Improving Management Students' Skills in Framing "Thought Provoking Questions" An Action Research
This paper describes how a teaching intervention in an action research (AR) environment improved the learning processes and higher order thinking skills among undergraduate management students. Action research has been gaining currency as a way of improving business and management education. The current study, conducted from October to December 2014, involved 70 students at a state university in the Philippines. As part of their class work in the Introduction to Management course, the students were assigned to teams, which took turns in presenting various management concepts to the class as a whole. Non presenting students were required to submit student generated "thought provoking questions" (TPQs) for class discussion. The teacher researcher's reflection on the initial results of the TPQs necessitated a teaching intervention to improve the quality of the students' TPQs. The lecture intervention improved the management students' TPQ writing skills and learning processes. This study's findings are supported by the triangulation method of (1) the teacher researcher's observations, (2) the students' self reports through a post intervention survey, and (3) a t test of mean differences in students' marks. The paired t test for mean differences between the pre and post lecture scores is significant and shows improved average scores after the lecture intervention. The study concludes that AR may be an effective mode of improving teaching methods in management education.