History

The Institute for Business Education is a division of the Department of Management, as are all other business administration-related, behavioral sciences-oriented institutes and groups at WU. Josef Aff has been Head of the Institute since 2005. Richard Fortmüller and Bettina Fuhrmann (currently on leave) complete the Institute’s senior faculty, and Kerstin Konczer, Barbara Müllauer, Johanna Rechberger,  Christoph Schwarzl and Franz-Karl Skala make up the rest of the team.

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is considered one of the main subject areas of the business education curriculum. Those subjects most relevant to teaching, i.e. business administration, accounting, information technologies (including the use of new media in the classroom) and economics are therefore presented with an emphasis on PCK. These courses are held by a team of experienced teachers (Ingrid Dobrovits, Ilse Pachlinger, Gottfried Kögler, Susanne Grohmann, Rainer Baier), most of whom teach in schools on a regular basis in addition to their teaching activities at WU. 22 adjunct lecturers are responsible for further courses in this area.

The Institute also provides services for the entire university. The preparatory course in accounting required for all first-year students, about 3000 each year, has been held by Institute faculty for many years. Institute members have also prepared many of the comprehensive educational materials for the online learning platform Learn@WU, which supports all first-year courses, making sure that these materials are appropriate for web-based learning.

Since 2004, the Social Skills project, initiated and developed by former Head of Institute Wilfried Schneider, has also been an important field of activity for the Institute. Bettina Fuhrmann has led the project since 2008, however, since she is currently on maternity leave, she is being represented by Ilse Pachlinger.

The Institute also offers numerous 2-day workshops on topics ranging from conflict management to mediation, open to all WU students.

The WIPÄD-Institute, led by Rainer Baier, is a resource for all WU faculty and staff who use eLearning methods in teaching. In-house training and Learn@WU seminars are also available to help facilitate the use of the online learning platform in courses and projects. The Institute has also developed an online information system on eLearning, accessible to all WU teaching staff.

With so many activities and such a comprehensive course selection, it is obvious that the Institute has a high demand for personnel: currently, over 40 lecturers support the Institute faculty and staff in the professional presentation of our extensive educational portfolio.

Academic teacher training at WU

Teacher training at WU is based on the “Viennese tradition” developed by Krasensky and Schneider. This school of thought postulates that within the business administration education, the PCK aspect must be given particular emphasis to optimize both the teachers’ professionalism and the polyvalence of the graduates’ qualifications. The introduction of a single-phase master’s program is further evidence of the innovative developments that WU is known for. Previously, all German-speaking business education master’s programs have been structured in two phases, making this program a true pioneer in the field.

Students can also opt for a specialization (SBWL) in Business Education as part of the bachelor’s program in Business Administration. The introduction of teacher training standards has contributed to the formulation of professional objectives to combine theory, empirical data, and research results with practical experience and to increased performance responsibility in academic teacher training.

Business Education subjects in the bachelor’s program Business Administration

A specialization (SBWL) in Business Education is available in the bachelor’s program in Business Administration. Like all SWBLs, the program consists of 5 courses, each worth 2 credit hours and 4 ECTS credits. The curriculum is oriented towards the occupational profile of a management trainer.

Teacher training vs. polyvalence in the single-phase master’s program in Business Education at WU

The master’s program in Business Education at WU consists of 51 credit hours and 150 ECTS credits and takes 5 semesters to complete. Graduates receive the academic title Master of Science (WU).

The program is one semester longer than the WU’s other master’s programs because of the teaching internship phase required in the 5th semester. The curriculum is based on the recommendations of the German Sektion Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik (BWP), an association of business education professionals. The program is, however, unique in that the educational aspects are covered separately by the Group for Educational Sciences, and because the single-phase structure demands a stronger emphasis on economics-related PCK, since professional skills training cannot be delegated to a second practical phase.

All students in the master’s program are required to take an exam on subjects relevant to the program (business administration, accounting, information systems) in the fall of their first semester. An intensive review course in preparation for this exam is offered in October. Students may only continue with the program after successfully passing this exam and receiving a positive assessment in one behavioral sciences course.

Business Education research at WU

Business education research at WU is characterized by a wide selection of topics and schools of thought. Prof. Aff concentrates mainly on the implementation of innovative teaching methods using experimental models in the tradition of action research in education, while Richard Fortmüller works in the field of experimental empirical research design in the tradition of critical rationalism, and Bettina Fuhrmann conducts evaluation research.

Over a period of more than 5 years, Institute faculty was involved in the experimental school model “Begabungsförderungsmodell Schumpeterklassen an der BHAK Wien 13” (a program for educating gifted children that was implemented at a secondary-level business school in Vienna), which was commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture. In this project, methods of gifted educating and encouraging entrepreneurship were developed. A three-level model of entrepreneurship education was developed, now used in full-time secondary-level business schools.

The project resulted in a high level of knowledge transfer, especially through the publication of an information package for distribution to schools on entrepreneurship education, numerous teacher training seminars, curriculum reform concepts, textbook projects and also through the establishment of an impulse center for entrepreneurship education at the school (http://www.eesi-impulszentrum.at), which is responsible for knowledge transfer on entrepreneurship education in secondary business education throughout Austria. In addition to design and implementation research and explorative studies on vocational education (e.g. on business education at the secondary level), Prof. Aff has been working on business education issues since 1995.

One of the main emphases of Richard Fortmüller’s basic research is learning theories with regard to information processing approaches. His research concentrates mainly on conditions analyses of teaching and learning processes in business professions, based on cognitive theory. Long-term research projects are complemented by empirical studies on school and continuing education-related issues.

Bettina Fuhrmann’s empirical research concentrates mainly on evaluation research (in various forms and on numerous issues). Current projects have focused on company simulation, resulting in large amounts of useful data on the didactic possibilities and limitations of these simulations, leading to the development of planning heuristics for developing and improving the use of company simulations in teaching. A further project concerns the evaluation of teachers by students: which criteria students use to evaluate teachers and what these criteria have to do with the quality of teaching.

International cooperations

The Institute has participated in numerous international research cooperations focusing on education issues, especially with Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russian Federation), including the EU-TEMPUS project entitled “Introducing Entrepreneurship Education in the Russian Federation” in cooperation with the University of Paderborn and several Russian universities.

Business education in practice

The single-phase structure of the master’s program requires close contacts to numerous teachers and partner schools. In addition to these, the Vienna Institute has many other areas of cooperation. The authorship or co-authorship of school textbooks has always been an excellent method for influencing teaching practice directly. Many Institute faculty members (Dobrovits, Fuhrmann, Kögler, Baier) contribute to school textbooks or publish special information packages on topics like entrepreneurship or the EU eastern expansion (Aff, Kogler, Schopf, Kurmeleva, Fortmüller). Continuing education programs for teachers are also part of the Institute's standard program.