Special Teaching Leaves

2000-2001

John Affisco (Business Computer Information Systems and Quantitative Methods), "Pride Products Inc. -- Experiential Learning of Applied Business Statistics." Presently, much of business statistics is taught with a methodological, formula first focus. In this pedagogy, students are passive learners and the motivation is simply to learn how to use the techniques. There is a preoccupation on the part of the students with "plugging" numbers into formulas with little ability to generalize and learn problem solving. Students work independently, there is no required small group work, and little opportunity to learn from one another. A second result is difficulty in motivating the connection between business and the study of quantitative methods. This leave focused on the development of the Pride Products Inc. environment, which will make a new experiential learning pedagogy available for teaching business statistics. The main objective of this pedagogy is to improve the motivation of students to study business statistics through the use of experiential learning based on a simulated business environment. It is intended that this improved motivation will result in a significantly greater number of students achieving mastery learning of business statistics.