Freedom To Learn

One of the exciting aspects of learning something new is that it typically sparks my interest in several other topics. I am grateful for the freedom to pursue what interests me. I lament that my students do not enjoy the same degree of freedom as I do. Their course work tends to restrict how far their learning can range. Students are constricted in their learning by prescribed readings, required assignments, and imposed deadlines. There are ways, though, to encourage students to expand their range of inquiry within a course.

One way I employ is to expose students to relationships between subjects the students may consider as unrelated. For example, in my management principles course I include a visit to the art museum on campus. The students and I explore what managers can learn from artists about innovation. After one such visit, one of my students was inspired to do his course paper on the subject of management as art. He is now honing that paper for publication.

Another method I use is to link students’ personal interests with the course material. How might management skills be applied to personal relationships, making career choices, team sports, shopping, or composing music? I encourage students when deciding on a focus for their course papers and presentations to connect the course material to areas of interest to them or to their personal experiences. I have them post their papers on the course’s website for all the students to read. After reading the papers and hearing the oral presentations of others in the course, students have reported to me how surprised they were by the range of contexts in which the subject matter could be applied.

Integrated learning can be facilitated by helping students make connections between various disciplines and by giving them the freedom to range far and wide in their pursuit of learning.