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 companies
Government agencies
Universities
NGOs
24 %
16 %
21 %
39 %
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”
Growth of Campus Compact Since 1985
1200
1000
975
924
935
Number of Members
868
800
748
650
600
548
520
689
575
512
475
400
380
260
305
202
200
235
113
133
4
98
0
85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05
Years
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
email, early 1990s
• Students work with foreign clients via
email, 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)
• Umpleby, Stuart, "How Graduate Students in
Management do Projects with Local and
International Organizations." (Paper)
• Umpleby, Stuart, and Pavel Makeyenko, "Using
Email in International Student Group Projects."
(Paper)
Presented by Stuart Umpleby
at a panel discussion arranged by the
Teaching Effectiveness Taskforce
GWU School of Business
Washington, DC
April 19, 2007