University forum takes action on learning

A forum sharing experiences and ideas on action learning in promoting the integration of industry with education was held at the East China University of Science and Technology over the weekend. 

The event, organized by the university’s School of Business, attracted both online and offline participants.

Action learning is an education approach featuring real problem solving. It involves taking action and reflecting upon the results.

Wu Baijun, vice president of the university, said action learning is one of the most effective learning methods, and an important way for exploring new modes for integrating industry and education.

“East China University of Science and Technology School of Business has been actively promoting action learning," he said. 

"We have launched a lot of action-learning programs in cooperation with well-known enterprises and established an action-learning research center. In the future, we will continue to carry forward action learning programs to ensure knowledge acquired in class is transferred into application, and new knowledge created.”

Lei Xinghui, vice president of Tongji University, said: “Industry should establish more connections with education based on practises of management in China and related knowledge accumulated.”

Xu Xin, deputy dean of East China University of Science and Technology School of Business and secretary general of the Shanghai MBA education advisory committee, said action learning is an open system that can perfectly integrate learning and action. It can absorb the latest findings in various areas and repeatedly modify the relation between knowledge and the action of learners.

“It’s a real process of learning via action and acting via learning," Xu said.

Xi Youmin, executive president of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, shared experiences of the university’s "syntegrative education."

“In syntegrative education, learning includes three aspects – learning, development and all-round growth,” he said. “It also includes five periods – integrated learning, reflective recognition, exploratory integration, interest-driven accumulation and mind upgrading.”

Yasheng Huang, professor in international management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, said: “Action learning is valuable as it guides students to apply abstract theories and knowledge to solve real problems.”