siliconindia | | December 20199Investing in research builds a reputation for the institutes, and is likely to attract top quality teaching staffpace with the technological advance-ment is the need of the hour. Busi-ness schools must be ready for the changing business landscape, and their curriculum should prepare stu-dents for the future. Create a Better Reputation: Man-agement education is a competitive domain, as there are hundreds of in-stitutes that offer management edu-cation programs. To stand-out, busi-ness schools have to reinvent their curriculum. But merely changing the curriculum is not enough; business schools need top quality teaching faculty to guide their students. In-vesting in research builds a reputa-tion for the institutes, and is likely to attract top quality teaching staff. Teaching Faculty Development: The tedious schedule of a business school does not allow it's teach-ing faculty to research or re-skill themselves. Business schools can adequately address this issue by in-cluding research in their schedule, thus resulting in the development of the teaching faculty with re-spect to the current business trends and academics. Now that we understand the importance of research in busi-ness schools let's take a look at the other side of the coin ­ experiential learning. What is experiential learning?Experiential learning is a method of learning through experience. It in-volves various activities performed by students that develop skills, val-ues and provides overall knowl-edge of a particular concept with the help of direct experience and first-hand learning. Why should Business Schools focus on experiential learning?Improves Learning: Rote learning is now an outdated learning method and has been replaced by `experien-tial learning'. As with experiential learning, one develops problem-solving, critical thinking and deci-sion-making ability. These abilities developed by experiential learning not only help ones professional life, but also in personal life. Merges Theory with Practical: Experiential learning goes beyond theory, as one gets to apply their education in real-world challenges. By getting a first-hand experience of how to implement a concept, one completely understands the princi-ples involved to achieve the best out-put through a particular method.Encourages Teamwork: Nearly all experiential learning activations emphasize group learning. By par-ticipating in these activities, students learn to work efficiently together. Besides, they develop abilities to make execution plans, analyze situ-ations, and understand teammates, thus developing leadership skills in them.Increases Engagement: Experien-tial learning involves students put-ting their knowledge to use in real-world situations. When students see the fruit of their labour, they expe-rience a level of satisfaction that theoretical learning cannot provide, thus leading to higher engagement in class and a greater enthusiasm for learning. Creates Space for Creativity: Real-world problems can often be approached with more than one so-lution. With experiential learning, students develop abilities to think outside the box and produce creative solutions for any challenges they may face. These are just a few ways in which research and experiential learning can help business schools. In the end, by reinventing the curriculum with program research and promoting ex-periential learning, business schools can develop professionals with great-er knowledge and experience in their respective domains, thus amplifying their opportunities and making them future-ready.
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