André Duhá attended second part of immersion program at London Business School
PUCRS’ efforts of internationalization and teaching innovation were presented to about 40 professionals from different areas, such as Economics, Finance, Business Management and Organizational Behavior, at the second stage of the International Teachers Program (ITP) immersion program. Business School professor, and coordinator of certificate programs, Dr André Duhá, went to London Business School for the second time in 2019. He had a follow-up session to the program that is promoted by a group of renowned universities and aimed at the development of Business School educators all over the world.
For 5 days in June, the participants, representing universities in 17 countries, such as China, Turkey, France, England and Sweden, evaluated and shared their classroom innovations. The ideas were initially brought forth in the first on-site immersion, in Jan 2019. “At various moments during the program, I had the opportunity to talk about PUCRS and about our teaching innovation and internationalization actions. Everyone was impressed by our distance education model and the quality of PUCRS’ online programs. They wanted to know about the results we have achieved, students ‘perceptions, faculty involvement and managerial aspects. They also showed their interest in our innovation and entrepreneurship practices, as well as in the projects carried out with companies and the project service learning. They were amazed by how beautiful our Campus is and the modern facilities PUCRS has”, Duhá says.
Collaborative learning
At the end of the first stage, each participant put together a proposal to try out some kind of teaching innovation in their classes. The workshops delivered at the beginning of the year would be used as a reference. The implementation was followed by the mentors / coaches selected by the program. Ultimately, the participants had to write a report was prepared containing the results achieved, the problems they faced and suggestions for improvements.
This time, the participants delivered workshops about their areas of interest based on the things they learned over the course of the program. “We were encouraged to use some innovative teaching method or at least a method that was different from the one we use in our classes regularly. The program’s mentors were present during the presentations. At the end, they conducted a feedback session. We learned a lot and grew a lot”, Duhá says.
The second stage also featured lectures and workshops delivered by renowned professors from the Business Schools that support the program, focusing on the methods of learning assessment. These methods are based on the concept of assurance of learning, on the design of the teaching projects, on technology-mediated collaborative learning and on the methods to deal with diversity in the classroom. “We had the chance to share practices and discuss the models used in different universities and countries that were represented by the program’s participants”, he says.
Sharing insights
The way Duhá sees it, attending ITP was a unique experience for he had the chance to learn from excellent professionals, to interact with colleagues and to learn more about the best practices in Business Schools from different countries around the world. “Not only did I learn from reflecting upon my teaching practice, but also from experimenting and dealing with different situations of my daily life as an educator,” he says. Duhá was the only professor from a Latin American university in the 2019 edition. The group was joined by another Brazilian, who serves as a researcher at a Dutch university.
The third stage of the program is now ready to begin. In this stage, participants will be required to share with the peers int heir own universities the things they learned over the past months. “The main goal is to contribute even more to the development of our programs, teaching innovation, curriculum internationalization and student development “, he adds.
