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Teaching the Person, Not the Topic: An Implicit Theory Approach to Management Education

opal.latrobe.edu.au

Management education may be failing students by ignoring the hidden belief systems they already hold — and implicit theory research explains exactly why that gap is so dangerous.

Implicit TheoryConstructivist Learning TheorySchema TheoryExperiential Learning

Theory Briefing

  • Traditional management courses deliver formal theories while ignoring the personal beliefs students already bring to the classroom.
  • Implicit theories — the unconscious mental models people use to make sense of the world — shape how learners absorb or resist new ideas.
  • An implicit theory approach to teaching reframes education around the student's existing worldview, making formal knowledge actually stick.