Reporting back on ‘accelerate’, a pilot social initiative aimed at challenging and extending the top students in a large first-year business course

Abstract

In 2017 we piloted an extension to our large and complex first-year team-based learning program at the University of Auckland Business School. We chose 30 top performing students out of a cohort of approximately 1700 from the first-year to participate in a project that integrated their academic content with highperformance teamwork in a real-world environment by consulting for a not for profit organisation. Our aims were to challenge and extend our top students and contribute to the literature by furthering the collective understanding of how best to engage gifted and talented students in team contexts. This paper discusses our experiences and findings from this pilot project and seeks audience input on our proposed way forward.