Art of Visual Thinking for Smart Business Education

Purpose – Visual Thinking Techniques (VTT) form a significant part of any course of critical thinking. But wider understanding of their role for smarter education is underestimated [Barab & Plucker, 2002; Knight, Gašević & Richards, 2006]. We argue that the current palette of visual thinking strategies and techniques and their aesthetic impact may heavy influence the cognitive effectiveness of teaching and learning in business education. VTT may help to develop a holistic conceptual enterprise model, strategic marketing plan, project feasibility conception and other complicated multi-faceted business models [Clarke, Flaherty & Yankey, 2006]. In this paper we aim to overcome the limitations of traditional forms of teaching and learning (as case studies, lectures and seminars) and to enrich the repertoire of teaching methods that can be used in the class to broad the understanding of the sophisticated business knowledge issues. Design/methodology/approach – The aim of this study is to show how the repertoire of VTT (mind maps, concept maps and ontologies) can be used in business education to represent, to structure and to codify knowledge (both tacit and explicit). We do this by using the knowledge engineering (KE) methods (such as knowledge elicitation [Gavrilova & Andreeva, 2012] and visual knowledge mapping) for training and teaching. Such approach merges the cognitive ergonomics issues with didactics. The point is that aesthetic perception helps to clarify and to shape the understanding [Schiuma, 2011]. In this paper we aim to bridge that gap and introduce visual elements and styles from the artistic point of view. Our approach is based on the principles of good shape coined by Max Wertheimer in his Gestalt Learning Theory of Productive Thinking [Wertheimer, 1958]. Originality/value – the paper proposes a new approach to VTT based on wide survey and practical experience of the authors. The paper contributes to a wider use of visual knowledge engineering methodologies and technologies in business education. Practical implications – The paper contributes to business educational practice by describing a systemic variety of VTT with direct recommendation to their design and feasibility.