Classroom-Based Experiential Learning on Core Business and Management Education Courses as Experienced by Business and Management Students

Education and learning continuously develop, becoming more complex; with several constructed learning theories, important factors disrupting the teaching and learning process, design, and structure that can address the complexity of learning styles, and academic background history. In this light, this action research aimed to investigate the classroom-based experiential learning experiences of business students and management students on core business and management education courses and design modified classroom learning activities accordingly. Methodology used in this study was enveloped in an evaluative-exploratory paradigm to assess respondents’ behavior and learning towards the contents of core business and management education courses and their inferences to teaching methods. Students enrolled in core business and education management subjects from academic year 2019-2020 were pre-assessed and selected using the VARK survey which identified their different learning strategies regardless of their grade performance for the core business and management education courses. The online FGD elicited the respondents’ classroom -based experiential learning experiences via (1) instructor’s teaching strategy, (2) course content delivery through classroom-based learning techniques and (3) factors affecting their performance in task execution. A thematic content analysis was done to weed out biases to establish the overarching impressions of the data gathered, which resulted that teaching strategy was perceived effective when there is (a) mastery of the subject matter, (b) established good rapport through putting their interest towards student learning regardless of the course difficulty, (c) provides experiential advise related to the course. Content delivery of classroom-based learning techniques should provide (a) adequate and accessible amount of learning materials, (b) work environment conducive for learning, (c) time pressure, (d) variety of activities such as simulations, interviews, hands-on experience. This study provided concepts with respect to classroom-based experiential learning on core business and management education courses which served as basis for further enhancement of design curriculum fit for different types of learners.