The above discussed experiential learning pedagogy and the specific marketing context set challenges for teaching marketing, both knowledge and skills. Hyman and Hu urge marketing teachers to consider how to incorporate professional skills training into teaching objectives, what exercises would be most effective in fos-tering professional marketing skills and what tools are needed to assess the ade-quate attainment of professional marketing skills?
Biggs emphasizes that the development of both knowledge and skills should be based on the principles of constructive alignment where the learning objectives (awareness of the knowledge and skills to be developed), teaching and learning activities (knowledge and skills development in learner-centered process) and assessment (evaluation and reflection on knowledge and skills) area aligned to-gether and communicated openly to the students (Biggs 1996, 1999a, b; Bedrow
& Evers 2011.) Based on the discussion on experiential learning and essential knowledge and skills required from future marketers I bring up several questions and challenges for client-based higher marketing education in the specific context of fuzzy end of innovation. These questions and challenges have structured the development work during the action research period.
2.3.1 Setting the intended learning outcomes
When planning the course and setting the intended learning outcomes, how should the knowledge and skills be balanced? Should the intended learning
out-come reflect the needs of the client or the student or both? How should these be balanced? The context of this development work is a master’s level. What kinds on intended learning outcomes enhance the higher cognitive outcomes and practi-cal skills needed on this level? If the experiential learning is set as a background teaching philosophy, how should it be implemented into setting the intended learning outcomes?
2.3.2 Teaching and learning activities
Shuell (1986: 429) argues that ”if students are to learn desired outcomes in a rea-sonably effective manner, then the teacher’s fundamental task is to let students to engage in learning activities that are likely to result in their achieving those out-comes. … It is helpful to remember that what the student does is actually more important in determining what is learned than what the teacher does.” This raises a question of what kinds of teaching and learning activities enhance the experien-tial learning. And how should the teacher aim to implement the experienexperien-tial learn-ing cycle into the activities?
Another question is that how should the level of the challenge be determined? For example, what kinds of challenges are more suitable for bachelor level of studies and what kind of challenges foster the master’s level of understanding. And fur-ther, how should the specific knowledge and skills be implemented into the chal-lenge?
Who should decide on the challenge given to the students – the real life and prac-tical clients, the faculty representative teacher, the students themselves or some-body else? Also, who should decide on the activities suitable for the project?
What is the role and responsibility of the teachers and students? Indeed, not only educators have a responsibility to prepare students with relevant knowledge and skills for future career success, also future marketers, that is students, have a re-sponsibility of making an effort to acquire and apply the relevant knowledge and skills (Dacko 2006).
What is the role of the teaching in project work? Should the students be encour-aged to work independently and find their own solutions and own way of working or should the teacher implement a specific timetable and activity list beforehand?
How should the learning be supported? Then again, as Titus (2007) notes, it is a real challenge for marketing teachers to motivate and inspire the students to use enough time and effort in their studies so that they would be able to create inno-vative outcomes.
What is the role of learning environment or place in learning? Can different envi-ronment enhance the deep learning and help to complete the learning cycle? For example the concrete experience of a certain place may be different depending on whether the students actually visit the place or hear a presentation about the place.
Further, the knowledge and skills are not only gained through education but stu-dents learn also through other activities, such as travelling, student union, part-time jobs, sports and other hobbies. Can and should these be implemented into teaching and learning activities?
2.3.3 Assessing learning outcomes
How the client-based projects, creativity and creative problem solving should be assessed? Traditionally the focus has been on summative assessment, the final mark. However, in the light of experiential learning, the trial and error –processes should be encouraged. Should we focus more on formative assessment?
Based on the ideas of constructive alignment, assessment should focus on intend-ed learning outcomes. This, if the intendintend-ed learning outcomes focus on skills de-velopment, then the assessment needs to focus on those as well. Further, experi-ential learning theory focuses on individual experience and learning through transformation of experience (Kolb 1984). Thus, students’ own understanding of the transformation becomes important. Thus the assessment should include ele-ments of reflection of learning. How should we balance between different aspects of assessing?
Keeping these questions and challenges in mind, I next turn into discussing the methodological choice of the action research and describe the research design applied in this study.
3 METHODOLOGICAL CHOICES AND RESEARCH DESIGN
The study started as a development project in April 2007. The main focus was in practical problem solving, where the every-day development activities conctrated on building a marketing course with sufficient content and structure to en-hance the experiential learning in the context of fuzzy front end.
However, as typical for teacher-researchers, I started to find out about the earlier literature on several aspects concerning the every-day development work. More I studied and applied my learning to my own development work, more questions arouse. I identified several research gaps and I started to reflect on my learning by writing my two first conference papers. I was already deep in the middle of action research process.
Indeed, as the focus of this study is in developing practice, the action research was chosen as a research methodology for this study. In this chapter I discuss action research as a methodology and build my research design based on the ac-tion research perspective.