# Reshaping Higher Education Pedagogy: A Perspective from a New Generation of Educators **Authors:** Nadia Garfunkel **Categories:** Opinion **Tags:** business, Albert School, classroom engagement **Last Updated:** 2026-03-10T10:25:07.157Z **Reading Time:** 7 min read --- ## Summary Nadia Garfunkel, educator and communications consultant, reflects on her first year teaching business at Albert School, sharing insights on classroom methods, flexible curricula, and engaging students with real-world case studies in a rapidly changing educational environment. --- ## First Things First I love school. Accordingly, I respect pedagogy as a tool and art form to impart information to learners. This article will feature candid reflections on my own teaching and experience at Albert School over the past year. It is inspiring to work in an institution that meaningfully pushes higher education into the cyber age. As a business teacher and coordinator only (no coding nor math) I will just speak on this side of Albert School. Our marketing, strategy, and consulting classes are full of rich case studies, useful frameworks, and provocative questions. The syllabi offer educators flexibility with presentation content. Therefore, I tend to pull from my own startup experience at [imagi](https://imagilabs.com/) as well as share the stories of my peers around the world. ## Teachmaxxing Good educators in rooms with 30 learners will: invite students to write on the board, provoke heated debates, offer partner or group projects, share personal anecdotes, encourage presentations on relevant topics, and leave room for quiet thought – all while maximizing the amount of useful and interesting content they can provide within any 2-3 hour period. ![Matthieu Oliveri at the board in Marseille, November 2025.](https://iili.io/qAEdcTQ.md.jpg) *[Matthieu Oliveri](https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthieuoliveri/) at the board in François-Alexandre Bertrand's consulting class in Marseille, November 2025.* More specifically, part of my personal secret sauce for engaging a class includes: - Teaching with really polished slides – shout out [Canva Pro](https://www.canva.com/pro/) - Weighing when students should have the freedom to pick their *own* partners/groups versus *assigning* them - Playing around with classwork formats, such as making students grade each other - Decentralizing content ownership and offering in-class leadership opportunities - Ex: [Albert Junior Consulting](https://albertjuniorconsulting.com/en) association leaders helped create and oversee the final workshop for our Intro to Consulting class - Familiarizing with my students personally to help them achieve their goals - Ex: I provide feedback on CVs whenever asked and offer to make LinkedIn intros - Ex: first class days always involve an interactive [Mentimeter](https://www.mentimeter.com/) get-to-know-you quiz or silly icebreaker, even for Master's groups - Bringing my friends to speak candidly about their careers! Some include: - **[Constance Develle](https://www.linkedin.com/in/constance-d-96939b133/)** - experience marketing - **[Thibault Leyne](https://www.linkedin.com/in/thibault-leyne/)** - tech consulting - **[Chloe Fu](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chloefu/)** - impact VC - **[Claire Chauvel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/cchauvel/)** - investing - Inviting sales people to live pitch to class in place of me lecturing about verbal pitching - Rarely saying "don't use AI," but rather "Which one do you use, and why? And what have you built on **[Lovable](https://lovable.dev/)**?" Public discourse about the use of generative AI in education is a bit overwhelming. Instead of redundantly adding to it here, I'll just share a quote from a book that my friend [Amelia King](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameliaking1/) (a tech education legend) wrote: *"making students fall in love with their own thinking" is every educator's best bet.* And, on the point of AI in schools, I should note that **[Othmane AitBoumlik](https://www.linkedin.com/in/othmane-aitboumlik/)** of Albert's admin team cooked up something impressive. It was a unique privilege for me to get to test the product in real-time. ## Entrepreneurs Abound Aside from Bachelor's and Master's courses during the semesters, I also led business lessons over two weeks at Albert Summer School in Paris. The teenage participants in that program really impressed panel judges with their final project pitches, which took place at [Station F](https://stationf.co/). The startup idea below – an EdTech tool called ClassConnect – featured a slide that made me laugh out loud... "A decreasing intellectual level between the ages of 12-18" is exactly the *opposite* of what we witnessed from these proactive, clever high schoolers. ![Presentation slide 1 - Albert Summer School, Paris, July 2025.](https://iili.io/qAEuhSR.md.jpg) ![Presentation slide 2 - Albert Summer School, Paris, July 2025.](https://iili.io/qAExgpt.md.jpg) *Presentation slides by Owen Thebault, Ethan Miceli, Stanley Vollauschek and William Vidal during Albert Summer School program for high schoolers in Paris, July 2025.* In fact, many Albert students are already founding their own ventures. Some of them will undoubtedly build those into successful tech scale-ups. If I can help them drive growth, create content, or just be a reliable ally to bounce ideas off of, I would be truly fulfilled. Bachelors students [Mariia Erokhina](https://linkedin.com/in/mariia-erokhina-386574382/), [Lola Camara](https://linkedin.com/in/lola-camara-940235383/), [Mugisha Samuel](https://linkedin.com/in/mugisha-samuel-ab74992a6/), and [Gabriel Hochart](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-hochart-a5245133b/) came to me last semester for advice while drafting grand plans for a new "Tik-Tok for education" mobile app. And Master student [Émile Gadenne](https://www.linkedin.com/in/%C3%A9mile-gadenne-0a3322268/) utilized learnings from my marketing course to design his new company's [landing page](https://agrolytics.vercel.app/). I'm impressed with the ideas that I've already been