Where Should the Action Be--Inside the Classroom or outside the Classroom? A Comparison of the Action-Learning Outcomes in Singapore, China, Korea, New Zealand and Australia

In this paper, the authors review more than 300 reports of students in New Zealand, Australia, China, Singapore and South Korea who have participated in a global action-learning program to teach entrepreneurship and free market economics to their respective communities, through Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE). The authors use the results of this work to comment on the applicability of the PETE (Practical Entrepreneurship Teaching Engagement) model, which describes ingredients of an interactive action-learning program and seeks to explain that the presence of several factors can improve the effectiveness of action learning. There are significant differences in how students in different cultures view the overall program outcomes, suggesting that although the program is highly effective overall, action-learning effects of this specific program could be improved through country/culture-specific fine-tuning. The authors conclude that although the initial reports of this action learning are encouraging, follow-up work would be helpful to determine the sustainability of the students' work and to investigate whether the reported enhancement of job prospects for the SIFE students have materialized after the students graduated. (Contains 8 figures.)