Final Reflection Paper

Kuddusbek Tashpulatov
MES, Reg. No 930423823030

Final reflection report

European workshop (EUW) is highly advanced course that enables students apply
their academic knowledge and personal skills in solving a real problem by a
foreign client. The course was divided into three phases. Initial phase entailed the
preparation of the whole project, introduction to main planning and management
tools, division of the groups and preparation for the data collection. The second
stage was two-weeks data collection, which was executed through observations,
questionnaire, workshops, and expert and stakeholder interviews. The
preliminary results were presented to the client, experts and stakeholders in the
end of two-week period. The last stage consisted of analysing all the generated
and gathered data. The analysed information was afterwards used to develop
recommendations in the form of four scenarios, which also included threats and
opportunities that could occur in the process of implementing one of the
scenarios. Eventually, the final work was inserted in the synthesis report with
annexes of five reports of geo-areas. This paper is the reflection on a personal
and meta-level in the EUW.

Reflection on meta-level
The group comprised of the 30 students with background in Environmental
Sciences and Urban Environmental Management. The variety of the backgrounds
made the project use transdisciplinary approach, letting students with diverse
backgrounds work together to address and solve common problem. The
challenge of coordinating the projects and division of the groups was overcome
by the matrix approach of the group division, that made possible effective and
efficient running of the project. Substantial amount of the information
(background, aim of the project, working methodology, organisation, expertise
required etc.) necessary for the project was supplied in the Terms of References.
In order to fulfil the requirements of the commissioner specific knowledge from
different stakeholders was necessary; just to mention some of them: knowledge
on the history and information about current use of the hillsides held by the IPR,
perception of the public on the use and state of the hillsides, expectation of the
residents on the future of hillsides, attitude of the public on the change of the use
of hillsides, the way hills are managed and maintained, knowledge on the
historical factors influencing on the use of the hills etc. Other than collecting this
information, one of the most important tasks to fulfil was to have this data from
diverse sources and in different forms.
Experience that we have from previous courses proved to be very useful when it
came to decision-making throughout various stages of the project. To exemplify
couple of cases, the principles and knowledge from the course Research
Methods was used in most stages of problem orientation and framing,
methodology and data collection, as well as usage of SPSS to analyse
questionnaires.
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Final Reflection Paper

Kuddusbek Tashpulatov
MES, Reg. No 930423823030
EUW projects one of the most important outcomes was to bring all the
information related to hillsides in one place and show the importance of the
hillsides for the overall life quality of Prague. Also, the involvement of such a big
group of students with different backgrounds allowed to come up with
comprehensive and elaborate recommendations, as well as the analysis of
current situation.
I expected some lingering challenges due to different backgrounds of students of
the group but this obstacle was undermined due to excellent communication and
high levels of coordination in the groups and among different groups. This was
made possible by virtue of clear explanation by teachers, high quality of
facilitation and coordination by management team and proper fulfilment by the
group. To exemplify, division of the group to chair, editor, treasurer, presenter
and secretary gave fair and genuinely helpful methodology to increase the
effectiveness of the group work. Furthermore, Belbin test which I perceived as
SWOT analysis of a person allowed us to discover each persons skills and
weaknesses. Using that method each group identified relevant roles.
Interdisciplinary approach was of great help throughout the project to achieve
current results, though caused some challenge in the commencement of the
course. For an example, MES students had a tendency to pay more attention to
the ecosystem services provided by the hillsides, while some MUE students
overlooked the value of ecosystem services. If not interdisciplinary approach,
more focus could be paid, for example, to the availability and value of ecosystem,
and value of the outcome of the whole project could not have been as high as it
is now. Balance between the areas of focus was achieved as the students
grasped differences in perspectives.
In most cases where compromise needed, long times of discussion was fairly
usual. For instance, the consensus in deciding the content of the geo-report and
partially synthesis report was adopted based mainly on the point of view of MUE
students, but later followed with the approval of all other students (Dutch layer
approach to spatial planning and design).
Gantt chart was of crucial importance in planning our activities in Prague, and
allowed us to undertake all the interviews, meeting, observations and
questionnaires in an effortless and pleasant way. I decided for myself that in my
future career and projects I will utilize the tools I learned about in the course to
plan the work (Gantt chart) and also allocate tasks more effectively (Belbin test).
Group distribution worked very well. However, in the initial stages pressure on
management team was obvious. Therefore, I would suggest for future EUW
courses that, sometimes, chairing the plenaries should be taken over by other
members, or else, at least 3 students should be given chairing positions with a
comparatively less workload on the project. This would increase the smoothness
of chairing and decision-making process.

Final Reflection Paper

Kuddusbek Tashpulatov
MES, Reg. No 930423823030

Reflection on Personal level

My learning

goals consisted of improving the following skills and areas:

Rudimentary principles of planning and land use;
Managerial skills;
Expressing opinion on every-single issue.

Practically all of the goals I have put forward have been achieved. My first
objective was realized by means of reading the book by Jane Jacobs, followed by
an interview with a professor in landscape architect. The combination of the
knowledge from these two main sources were critical in understanding some
basic principles of land use and planning.
In terms of improving my managerial skill, in my subjective opinion i did quite
well on the way to develop my managing skills. This was partially learned by
engaging myself more to the management team meetings as well as taking over
the chairing of plenaries for two times, which actually made me leave my comfort
zone. This experience allowed me to understand that three aspects of decisionmaking (transparency, quality, time) were crucial and most challenging to
balance. And in most cases the ability of the chair or facilitator is of pivotal
importance on keeping the equilibrium of these attributes of decision-making.
My last goal proved to be a bit overstated, however after setting that aim I
noticed that I observed slightly higher degree of activeness and more ideas. But I
also understood that having no opinion or supporting someone elses view is not
guilt or disadvantage. In other words, my marginally bizarre goal yielded couple
of positive, to my view, results.
While achieving my goals I also contributed to the EUW project and solution of
the problem of the commissioner. Example for the former one: I was a volunteer
and supporter in the initiative of the management team to let others chair the
plenaries. The idea was not welcomed by the group, however, my willingness and
influence on couple of other students caused the idea of letting other students
chairs the plenary to be approved and put into action. I exemplified the case
above because I was abundantly thanked for pioneering by the management
team. Later I was paid some more praise by other students when I walked
through the geo-groups and asked whether they had issues with the their reports
or any issues they wanted to discuss in the plenaries.
Group works seemed to be pretty smooth, although there were cases when some
members were a bit lacking in punctuality or motivation to work. I believe, I
contributed to the solution of these problems by addressing such issues quickly
and immediately turning to the course-related issues; I understood from the
Belbin test the weaknesses and strengths of individuals and I felt that overaddressing personality-related issues could spoil the atmosphere and relationship
between the group members (Belbin test proved its effect one more time). The

Final Reflection Paper

Kuddusbek Tashpulatov
MES, Reg. No 930423823030
decisions in the geo and expert groups were made after all or at least most of the
members agreed on the features of the decision.
Last but not least, I learned too many things thanks to this course to enumerate
in this paper, but one of the most important but slightly irrelevant to this
reflection paper outcomes was that I determined my potential thesis topic and
lifelong goal. I understood that education shapes the person, personalized
education is must, challenges make people stronger, desire to learn is the best
attitude and many other tenets of education. As a result I decided that I will
devote myself for education, teaching and creating opportunities to learn.