SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

It is a teaching strategy in the process that promotes group work. The group members have to learn the subject collectively with the intention to aid other group members to learn and understand the subject better. This will also equip the students’ problem solving skills not only to learn the subject for personal gain, but also to help fellow-student to learn it better. Each member of the group works at the problem until all of them master the issue. This happens during tutorial sessions practical, wherein students are given an activity to execute with the help of other members of the group.

This method implies dividing students into separate groups and giving each group its own task. The group members work at their given tasks/challenge or project on an individual scale and at the same time share their opinions with the rest of the group members. In line with the problem raised, it is possible to shift the functions among the group members in this process. The strategy accelerates the students’ participation and involvement which is evident in throughput rate.

This is a method which uses actual concrete problem as the initial stage for acquiring new knowledge and integration process. For example; students without commercial background might find it difficult to master Basic accounting principle, which compel or prompt the Lecturer to double-up hisher efforts in assisting such students.

It is grounded on the step-by-step solving of a given problem. It is realised by means of independent fixing of the facts in the teaching process and determining the ties among them. For example, in case of deriving the net present value for a certain financial period, a student should be in a good position to differentiate and master the grouping of the following sub-calculations in a chronological order; the yearly cash flows, the accounting rate of return, payback period and the net present value and making recommendations to the company. 

The Lecturer engage himself or herself in a thorough discussion for a concrete cases together with the students and they study the issue thoroughly. For example, in the sphere of operations management and supply chain management ‘’British Petroleum (BP) and the deep-water horizon disaster of 2010’’ it can be a discussion of a concrete accident or catastrophe (Source: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/operations-management/BP-Deepwater-Horizon-Disaster/Pages/BP-and-the-Deepwater-Horizon-Disaster-of-2010.aspx).

This method implies forming and presenting as many radically different ideas and opinions on a given topic. This method sets conditions for developing a creative approach towards a problem, and this method is effective in a large group of students and it is comprised of the following stages;

Using a creative approach for defining a problem/issue; this will help students spot out the main issue for the underlying phenomena;

Listing (mainly on the blackboard) students’ ideas on the problem without any criticism; by so doing, students feel involved and the momentum for confidence and interest will be elevated;

Determining the evaluation criteria for stating the correspondence of the idea to the aim of the research; that will help the student to have focus and direction in problem solving;

Evaluating the chosen ideas according to the previously determined criteria; this will help the student to summarise the whole possible solutions into a compressed unit;

Choosing the ideas that most of all correspond to the given issue by applying the method of exclusion; this step compels students to compress previous possible solutions into sub-solutions to the problem;

Revealing the best idea for solving the given problem. Last but not least, the final decision is taken in accordance with best possible solution.