Let’s talk about a famous study in U.S. educational circles on the topic of “learning retention.” The study conducted an experiment that measured how much content individuals ultimately retain from educational material studied over a set period of time, which was then used as a barometer for learning effectiveness. The results (which everyone kind of anticipated…) stunned the educational industry.

The amount of material retained by learning through lectures was the lowest—a mere 5%. In other words, if you attend 100 lectures, you will retain only five lectures’ worth of material. For instructors, this finding is less shocking and more downright disheartening. Even reading boasts a retention rate of only 10%. How are students supposed to learn—not only in MBA programs, but in general?

A hint is provided by the bottom of the pyramid, where the methods with the highest learning retention are located: group learning, hands-on learning, and educational learning. It is said that “failure is the best teacher,” but in Western MBA programs, lectures are one-way streets, with opportunities for failure nil. Participatory models of learning such as case studies, field studies, and case writing are all becoming commonplace. In Japan, these participation-model lectures have, in recent years, been dubbed “active learning.”