Integrating Knowledge and Developing Critical Thinking in a Capstone International Business Course: A Never-Ending Work in Progress

ABSTRACT

More and more is heard from scholars, accrediting institutions, and the business world about the importance of developing critical thinking and written communication skills in college graduates. This is perhaps especially true, in a business school, for international business graduates who lack a traditional functional major. Often, the development of these skills is thought best accomplished through courses that integrate knowledge, take a problem-based approach, and include a signature work for each student. In this article, we discuss one institution’s international business capstone course, illustrating how it adheres to these ideals. From the standpoint of informal assessment, we discuss how student results from the course are used to tweak feeder courses to the capstone. We also discuss the more formal assessment of the course learning objectives, which we are just beginning.

KEYWORDS:

• Capstone course
• Problem-based learning
• Critical thinking
• Signature work
• Integration

Notes

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Notes on contributors

Chadwick C. Nehrt

Chadwick C. Nehrt, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of International Business at Quinnipiac University's School of Business. His research in the past has touched on green business, international strategy, institutions and entrepreneurship, cultural intelligence, and pedagogy. He has taught the spectrum of international business courses, and developed a course in business ethics. As a Fulbright scholar, he taught and researched for a year in Morocco.