Abroad Experience Research Articles

Student Reflection on the Development of Intercultural Competence through the Education Abroad Experience

This study is devoted to the topic of intercultural competence. It aims to determine what intercultural competence students acquire through education abroad experience. Based on the results of our research we will introduce synthesized and identified fundamental structures and on their basis we will present research questions/hypotheses. We are not neglecting the recommendation for practice. We present recommendations for the development of these key competences through ideas such as “pre-departure intercultural training”, which would help students to find their way around their new environment and gain a deeper understanding of the cultural context.

Increasing Leadership Behaviors in Counselor Education Doctoral Students via Study Abroad Experiences: A Single Case Study Approach

This study explored the relationship between a study abroad experience and leadership behaviors via single case study design for three counselor education doctoral students. Results showed that two out of three participants experienced an increase in leadership behaviors during the study period, as measured by the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (SLPI). Implications for the enhancement of leadership skills for doctoral students are discussed, as well as implementation and evaluation of study abroad in counselor education.

Study Abroad Experience: Personal and Professional Aftereffects of Professors from a Public Costa Rican University

<p>El objetivo de este estudio es determinar algunos de los cambios personales y profesionales que los y las docentes pueden enfrentar luego de estudiar en el extranjero. El estudio se realizó en una universidad pública costarricense. Los y las participantes fueron siete docentes de inglés, quienes respondieron a un cuestionario, una encuesta y una entrevista. Las conclusiones exponen los principales cambios experimentados por los y las docentes luego de su estadía en el extranjero. En resumen, los cambios más significativos fueron la independencia obtenida, la habilidad de contribuir al país de origen, el sentimiento de rechazo hacia la burocracia costarricense y el sentimiento de que sus compañeros y compañeras de trabajo se sentían amenazados.</p>

Does the ``National Free Health Care'' have financial sustainability in China? A case of Shenmu County, Shaanxi Province, China.

The most populous country in the world, China needs more health care. Shenmu's practices show that National Free Health Care (NFHC) system has played an active role in fulfilling the citizen's needs of health care, and alleviating the difficulties in affording the medical costs and seeing doctors. But NFHC system needs substantial financial supporting. It is worth in-depth discussing and reflecting on whether the NFHC system suits China's national conditions. The paper establishes the population age structure forecasting model and NFHC financial burden model by decomposition methodology and actuarial modelling. And it finds than the financial burden of NFHC system in Shenmu will be increased from 256.64 million Yuan to 656.04 million Yuan in 2013-2020, with the growth rate 12.45%. Meanwhile, the percentage of the financial burden in government's annual revenue is less than 2% in 2013-2020, NFHC system has financial sustainability in Shenmu. According to the successful experience abroad and the calculated results in Shenmu, to extend the NFHC system to the whole of China has financial sustainability and realistic possibility.

Reflections of Nursing Students Travel Abroad Experiences in Ireland: A Global Nursing Perspective

Abstract The reflections of nursing students were collected two years after an immersion experience in Ireland. Participants told of their professional growth and the conversations they had with health care providers and patients. The values they learned as students were facilitated by relationship building and solidarity with the individuals they met during the immersion experience.

Establishment of a short-term global health nursing education experience: impact on students' ways of knowing.

The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing recognizes that with the increased globalization of health care, professional nurses have to be prepared to practice in multicultural environments and must possess the skills needed to provide culturally competent care. Thirty-five baccalaureate nursing students participated in a short-term course abroad to Jamaica over a period of 3 years. The impact of such an experience on ways of knowing was assessed in 20 participants, using a visual analog scale. Students believed that the short-term course abroad experience had a positive impact on their personal knowing and that they developed an understanding of a health care system different from their own, while reflecting on issues of social justice. Results provide evidence of the positive impact on short-term course abroad trips on students' ways of knowing. Critical to establishment of these experiences is evaluation of their merit through documentation of student learning outcomes.

In The Absence of Language: Modeling a Transformative, Short-Term Abroad Experience

This essay explores models for short-term, faculty-led study abroad in cases where language skills cannot be expected of students, focusing on issues of local immersion and relationship-building. It explicates three models undertaken by the author, detailing the strengths and weaknesses of common trip structures and related course outlines, and offers recommendations for successful trip modelling. It further explores the relationship between short-term abroad trips and cultural tourism, focusing on a model that allows students a pedagogical space to reflect critically on anthropological stereotypes.

The Cultural Adaptation Process During a Short-term Study Abroad Experience in Swaziland

Globalization continuously shapes our world and influences post-secondary education. This study explored the cultural adaptation process of participants during a short-term study abroad program. Participants experienced stages which included initial feelings, cultural uncertainty, cultural barriers, cultural negativity, academic and career growth, feelings throughout the program, and cultural growth. The findings from this study should be used to design and implement short-term study abroad programs that infuse cultural learning with academic learning and focus on experiential learning practices.

