Often, new insights and practices are never put into practice because they conflict with our perception of how the world ought to work. The U.S. automobile industry is a case in point. German and Japanese automakers slowly educated American consumers about the benefits of quality and reliability, however, while dramatically increasing their share of the U.S. market. Similarly, educators need to redefine the traditional mental model of what constitutes good teaching. It is an active, collaborative activity in which students analyze and prioritize data, enter the data into a spreadsheet, and explain and justify their conclusions to the rest of the class.
Nothing is to be memorized, and there is no exam.
The final conclusion is less important than the process of reaching it. The student's job is to review a wealth of information that is provided about each site and recommend one site to the company's board of directors. To arrive at a recommendation, students must analyze data that involve a number of considerations, including labor, geography, environment, politics, education, technology, population, taxation, and copyright laws. Obviously, wages and proximity to market are prime considerations. The lesson is an authentic exercise in management.