As part of its continuing initiative to make a difference in improving management education in Greater China and help create a community of scholars fluent in participant-centered learning, Harvard Business School, along with Harvard Business School Publishing, will welcome 77 senior professors and deans from 18 top business schools in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore for the 4th session of the Program on Case Method and Participant-Centered Learning.

The fourth session will be held January 14-26 on the Harvard Business School campus in Boston, followed by a case-writing and course development session in Hong Kong in May.

The PCMPCL program, which was launched in early 2005 upon the request of the Chinese Ministry of Education, receives the full support of the Ministries of Education in China, Taiwan and Singapore. More than 216 business educators, including 37 deans and associate deans from Greater China's top 20 business schools, have already completed the program, in which HBS faculty members provide formal and intensive instruction in the participant-centered learning model, case teaching, case writing and course development.

PCMPCL participating schools include Peking University, Fudan University, Tsinghua University, China Renmin University, China Europe International Business School, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, National Taiwan University, National Taiwan Chengchi University, and National University of Singapore.

Signaling their commitment to participant-centered learning, a number of schools are making significant investments in facilities to enable this style of teaching. Taiwan National University, Fudan University, Xiamen University, and others have built HBS-style amphitheater classrooms, and National Taiwan Chengchi University is currently in the construction stage of a 90-seat amphitheater classroom.

PCMPCL is widely perceived by the participating schools as a faculty development program. The participants, who are selected and recommended by their school dean and other administrators, learn how to design a course, research and write an effective case based on a real-life situation, and lead classroom discussions. They also discuss how to institutionalize a more participant-centered learning experience in their universities when they returned home.

Ji-Ren Lee, associate dean of the College of Management at National Taiwan University, who completed the program in 2005, said: "More than a dozen of our faculty have participated in this program and are now in a process of transforming their teaching by using the case method in their classrooms, especially with executive students. And we expect demand for participant- centered learning to grow. Students find it more dynamic and engaging than traditional teaching styles, and faculty members value it as a more integrated and complete framework for learning."

HBS Professor and Senior Associate Dean Howard Stevenson and Professor Paul Marshall are the co-chairs of the program. "As the community of scholars in China who are committed to participant-centered teaching grows, we're seeing a significant impact on the quality of management education there," said Professor Marshall. "At the same time, by working so closely with the top business schools in China, HBS faculty members are gaining insights into China which will enrich their teaching and research activities here in Boston."

In the second part of the program, which is administered by Harvard Business School Publishing, participants meet at a host school in Asia for an intensive program of case writing and course development. This year the session will be held in Hong Kong. To serve the participants in their implementation of participant-centered learning, Harvard Business School Publishing has formed distributor partnerships with China Europe International Business School in Shanghai and National Chengchi University in Taipei. The two schools will sell and distribute case studies and other HBSP materials throughout Greater China.

"Through PCMPCL, Harvard Business School Publishing is not only extending the reach of our cases and other content into China," said Ray Carvey, the chief operating officer of HBSP. "We're also helping to build and develop the next generation of business leaders there, in keeping with our mission to improve the practice of management in a changing world."

The program is one of many initiatives HBS is pursuing in China. HBS recently launched a China educational immersion program, with 70 MBA students spending winter break traveling to Beijing, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and other locations. The second semester of the MBA program will feature a new elective titled "Doing Business in China in the Early 21st Century," taught by both Professor William Kirby, a renowned China scholar in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and HBS Professor F. Warren McFarlan, who has been a leader in the School's activities in the region for many years. In 1999, Harvard Business School opened its Asia Pacific Research Center in Hong Kong.

In addition to working with the higher education market in China, Harvard Business School Publishing has partnered with Chinese publishers to bring management content to China's professionals and managers. There are two Chinese-language editions of the company's flagship magazine, Harvard Business Review, a complex Mandarin edition published by Morningside and available in Taiwan, and a simplified Mandarin edition published by Commonwealth Publishing and distributed in mainland China. Through its partnership with the Commercial Press, HBS Press publishes translated editions of its books for the Chinese market. And a translated version of HBSP's popular corporate learning program, ManageMentor, will be available in early 2007.