Linking Stories with On-Line Threaded Discussions for Critical Thinking in Management Curriculum

Abstract

This paper discusses two school’s integrated attempt at increasing student learning, critical thinking, and participation through the use of on-line threaded discussion stories in the classroom for management courses. Every week the students were required to read a story posted by the instructors on an on-line site and post a comment to the story itself or to a comment by another student from either of the two universities. The stories varied depending on the course material and yielded some powerful comments by the students. This paper highlights some of the sample stories and student comments. In addition, it identifies and explains the outcome for using storytelling through on-line threaded discussions in the classroom and the implication for the future.