On March 21st, I attended the Mid-Atlantic Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference hosted by Temple University.  Ever since my time as a doctoral student, I had always been encouraged to attend only the most prestigious research-oriented conferences I could get funded for, so this was quite a departure for me.
                The first contrast was the size of the conference; instead of thousands of attendees each with their own agenda and schmoozing around like underfed vultures [particularly the job candidates], the conference was quite laid-back, with only about 65 attendees, mostly drawn from colleges and universities in the Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware Valley, and New Jersey areas.  Thus, everyone was quite friendly with everyone else and teaching-related conversations were extremely easy to initiate.  Personally, I have a tendency to hide in crowds, so it was very pleasant to be in a situation where there was no discomfort or awkwardness in making new professional acquaintances.
               The best aspect of the conference was, of course, the sessions.  Since we all had a shared, specific teaching interest in organizational behavior (OB), we were able to get right into the strengths and limitations of various pedagogies we had attempted in the classroom.  We did not need to spend time introducing general concepts, since we all had the same teaching background.  While Lehigh was one of the most research-intensive schools represented at the conference, each and every attendee was extremely knowledgeable, passionate, and experienced regarding teaching OB.
                Among the topics covered in the sessions I attended at the day-long workshop were: using real organizational crises as a source of case study and role play, drawing on a teacher’s own personal experiences (broadly defined, not merely work experiences) to provide not just anecdotes but extended teaching moments to illustrate course concepts, a roundtable discussion of using other assessment tools beyond tests, and how to get more out of Blackboard in teaching OB classes.
                I also presented a session on a pedagogy we used in my previous academic job and how we used assessment centers (extensive scenario-based behavioral exercises rated by content experts) to evaluate the student learning and the pedagogy’s effectiveness, and how my colleagues and I were able to parlay this into publishable research in management’s top learning- and teaching-oriented journal, Academy of Management Learning and Education.
                Other sessions I was unable to attend because they occurred concurrently with sessions I attended included, but were not limited to, introducing humor in cross-cultural learning, improving the teaching of business ethics (2 sessions on this topic), using music in the classroom, getting a course initiated, moving from curriculum to reality (I’m not sure what that meant but it sounded interesting!), enabling students to be career-ready, using student-run workshops and student-produced DVDs in the classroom, and respecting “separate realities” in the classroom.  The cordiality we attained and the fact that we received an attendee contact list made it clear that anyone who presented would be happy to forward any thoughts or materials if we couldn’t attend a given session.
                One of the most interesting ideas I encountered for consideration in my classes included a very engaging hybrid case study/role play with a class split into stakeholder groups (managers, shareholders, industry affiliates, activists) in illustrating a genuine crisis faced in 2005 by Victoria’s Secret, when an environmental advocacy group singled them out as one of many culprits in deforesting the Boreal Forest through extensive mailing of catalogs.  The way this particular exercise drew on informational background (i.e., case data) and stakeholder role playing made for a very convincing and rich classroom dynamic, and the pedagogical basis of this exercise could easily be applied to many other specific scenarios and course modules.
                Another interesting technique I encountered is to engage in role reversal with students where a student plays the prof and the prof plays a student.  While this can work in any class to illustrate why certain student behaviors are so (counter)productive, it is especially relevant in my field, which emphasizes the often-dysfunctional world of behavior in the workplace.  The role reversal accomplishes many purposes and works on several levels.
                A third technique which generated a great deal of buzz among the attendees has been a major success at Ursinus College.  Students there compete as teams soliciting real charity funding, and the team with the most funding at the end of the semester has their names engraved on a plaque.  This really seems to get students’ competitive juices flowing, and by providing a real team experience, serves as an excellent springboard for discussing classic OB content areas like motivation, communication, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and of course, teams and leadership.
                Many other fascinating teaching methods were presented and discussed at this conference, and while some of them make more sense for my MGT 243 course at Lehigh than others, they certainly have opened my mind for future enhancements to the class.  If you have a regional teaching conference available in your area, I would strongly encouraging attending one. In addition to providing many helpful teaching hints, it is a great opportunity to meet similar others whose classroom challenges mirror so closely your own. Some funding is available for travel to such conferences from the Office of Faculty Development. I encourage you to contact Greg Reihman if you are interested.