THE VALUE OF THEORY COURSEWORK IN ENHANCING STUDENTS' CONCEPTUAL COMPLEXITY Available to Purchase

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory, small sample, one institution study designed to assess the value of process‐oriented theory coursework in enhancing students’ conceptual complexity. The study is based on conceptual systems theory which acknowledges that there are considerable differences among individuals in their abilities to process information in their social environments. The authors conclude tentatively from the study that process‐oriented theory coursework does affect students' conceptual complexity. For example, those who formally studied organization theory generally make more differentiations among constructs than do other students; similarly, they scored higher on a general measure of integrative complexity.