Wright, R. P., Ng, K. K. H., Yuan, X., & Li, Q. (2024). Teaching strategy from the “inside out”: Enabling students’ neuroplasticity during complex problem-solving. Proposal accepted for presentation, Teaching Community, 44th Annual Meeting of the Strategic Management Society. Istanbul, Turkey. “A” Grade Conference (withdrawn due to health reasons)

Not much is known about the structure and functional brain connectivity of neural networks that takes place on how future strategists learn strategy (in the classroom). Traditional approaches to teaching and learning are simply not enough if we are to better prepare our students for a broken world. Grounding our work on the emerging field of neuro-strategy and neuro-education, we designed a pilot study with three experimental conditions (Control group, LEGO and FOCUSED framework) to scan strategy students’ brain activity. Preliminary results showed using FOCUSED not only showed greater brain activity and functional connectivity between brain regions associated with higher-order thinking, creativity, novelty, insight, exploration / exploitation, and complex problem-solving, but also correlated highly with overall assessment grade performance of students throughout the semester.