Professor Caroline Wiertz, Dr Aneesh Banerjee and Professor Andre Spicer

Innovation & Vision winner

Current Staff

As a group, Professor Caroline Wiertz, Dr Aneesh Banerjee and Professor Andre Spicer designed and delivered the innovative new first year module of the BSc Business Management at Cass. This module, 'Critical Thinking in Business', was delivered for the first time in the autumn term of 2018 and is original in both subject matter and teaching method. A frequent complaint by employers of new graduates is that they lack the ability to think clearly, logically and critically about problems. The new module addressed this issue using a highly innovative teaching method – problem-based learning (PBL). PBL is based on posing a complex problem within a realistic context for students to work on in small groups, supported by a tutor. Through this approach, PBL focuses on student self-directed learning and self-study. The module leaders faced challenges on several levels: developing a realistic business case (the startup of Hailo taxi hailing company); designing the concepts of critical thinking into the weekly questions; finding and training tutors in PBL techniques (9 tutors needed for 20 groups). The students faced the challenge of a new way of learning, but the progress made in the quality of their discussions was highly impressive.