“We all came as professors from our own universities and teaching for several years before and we have all preconceived ideas of what teaching should be, but we actually never really thought before how the teaching could be. And this is what we get here.”
Says Davor Labaš, a young professor from Zagreb, Faculty of Economics, after participating for two weeks in the International Management Teachers Academy in Bled. Teaching can always be improved no matter how good a professor you are; this was the main message of two weeks of gathering of 29 participants from all over the world and IMTA faculty. The time when completing your education and spending the rest of your career practicing is definitely over.
JB KASSARIJAN, Babson College USA and Emeritus, IMD International, Lausanne, Switzerland, IMTA Faculty
“The worst thing is a professor that comes to class with the same old lecture notes and the paper is getting yellow and the same jokes, so the idea of renewal of education is absolutely essential. You lose complete credibility if you are not up to date. Then there is the idea of “Can you improve what you do?”. Not just be up to date, but can you excel at what you do?“
SU LIN YEO, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University:
Being here is just fantastic. Spending two weeks here is a luxury. Many times as educators we do not get to see ourselves and it is a wonderful time to be student again.
JOE PONS, Axioma, Spain, Babson College, USA; IMTA Faculty
For the last 20 years, IMTA has been helping academics from many different countries upgrade the caliber of their teaching tools make themselves ready for the new challenges.
Prof Pons emphasized that with on-line learning educational business is facing tsunami like changes. Professors will have to adapt to new realities and transform themselves as teachers and the participants of IMTA have the luxury to try this transformation in a safe environment.
ARSHAD AHMAD; McMaster University, Canada, IMTA Faculty.
Which place on earth allows you to spend two weeks off to think and to reflect? This just does not happen in our lives. And when it does, it is magical. It is something you will treasure and remember as a teacher and you will be transformed.
KRZYSTOF OBLOJ, Kozminski University and School of Management at Warsaw University, Poland, IMTA Faculty:
It is an eye opening experience in a very safe environment and with a very strong support of the colleagues. So I think to most people it is giving almost a boost. To learn how to teach better.
OLGA A. PICHUGINA, RANEPA:
There are a lot of things I can use in my class. Hot to connect with students, how to design my courses and how to teach with cases.
On the first week of IMTA participants had a chance to hear Dr. Dietmar Sternad from Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, IMTA alumnus and multiple time awarded expert in case writing. In the second week they were divided in four groups by four 4 different tracks: Marketing Management, Strategic and International Marketing, The Challenges and Paradoxes of Leading Change, and Business in Society.
ANTHONY F. BUONO, Bentley University, USA, IMTA Faculty
Every time I come to IMTA I am excited because I like to impart my understanding, my approach to teaching with students but I always walk away learning something new about myself about how can I become a better teacher. It is a never ending process, it is a real challenge and I think IMTA really provides the opportunity to continue to test yourself.
At the end all of 29 professors were handed their diplomas for successfully finishing the Academy from CEEMAN interim director prof. Drikus Kriek at a ceremony that was attended by ambassador of Hungary to Slovenia and diplomatic representatives of Russia, Poland and Bulgaria.