pitched; Albert students have sharp senses that allow them to pinpoint market gaps and solve *real* problems. Their Business Deep Dive experience, student association work, and internship learnings enrich how they develop offerings. One new ambition of my own becomes more evident as my students grow: I look forward to the day that an ex-student asks me to be their Chief Marketing Officer. Or an advisory board member. Or, dare I put this in writing, an angel investor... (don't @ me!) And for students who are not the "founder type," who will go onto colorful careers in existing organizations, it seems as if the world is at their fingertips. Albert School's network of connected professionals and companies outperforms its size; we're just about one thousand people and already have dozens of partnerships with Fortune 500 companies. Everyone here is 1-2 degrees away from a future employer in virtually all industries in Europe and beyond. ## It's All About "Positionality" In my Master's marketing class, I taught a little lesson about the sociological theory of positionality as well as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Some snippets: ![Presentation slide 1 by Nadia Garfunkel, October 2025.](https://iili.io/qA1rurF.md.jpg) ![Presentation slide 2 by Nadia Garfunkel, October 2025.](https://iili.io/qA1kT0b.md.jpg) *Presentation slides by Nadia Garfunkel, October 2025.* These concepts are ideal prerequisites for building customer personas because they remind everyone to think about relationships and human motivation — which are the backbone of all marketing and sales work! In that course, my final project assignment was for students to "reinvent the 2026 marketing strategy for a global Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company." I was genuinely impressed with the presentations wherein students delineated and understood target audiences, showcased strong branding, and prioritized Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) within realistic budgets. ![Heineken marketing plan by Sereine Tawamba, Santiago Pastrana, Luna Gradjean, and Mathilde Maudet, October 2025.](https://iili.io/qAE7RWP.md.jpg) *Heineken marketing plan by Sereine Tawamba, Santiago Pastrana, Luna Gradjean, and Mathilde Maudet, October 2025.* While lecturing in my Business Strategy class about corporate culture, I realized that I actually embody a prime example of "culture add" rather than "culture fit" for a team. As you the reader likely have noticed, English is my native language. Of the American flavor. And while I understand plenty of French, my spoken level is not yet beyond beginner. This reality does not always set one up for great career success in Paris! Fortunately, Albert School's admin team and student community embrace this linguistic and cultural disconnect, as they are genuine champions of a more globalized Europe. What does teaching and studying in English in the ever-so patriotic France feel like? For better or worse, it feels like the future. And it comes with beautiful complexity and friction that encourages dialectic thought. My classroom discussions are often filled with definitions or interpretations, and seeing students translate for each other is always uplifting. I look forward to continue building a learning environment where Albert's students and staff always consider positionality: Who are we relative to each other? Partners. Who are my students relative to their peers? Movers and shakers. Who is Albert School relative to other universities in Europe? A pioneer. What is education relative to other industries? The foundation for everything. Etcetera! ![Nadia Garfunkel at the Albert School Holiday Gala, December 2025.](https://iili.io/qA1tpaV.md.jpg) *Nadia Garfunkel at the Albert School Holiday Gala, December 2025.* ## Outtro As a challenge to myself, I wrote this piece entirely without AI. Despite publishing many creative marketing and comms projects, I have not written something "personal" online in years… perhaps not since Tumblr! My greatest learning through this task was that it was difficult to put varied ideas together without the assistance of my best friend [Claude](https://claude.ai/new). (How did I do? I welcome feedback, ideas, and questions always at [ngarfunkel@albertschool.com](mailto:ngarfunkel@albertschool.com)) ## Key Takeaways 1. Great pedagogy is less about delivering content and more about designing conditions where students want to think for themselves. 2. The most valuable thing a teacher can offer isn't a framework — it's a network and a genuine belief in what their students are building. 3. Student entrepreneurship thrives not in spite of academic structure, but because of the confidence and context it provides. 4. Positionality isn't just a marketing concept — it's the lens through which every educator should understand their role in the room. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How do teachers at Albert School balance lectures with interactive learning? Teachers use a flexible approach, blending short lectures with interactive elements like debates, group exercises, and student-led discussions. There’s a focus on keeping things dynamic, so you’ll rarely just sit and listen for long stretches. Participation is encouraged, and lessons often shift based on student interests. ### How are real-world business cases used in class discussions? In business classes at Albert School, you’ll take part in a wide variety of interactive projects and activities. Expect group projects, lively debates, case study analyses, and role-playing exercises that reflect real-life business challenges. Teachers often use current events and examples from the startup world to keep the discussions relevant and practical. There’s also a strong focus on developing soft skills like teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and public speaking. You’ll have opportunities to present your ideas, work collaboratively with classmates, and receive constructive feedback—all of which help you grow not just as a student, but as a future professional. --- *Article from [Albert's Deep Dive](https://deepdive.albertschool.com) - Albert School's Journal*