The general approach in all the lectures and seminars

Maximize the feedback that each student gets

The pedagogical approach of the course is to maximize the feedback that each student can get on her/his ideas. One of the motivations behind this is that the students need to verbalize their ideas and get a response to these verbalizations in order to get a feeling of the systemic view on leadership. Another motivation behind the approach is that the learning is much more effective if the students are active and creative.

Flipped classroom

This approach is carried out in a way that can be classified as “flipped classroom” which means that the students prepare themselves before the lectures and the teacher functions as a moderator of discussions rather than being a lecturer. Some parts of the lectures and seminars can also be assigned to students training each other for presentations in smaller groups.

Avoiding redundancy

In order to secure that there is as little redundancy as possible in the discussions, the course material is divided among the students. Each student makes a unique presentation as the starting point for discussions. To enable the students to evaluate each others’ presentations we use a template for what one can look for in a presentation. The students can also work with their presentations in smaller groups.

Students initiate discussions according to their needs and interests

Apart from presentations we have debates that are initiated by students who have a particular engagement in a specific subject. If any such subject engages the other students it can be the starting point for more extensive discussion.

Here the teacher has the role of securing that the course is not dominated by a few very verbal students, by requiring all students to present their ideas and opinions. One way to implement this in spontaneous discussions is to always prioritize students who have not said so much in previous discussions, i.e. if five students have raised their hands to say something the one who previously has said the least is selected even if s/he was the last to raise her/his hand.

There will also be a reoccurring voting among the students to secure that the needs of the majority are satisfied.

Bottom line

The whole idea of the “flipped classroom approach” is quite radical. If the majority of students discover that they are tired of the “flipped classroom approach”, the teacher will change the lectures into classical lectures, where the teacher describes and exemplifies how the theories of the course can be applied.