode Sættem
• Ragnhild Balsvik
• Jon Iden

Flipped classroom

Advantages

• Increased time for interaction between the lecturer and the students
• The students can re-watch and revise selected videos etc. in the areas that they find difficult.
• The students are more in control of their own learning
• The lecturer can re-use the teaching material

Comments

Teaching that has traditionally occurred in the classroom or in an auditorium using a board and PowerPoint is moved to the student’s homes, while home exercises are moved to the school. This means that many lecturers record the traditional lecture on video, make a film of a PowerPoint presentation etc. – which the students watch at home – while at school more time is spent working on exercises under the guidance of the lecturer or other competent resource people. MOOCs are also available for video use.

Read more

• Flipped Learning Network
• How do you flip a class? University of Texas at Austin, Faculty Innovation Center
• Clyde Freeman Herreid and Nancy A. Schiller,  Case Studies and the Flipped Classroom

Contact at NHH

• Jan Ubøe

Problem-based learning

Advantages

• Previous knowledge and experiences are activated
• Students acquire new knowledge in a better way (theory is connected to practice)
• Students manage to make better use of what they learn in new, future situations
• The students should also work in groups according to a special problem-solving cycle (the 7 stage model).

Comments

Problem-based learning is often abbreviated to PBL. PBL often takes the opposite view to subject-based education. In PBL, what the students learn springs from interpretation of an open problem. This means that the exercises are often formulated as a task for the students to solve.

Characteristics

• Student-centred learning
• Collaboration in small groups (group basing)
• The supervisor is a facilitator and guide
• The students work on authentic problems (problem-centring)
• The students must acquire the knowledge themselves (self-management, self-regulation)

Read more

• Michael S.Carriger 2015: Problem-based learning and management development – Empirical and theoretical considerations

Team-Based Learning

Advantages

• A group of students creates a learning collaboration.
• An increased individual responsibility
• Helps students get different ideas, views, opinions and feedback
• Encourages constructive discussions and leads to several arguments until an appropriate solution is constructed.

Comments

TBL is a form of group-based learning. It is a teacher-steered and student-activating form of learning that gives students good training in reasoning, decision making and argumentation. It consists of teams working on problem solving with concrete response options.

The components of TBL are

• Permanent teams
• Individual preparation by students
• Problem solving – individually and in groups
• Peer review

Read more

• Team-Based Learning Collaborative
• Universitetsavisa.no: Studentene lærte mer da de fikk jobbe sammen i grupper
• Team-Based Learning, University of Texas 

Blended Learning and online learning

Advantages

• Increase student interest
• Keep students focused for longer
• Provides student autonomy
• Instil a disposition of self-advocacy
• Promote student ownership
• Allow instant diagnostic information and student feedback
• Enables students to learn at their own pace:
• Prepares students for the future

Comments

Blended Learning is a combination of several different teaching methods and includes elements of e-learning and courses on campus led by a lecturer. It may include for example independent study, video lectures and online group discussions etc. It allows for use of the most appropriate elements from both traditional activities at school and online learning.

Read more

• A Review of Research on Online and Blended Learning in the Management Disciplines: 1994-2009, Ben Arbaugh.
• Educause

Contact at NHH

• Beate Sandvei
• Christian Langenfeld