Teaching styles vary greatly among business schools. In fact, the teaching style employed at each school is—or should be—an important factor when deciding where to pursue your MBA. Benefits differ between styles, as does suitability for individual students; understanding the details of each method and how it fits with your learning is a crucial part of pursuing an MBA.
The four main teaching styles are lectures, case studies, team projects, and experiential learning. In this article we’ll explore how each one works, the advantages, and the MBA programs that use them. It’s worth bearing in mind throughout that most programs will use a mix of styles, often allowing professors to choose—though some business schools pioneer or rely heavily on one particular method.
Lectures
Lectures are, of course, a staple of graduate education. Picture a university classroom and a lecture room comes to mind: professor up front, students dutifully arranged in rows.
Favored for its use in teaching fundamental concepts and complex theories, the lecture format is still used by many—or most—business schools. The benefits that lectures offer MBAs include ease of delivery (allowing lengthy theoretical concepts to be explained by an expert) and comfort for more introverted students.
Different business schools will use the lecture as a teaching method to different extents. At Carnegie Mellon Tepper, for example, lectures are used for around 50% of all teaching; at USC Marshall, the percentage is 48%. Both Columbia Business School and UCLA Anderson School of Management use lectures for about 40% of all teaching.
Case Studies
Case studies are a process of teaching whereby students study, discuss, and analyze real world business problems as presented in “cases.” Students debate details and apply their theoretical knowledge to decide how to solve, act on, or avoid the problem.
Students generally prepare for case study teaching independently, arriving at class with suggestions and questions already developed. Professors then hold whole-class discussions, challenging students to share their own ideas and build on those of their peers.
MBA students will reap the benefits of the case study method via the opportunity to apply their knowledge, to test out their theory, and to bounce ideas off their classmates. By engaging with business scenarios that have been lifted from the real world, students are getting the chance to simulate—and therefore prepare well for—their post-MBA career.
The “Case Method” approach was created at Harvard Business School—now over a century ago. The case method still dominates the HBS experience today; famously, professors begin each class with a “cold call,” selecting a student at random to kick off the discussion.
The University of Virginia Darden is one other school that leans heavily on case studies for its teaching; students are likely to review more than 500 cases over the course of their two-year program.
Team Projects
Team projects might take different shapes, depending on which business school you look at. At some, students work together over the course of a semester to analyze a company-sponsored problem, presenting their findings to the sponsors at the end. At others, students team up with peers throughout the course of a year.
While the exact structure and set up of each team project varies, the core principles remain the same, requiring students to tackle real-world business scenarios by working collaboratively.
Over the past years, team projects such as these have grown steadily more popular in MBA teaching. The list of benefits they offer is expansive, covering the development of skills such as problem solving, teamwork, decision making, and communication. Projects like this also allow students to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical manner. Since this style of teaching is active and participative, it can also help to keep students engaged and motivated.
The other clear benefit to MBA students is the simulative experience of future work environments. Working together, students become accustomed to listening to, leaning on, and working with the perspectives of their team mates. They learn how to spotlight the strengths of individuals in order to maximize success for the team as a whole.
Schools Pioneering Team Projects
The Wharton School is one such business school which incorporates team projects into its teaching style. One way in which it does so is through its first year Learning Teams. Learning teams were pioneered by Wharton and are now deployed across top MBA programs.
In Wharton’s Learning Teams, 5-6 students study collaboratively, develop through group projects, and practice teamwork skills. The teams work together throughout the Fixed Core curriculum, mirroring teamwork in the real world of business. Described by Wharton as a “living laboratory,” the teams challenge students to change their perspective, promote risk taking, and aid with collaborative idea generation.
Other schools that prioritize collaboration through team projects include:
- Northwestern Kellogg, where students are assigned to small study groups, which facilitate the forging of strong connections and prepare them for a world of interconnected work.
- UCLA Anderson, where first-year learning teams learn how to work together, maximize effectiveness, and resolve internal conflicts.
Experiential Learning
Just like team projects, experiential learning can look a little different from school to school. As a rule, it allows students to test their MBA knowledge on real world problems. It asks students to “learn by doing,” and then to reflect on their learning. Students may do so via projects, simulations, fieldwork or challenges.
More and more MBA programs are reaping the benefits of experiential learning, cashing in on the practical application of theory and the development of problem solving skills. It works well for hands-on students, and keeps engagement high through active learning.
Experiential learning at Michigan Ross looks like a seven-week long consulting project for first-year MBAs, called the Multi-disciplinary Action Project. This course benefits students by immersing them in corporate, entrepreneurial, and nonprofit projects. And, of course, by requiring them to apply their learnings to organizational problems.
Berkeley Haas, on the other hand, draws on its “deep relationships with leading firms and organizations in the Bay Area…. and across the world.” In doing so, it provides experiential learning in more than half of its MBA electives. These include projects such as global consulting or corporate innovation.
