GENRE AND COGNITION
IN AN MBA PROGRAM
Nigel A. Caplan (nacaplan@udel.edu)
University of Delaware, USA
PhD Student, School of Education
Assistant Professor, English Language Institute
http://nigelteacher.wordpress.com
Genre 2012, Ottawa, Ontario
Competing Approaches
Cognitive Strategies
(Individual)
Genres
(Social)
Outline
1. Needs Analysis: Context & Culture
2. Discussion: Participation, Pragmatics, and Purpose
3. Case analysis: Coherence, Conventions, and Cognition
4. Conclusion: Activity Theory
Needs analysis: Context and Culture
• Conditional Admissions Program (CAP)
• English Language Institute (English for Academic
Purposes, graduate/MBA track)
• Most ELI graduate students are CAP-MBA
• Almost all international MBA students come from CAP
Why don’t the Chinese
speak in class?
Needs Analysis: Data
• Syllabi of MBA classes
• Online questionnaires for MBA faculty and international
•
•
•
•
students
Observation of an MBA class
Focus groups and interviews with MBA faculty
Focus groups with international MBA students (ongoing)
“Think-aloud” sessions with MBA faculty
Instruments available online at
http://nigelteacher.wordpress.com
(Handouts  Genre 2012)
Genre System in the UD MBA
Reflection
Intrapersonal
Discussion board post
Assessment
Quiz
Exam
In-class (MCQ, TF, short answer, essay, mixed format)
Take home (essay, short answer, case write-up)
Professor-Student
Assignment
Written
Paper
Research paper
Case write up
Homework/problem sets
Report
Presentation slides/handouts
Group
Oral
Class
Case analysis
Lead case discussion
Report (e.g. marketing report)
Article presentation
Participation
Case discussion
Online (e.g. discussion board)
Case write-up
Pseudo
Simulation
Professional
Authentic
Resume
Report/presentation to client
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Important
Neither Important nor
Unimportant
Not Important
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Important
Neither Important nor
Unimportant
Not Important
Discussion:
Participation, Pragmatics, Purpose
Case Genre System (Forman & Rymer, 1999)
• The “focus [is] on practical problem solving
in real situations and on engaged
interaction between students and
instructors.”
• The case discussion is an “agonistic
approach to experiential learning … a
democratic event is which the instructor
serves as a facilitator and equal partner
with all the students.”
Participation
• A = Visible, thoughtful, and regular involvement in
class discussion. You got involved, and not just for the
purpose of hearing yourself speak. Class members
seemed to pay attention to what you said, and your
comments almost always were appropriate to the context.
BUAD 870 Syllabus, Fall 2011
Chinese students really don’t speak
American
Chinese
Other
International
N
12 (33%)
19 (53%) 5 (14%)
36
Turns per
student
3.1
0.7
1.8
Silent
students
1 (8%)
12 (63%) 0
2.8
All Class
13 (36%)
Author’s data from a single BUAD 870 class
(approx. 90 minutes’ class discussion), Fall 2011
Case Analysis:
Coherence, Conventions, Cognition
Set up ^ Diagnosis ^ [Recommendation]n (^Reflection)
Stage
Set Up
Description & Function
Identify and introduce the key players, the
dilemma, and opportunities (but not a summary of
the case)
Diagnosis
Analysis (not description) of the problem in terms of
“root causes”
Recommendation Alternative solutions plus the writer’s chosen
solution with justification, sometimes accompanied
by a specific action plan
Reflection
What did you learn from the case? How does it
connect to the theories in the course?
Features of the Genre
• The set-up should not summarize the case
• Key words, facts, characters, and statistics from
the case should be referenced
• Evidence must be presented
• The case write-up exists in the context of the
class
• Format and style conventions must be
• Professors’ expectations may be idiosyncratic
Cognition, Creativity, Critical Thinking
• “You can get a really good grade if you
have one really good idea that’s not
intuitively obvious.” (faculty interview)
• “… the mindset” of a good student who
“knows how it fits together” (faculty interview)
• “There is no way to isolate a social process
from the minds that carry it out.”
(Flower, 1994, p. 31)
A Socio-Cognitive Approach
Literate actions emerge out of a
constructive cognitive process that
transforms knowledge in purposeful ways.
And at critical moments, this constructive
literate act may also become a process of
negotiation in which individual readers and
writers must juggle conflicting demands
and chart a path among alternative goals,
constraints, and possibilities.
(Flower, 1994, p. 2)
Conclusion: MBA as Activity System
Tools
(Oral and written genres)
Subjects
(professor,
students)
Rules/Norms
Object
Object(s)/
Outcomes
Motive(s)
passing grade?
MBA diploma?
Business knowledge?
(
Community
Division of Labor
Activity System of the MBA
Systems including
undergraduate
education,
work experience,
ELI classes, etc.
Work
place
MBA
Class
Class
Nigel A. Caplan
University of Delaware
nacaplan@udel.edu
http://nigelteacher.wordpress.com
(Handouts  Genre2012)