IN-PERSON New Schools of Thought

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of the teaching academic’s office hour as a space and place for students to develop and apply critical thinking. The particular context is large cohort postgraduate Business School courses offered by two United Kingdom universities. The contention is that the office hour represents an under-examined and under-utilised resource in this context. Indeed, in a marketised Higher Education environment, scrutiny of the office hour reveals it as something of an anomaly: an oasis of time/place that is remarkably unmanaged, and curiously unconsidered in pedagogic literature (and by some students). In a survey of their students, the authors found that most respondents underutilised office hours, with results suggesting that they may not truly understand the function, purpose or prospective benefits of module office hours. The authors suggests that a reconsideration and development of office hours may enable educators to add value in terms of opportunities for tailored support for individual students in large cohorts in several ways, not least in nurturing intellectual curiosity alongside professional inter-personal skills. Findings from the survey were applied to better advertise and deliver office hours to students, with a follow-up survey for the purposes of evaluation of this intervention.