Theory and practice in management education: A perspective for Business Schools

• Main Author: Christopher Orpen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AOSIS 1980-12-01
• Series: South African Journal of Business Management
• Online Access: https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/1251

It is argued that the effective teaching of management requires both students and teachers to be involved in collaborative research of one kind or another. This, in turn, requires an integration of theory and practice in which students and teachers jointly; apply research-based generalizations to a variety of situations based on their diagnoses of those situations; modify these generalizations on the basis of their success or failure in application, and apply the modified generalizations to still further situations - a circular process that lies at the heart of any research effort. A number of practical suggestions are made for the attainment of this kind of integration between teaching (theory) and learning (practice). The integrative model proposed in this paper is contrasted with the traditional model, in terms of which research conducted by independent researchers stands apart from teaching and the practical application of knowledge. Dit word aangevoer dat effektiewe onderrig van die bestuurskuns van beide studente en dosente vereis dat hulle in samewerking by een of ander navorsingsprojek betrokke sal wees. Dit vereis weer 'n integrasie van teorie en praktyk waarin studente en dosente gesamentlik, navorsingsgebaseerde veralgemenings op verskillende situasies, na gelang van hulle diagnose van daardie situasies, toepas; hierdie veralgemenings op die basis van hulle sukses of mislukkings in die toepassing daarvan wysig, en die wysigings in verdere situasies toepas - 'n kringloopproses wat betrekking het op enige navorsingspoging. 'n Aantal praktiese voorstelle vir die bereiking van hierdie soort integrasie tussen onderrig (teorie) en leer (praktiese toepassing) word aan die hand gegee. Die geintegreerde model wat in hierdie artikel voorgestel word is in kontras met die tradisionele model, in terme waarvan navorsing deur onafhanklike navorsers geskei is van die onderrig en die praktiese toepassing van kennis.