Managerial mind sets in the academic world: The crisis of educational organizations

Academic didactics has started implementing pedagogic strategies that overcome the traditional frontal lecture to reach a new aim: supporting the learning process. According to the leading connectivism principles, which are revolutionizing education, learning processes are a complex and dynamic concept. On one side, new technologies are promoted to support the learners’ “cold” cognition. On the other, strategies boasting a “hot” cognition are acquiring more and more importance. The student-teacher relationship is facing change: teachers are required to consolidate their profession and tutor the learning process, regardless of the field of study. These new strategies, although carried out reluctantly, have been successfully implemented in some action research projects highlighting the learners’ engagement on one side and the professors’ hesitation on the other. This chapter explores this phenomenon.