GENRE AND COGNITION IN AN MBA PROGRAM Nigel A. Caplan University of Delaware, USA PhD Student, School of Education Assistant Professor, English Language Institute Genre 2012, Ottawa, Ontario

Competing Approaches Genres (Social) Cognitive Strategies (Individual)

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 (Handouts  Genre 2012)

Genre System in the UD MBA

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 AmericanChineseOther International All Class N12 (33%)19 (53%)5 (14%)36 Turns per student Silent students 1 (8%)12 (63%)013 (36%) Author’s data from a single BUAD 870 class (approx. 90 minutes’ class discussion), Fall 2011

Case Analysis: Coherence, Conventions, Cognition StageDescription & Function Set Up 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 ReflectionWhat did you learn from the case? How does it connect to the theories in the course? Set up ^ Diagnosis ^ [Recommendation] n (^Reflection)

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

Activity System of the MBA

Nigel A. Caplan University of Delaware (Handouts  Genre2012)