From Persona Non Grata to Mainstream

Abstract

My first encounter with the use of film in management teaching came in 2000 at the Academy of Management meeting in Toronto. Joseph (Joe) E. Champoux ran a professional development workshop on the use of film in management education. About 40 people were dotted around a large, spacious room listening intently to what Joe had to say. He showed clips from four or five films and explained how he used them to illustrate theory in his teaching. It was an interesting and engaging session, as Joe's sessions always are.At an appropriate moment, probably when Joe was changing tapes over, I introduced myself to the chap sitting behind me. I asked him if he used films in his teaching. His response succinctly captured my own situation: "No. I'd love to, but I wouldn't be taken seriously by my colleagues. I'm hoping no one saw me come in." As I looked around the room, I sensed furtiveness in the rest of the audience as if the people were attending some form of illicit entertainment. Everyone seemed to sitting individually, quietly, desperately trying not to attract attention to themselves.This attitude toward the use of film in management education was replicated in the articles of the time. In these, judging by the published output,

“Can You Repeat That?” Teaching Active Listening in Management Education

“…One effective way of stimulating interaction with face-to-face or online students is the use of video clips from television, movies, and other sources. Recent research demonstrates the value and increased use of films in higher education and in management education (e.g., Berk, 2009; Billsberry, 2013). Rooted in dual-coding theory’s (Paivio, 1990) basic tenet that “more is better” in gaining students’ interest and attention, the use of videos in the classroom has been associated with tapping into students’ core intelligences and engaging both the left and right hemispheres of the brain (Berk, 2009).…”

Empirical Test of the Know, See, Plan, Do Model for Curriculum Design in Leadership Education

“…In the classroom, the See component is considered to be "active" from an information processing standpoint. It is practiced by using instructional strategies such as: teambuilding activities, skill-building modules, analysis of film/video (Billsberry, 2013), problem-based learning (Peterson, 2004), case analysis (Palocsay, White, & Zimmerman, 2004), simulations (Doh, 2004), live CEO cases (Rashford, & de Figueiredo, 2011) or daily journal/blog entries. The key is that students have content and mental models to make sense of the experiential activities during and after the activities.…”