How Preservice Teachers’ Study Abroad Experiences Lead to Changes in Their Perceptions of English Language Learners

This qualitative study examined 16 preservice teachers’ (PSTs) perceptions of “others” before 2 months in Germany, compared perceptions upon return, and attributed shifts to experiences abroad. Data sources were surveys, interviews, and reflections. Transformation theory served as the theoretical lens. PSTs’ pre-travel experiences related to not fitting in, cultural differences, and gender. Abroad, PSTs faced cultural differences and questioned their culture. Perceptual changes centered around language and culture. Changes were based on empathy, advocacy, and an understanding of ELLs. Implications offered are for interpreting experiences in light of teaching, benefits of faculty-led programs, and the use of study abroad to experience otherness.

Impact of international experience on research capacity of Chinese health professionals.

ContextIt is common practice worldwide for health professionals to study abroad. However, the outcome of such experience has not been rigorously evaluated in China. Our current study aimed to quantify the impact on research of studying abroad among Chinese health professionals.MethodsA self-administered structured questionnaire was developed among health professionals in Harbin Medical University and its affiliated hospitals who had studied abroad (‘returning’ professionals) and health professionals who did not have experience abroad (‘resident’ professionals). 166 ‘returning’ professionals (Group A) and 166 age-, sex- and specialty-matched ‘resident’ professionals (Group B) were included in the study. SPSS software was used for data entry and analysis.ResultsThe total IF of papers published by Group A and Group B was, respectively, 1933.52 and 629.23 (P < 0.01) and the number of NSFC was 154 and 34 (P < 0.01), respectively. The total IF of papers published abroad was associated with the duration abroad (P < 0.01) and not with the age of going abroad (P > 0.05). The total IF of papers published at home, and the number of NSFC had no relationship with the duration abroad (both P > 0.05) nor the age of going abroad (both P > 0.05). The total IF of papers published at home and the number of NSFC were positively correlated with the total IF of papers published abroad (both P < 0.01).ConclusionsThis study reflects the beneficial experience of working overseas. The opportunity for overseas experience should not be limited by age. Overseas study should be prolonged.

Engaging Students in Learning: Lessons from Short-Term Study Abroad Experiences in Italy

Study abroad is being promoted as a strategy to enhance undergraduate students’ intercultural knowledge and competence and life-long learning. This study reports on students’ knowledge, skills and dispositions that occur as a result of participating in a short-term study abroad experience in Italy. Students provided responses to open-ended prompts and five structured questions. Findings of the study suggest students gain valuable insight while participating in hands-on, structured, study abroad experiences

From Awareness to Cultural Agency: EFL Colombian Student Teachers’ Travelling Abroad Experiences

Colombian English as a foreign language student teachers’ opportunities to grow as educators through international sojourns do not usually subsume the traditional study and residence abroad goal. This was the case for our participants who engaged mainly in working abroad with study being ancillary. Fifty student teachers from two public universities reported how their international sojourn bolstered their intercultural learning. Three different programs, disconnected from participants’ academic institutions, became vehicles for their experiences abroad. Surveys and interviews reveal that participants’ origin, selected programs, and contextual circumstances influenced their intercultural learning. As a result, intercultural development gravitated towards awareness of intercultural patterns, critical reading of culture, and pre-service teachers’ repositioning to build cultural agency. Implications suggest the need to connect traveling abroad programs to undergraduate curricula.

Conversations in a Pub: Positioning the Critical Friend as “Peer Relief” in the Supervision of a Teacher Educator Study Abroad Experience

In this paper, we share the results of a self - study of our experience as university supervisors in a study abroad program for U.S. pre - service teachers. We share the shifts in our thinking that occurred as a result of our daily conversations about our work as teacher educators. Our reflections led us to new understandings of the nuances of field experiences, our constructions of pre - service teachers in the field, and the necessity of personal and professional renewal for faculty, not only as critical friends, but as peer relief.

Teaching Business Classes Abroad: How International Experience Benefits Faculty, Students, and Institutions

International educational experiences can provide benefits for faculty members as well as higher education institutions and their students. The opportunity to lecture and conduct research with colleagues at universities in other countries can foster the globalization or internationalization of academic teaching, the advancement of knowledge, and cooperation among institutions. Research has shown that the experience abroad helps educators to gain a more global perspective that will enhance business classes. This article will show that a Fulbright experience abroad helps faculty to lead business students to be more knowledgeable and aware of international issues and global concerns.

