The Evolution of Group Projects: Reflective Practice goes International Stuart Umpleby Department of Management The George Washington University

Overview Assignment: work with a client to improve an organization Source of projects: usually a student, sometimes the instructor 3-5 students per project

Percentage of projects in recent years Private companies24 % Government agencies16 % Universities21 % NGOs39 %

Examples of projects with businesses Henninger Media Services ROI project Marketing of Hotel Villa Ragusa, Croatia Cultural issues in housekeeping management at the Four Seasons Hotel Developing a business acquisition strategy for MPR Associates From prototype to production at Vision III Imaging

Examples of projects with government agencies Quality improvement methods for the standards authority of Ethiopia Improving the World Bank’s Thematic Group websites (knowledge management) Reengineering the Republic of Ghana’s Passport Office An Economic Advisory Council for Sunshine Uzbekistan

Examples of projects with universities Cultural preparedness for students going abroad Orientation for teachers in a School of Nursing at Wuhan University in China Improving the Humphrey Fellowship Program at a university Improving a university’s on-line educational program

Examples of projects with NGOs Increasing cultural competency at Rising Hope United Methodist Church An Afgan Community Development Program The compensation and benefits package for an international legal NGO Increasing participation in the Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development

Rationale The project is the “laboratory” part of the course The final report describes what was done, using as many concepts from the course as possible The project is an example of “action research,” “action learning,” “reflective practice,” or “service learning”

Stages in the development of “service learning” in the U.S. Students work in groups to complete a large assignment Students do group projects with clients in organizations The term “service learning” is invented and defined as a pedagogical method Books and articles on service learning begin to appear in the educational literature Articles on service learning begin to appear in discipline-oriented journals

Extending SL to other countries Students work with local clients, 1970s and 1980s Students work with foreign students via , early 1990s Students work with foreign clients via , late 1990s

A global network of universities Universities exist in most countries Student and faculty exchange programs have existed for many years The internet makes it easy to co-author papers and do joint research with colleagues in other countries The Bologna Process is standardizing university credits, degrees, and procedures

Encouraging service learning abroad The Research Program in Social and Organizational Learning (RPSOL) in GW SB has been hosting visiting scholars under State Department programs since 1994 In addition to their usual work on research and revising curricula, we explain service learning and introduce them to group facilitation methods

RPSOL visiting scholars by year

Russia

Ukraine

Some obstacles to implementing service learning abroad Low faculty salaries, little time to experiment Service Learning is not known or understood in many countries, confusion with forced labor The curriculum (from the Ministry of Education) prescribes teaching methods The way courses are taught limits teaching methods (students decide to enroll at the end of the course)

Recommendations for removing the obstacles Adopt service as a mission in addition to education and research Offer training programs to explain SL Create incentives and rewards for faculty Create a positive image of faculty engaged in SL Modify the curriculum and requirements when necessary to enable SL

Conclusions With the internet student group projects are often now international projects Service learning, or reflective practice, can make an important contribution to the development of organizations and countries SL is interpreted differently depending on the level of development of a country

References Umpleby, Stuart and Gabriela Rakicevik, "Obstacles to the Adoption of Service Learning in Other Countries." (Paper)Paper Umpleby, Stuart, "How Graduate Students in Management do Projects with Local and International Organizations." (Paper)Paper Umpleby, Stuart, and Pavel Makeyenko, "Using in International Student Group Projects." (Paper)Paper

Presented by Stuart Umpleby at a panel discussion arranged by the Teaching Effectiveness Taskforce GWU School of Business Washington, DC April 19, 2007