Quality of questions as evaluation method in management education

To stay relevant in the fast changing world, management education needs to come up with new ideas and their implementation to steadily invent and keep adding value to different stakeholders.

The current method of evaluation in management education primarily looks at asking questions to students in different ways such as quizzes, projects, assignments, and exams. In general, the focus is asking questions to students and students need to answer.

This method has been practiced for some time and it has been updated or modified a bit here and there over time. It has served its purpose, but is it the right method or can we make it better to add more value to the participants in management education?

Generally, we think that knowing the answer is a measure of knowledge and intelligence; however, is it the right measure of intelligence? We might know because we have read about it or we have an experience about it. But is reading or having an experience a true measure of knowledge and intelligence?

A better method of measuring knowledge and intelligence is not just knowing the answers but asking questions; not only asking questions but the quality of the questions being asked. The quality of questions is a better method of measuring knowledge and intelligence. There is a lot of literature, including in management discipline, which highlights the importance of questions and the art of asking questions. It shows how asking questions helps in different ways in the practice of management. There are a lot of examples and stories around leaders leading by asking the right questions. So the importance of questions and asking questions, where the quality of questions is well established in management discipline. However, its importance is not being realised to the extent possible in management education.

It is a good idea. It needs to be refined, debated, and discussed to make it implementable. Students need to ask questions before the start of the course and also need to ask questions after the end of the course and then evaluate the improvement in the quality of questions that they have asked after the end of the course as compared to the questions being asked at the beginning of the course.

The author has practiced this informally. It looks like a good addition to the current system of evaluation. However, there is a need for a lot of work on making this idea implementable by discussions, experiments, and pilot projects to minimise any possible shortcomings.

By following this practice of questioning the current practices, experimenting, and keeping improving, one can keep adding value to the stakeholders of management education. And by continuing to add value to the stakeholders, the management education can stay relevant in the changing times and create a meaningful impact for stakeholders and the society.

(This article is written by Dr Rajesh K Pillania , Professor, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon. This is an opinionated article; EPN has nothing to do with this editorial.)