Inverting the Object of Study: Recalibrating the Frame of Reference in Study Abroad Experiences

AbstractThis essay is concerned with study abroad experiences as opportunities for student cognitive development, using the interpretive lens of educational psychologist William G. Perry. A standard and often valuable assignment in courses on world religions is a site visit to a religious institution in one's local area. This may concretize otherwise abstract materials and help students reflect on ways in which the lived experience of religion differs from its presentation in course texts and other academic materials. Increasingly, study abroad trips are being offered as extended and more intensive ways of bringing this material to life, offering students opportunity to see lived religion within another cultural framework. At the heart of this paper is the contention that such study abroad experiences function not simply as longer, more intense versions of site visits but, rather, as experiences that invert the subject and object of study. The worldview of the student becomes a primary object of study, which is examined, as it were, by the particulars of the religion(s) under investigation and the cultures of which said religion(s) are a part. Where site visits offer students an opportunity to visit the strange amidst the familiar, study abroad trips provide opportunities for students to become the strange within a recalibrated familiar. The subject becomes the object and is interrogated by the context of study. While local, stateside site visits can offer a degree of such dislocation, their brevity, together with some degree of assimilation to the larger culture flows on the part of the local religious institution being visited, most often mitigates any significant inversion. Students generally see such institutions as either mildly or wildly exotic, but always within their frame of reference, which constitutes the norm. When abroad, the normative experience of students is often subverted in ways that lay bare the assumptions behind such views and makes possible another world in which to live. Simply put, the subject and object of study change places. If this inversion is carefully attended to, it can provide rich insight into not only the topics nominally being studied but also occasion opportunity for real cognitive development on the part of the student. This essay is published alongside of six other essays, including a response from John Barbour, comprising a special section of the journal (see Teaching Theology and Religion 18:1, January 2015).

The Effects of Immigrant Consumption Experience Abroad in the Education of Albanian Consumption According to International Gusto and Standards

Going international for a national economy in an increasingly globalization process does not mean just thinking how to export products and services. First, you have to create and implement international standards for the home country products and services. The process of internationalization is an integral process, affecting culture, politics, economy and way of living as well. Going international for an economy is a very broad issue but the way we refer in this paper is very closely related to the living standards of the people and more specifically of the immigrant communities between the host country and the country of origin. There are different ways of rising up and establishing international standards in consumption in the domestic market, one of which sounds to be smooth and very natural considering the transformation process. Consumption is part of the culture and so is the way of living. This means that it should be a long process to adopt international standards of consumption in the internal market. But it is not the same when we consider immigrants and their relatives have intense exchange of experiences with them, and the fact that immigrants are bicultural. They naturally can ‘import’ their second culture elements and standards home. The positive effects of this phenomenon which comes as a result of the process of education of the domestic market from the immigrant consumption experience abroad directly impacts the home market demand for consumption according to the international gusto and standards. Albanian immigrant group have been for many years, and still are very important enclave for the internationalization of our economy, as they represent more than 1/3 of our total population. Having into consideration this fact, the goal of this paper is to analyze the consequences that the domestic market, goods and services, have had so far and how the production standards have evolved.

Оценка экономической эффективности лесной селекции на основе зарубежного опыта

Оценка экономической эффективности лесной селекции на основе зарубежного опыта

An Activity-Theoretic Study of Agency and Identity in the Study Abroad Experiences of a Lesbian Nontraditional Learner of Korean

This is an activity-theoretic study of agency and identity in the study abroad experiences of a Korean learner named Julie—a 50-year-old lesbian, feminist, and non-traditional student from the USA. During 6-weeks in Seoul, Julie struggled to gain participation and to define her identity in a setting that was hostile towards homosexuality. These struggles were exacerbated by her Korean class, where she was positioned as an ‘older' student and, therefore, consigned to working with a ‘sexist' and ‘narcissistic' 65-year-old European male (‘Peter'). Within this unfavourable socio-historical context, this study focuses on how Julie exerted her agency to modulate her identity and redefine the social-material conditions of her language learning. I argue that through exerting her agency Julie was able to alter the ‘rules of interaction' in the ‘activity system' that she was part of. As such, Julie's story highlights the significance of acts of ‘changing' in defining language learning experiences and emphasizes the role of agency in activity-theoretic approaches to language learning.

Turkish Language Proficiency and Cultural Adaptation of American EFL Teachers in Turkey

Intercultural competence is needed for effective and appropriate intercultural interactions. However, differences between individuals and specific factors, such as directness/indirectness and collectivism/individualism, should be considered when examining cultural adaptation. This paper aims to reveal the possible effects that language proficiency has on cultural adaptation. Although the 31 American teachers surveyed in this study had different levels of Turkish language proficiency, the results indicated no significant differences between their language proficiency and sociocultural adaptation. However, a significant negative correlation was found between previous experience abroad and successful sociocultural adaptation in Turkey. The main conclusion of this study questions the relationship between traditional conceptions of language proficiency and successful sociocultural adaptation.

Countermeasure and Research of Activity-Based Costing Applied in the Enterprise of our Country

At the present stage, there are many problems in the implementation of homework cost method in our country enterprise, and most of the enterprises face this or that kind of obstacles on the road of the implementation of homework cost method, so the business case with successful implementation of homework cost method is less. Through the research on the experience abroad and some successful application cases in domestic, theoretical reference and inductions of all the experts and scholars, the author has made systematic comparison analysis. In view of existing problems, he has put forward the corresponding countermeasure to the implementation of homework cost method in our country enterprise.