Overseas Study Tour Research Articles

GCG Overseas Study Tours 1997-2004

From 1997 to 2004 the Geological Curators’ Group ran an annual Overseas Study Tour, during which we visited many of Europe’s major museums, and even had one visit across the Atlantic to the USA. The visits began in 1997 with an experimental day trip to Brussels on the newly commissioned Eurostar Express and were followed by longer visits to the Netherlands (1998), Paris (1999), Bavaria (2000), New York (2001), Berlin (2002) and Prague (2004). The number of delegates ranged from 7 to 19. On these tours we met all sorts of like-minded curators in the various countries visited, who shared their experience of how they tackled things like databasing, conservation, storage, gallery display and specimen acquisition, to name just a few; the Geological Curators’ Group has always had a very diverse range of interests and membership. We all learnt from their experience and took home new ideas to our own museums and collections. So, were these trips merely ‘jollies’? We certainly had a lot of fun, we drank lots of Weissbier, we acted like tourists on our free days, and cemented some great friendships, but we also saw some wonderful museums, collections and specimens, learnt new ways to tackle curatorial problems, and became much better curators because of the experiences. I would urge the current membership to follow that example - there are many more museums in the ‘new Europe’ waiting for you to discover.

The differences between students’ fixed and growth mindsets: a case of study tour between Hong Kong and Canada

PurposeThe paper aims to address the gap in the literature related to students’ mindsets and learning activities through investigation of the differences in students’ expectations of, feelings towards, and perceptions of an overseas study tour based on their mindset. The study provides an in-depth analysis of students with different mindsets and proposes the use of overseas tours and intercultural learning to foster students’ growth mindset.Design/methodology/approachAn overseas study tour hosted by a self-financing tertiary institution in Hong Kong was selected for investigation. 13 sub-degree students participated in the study tour during the summer term in 2018. Two types of primary data – quantitative (i.e., a questionnaire survey) and qualitative (i.e., in-depth interviews) – of fixed mindset and growth mindset students were collected for analysis.FindingsThe findings indicate differences in students’ expectations of, feelings towards, and perceptions of an overseas study tour depending on whether they demonstrate a fixed or growth mindset. The growth mindset students had more and higher expectations of the study tour, all of which were related to personal growth and development. The fixed mindset students did not have as much of a desire for personal development and their expectations were easily met. Both growth and fixed mindset students had positive feelings and perceptions of the tour.Originality/valueResearch on the application value of overseas study tours in helping students from self-financing tertiary institutions develop a growth mindset is scarce, and thus warrants further investigation.

Tensions, Transformations and Travel

This paper discusses the dynamic and complex dimensions of ‘becoming’ a cosmopolitan teacher educator through an overseas study tour. It employs autobiography as a research method to interpret the experiences of an overseas study tour, and how it has engaged the teacher educators in self-reflexivity of their negotiation of multiple identities: academic, personal and cultural. Our self-narratives reveal how becoming cosmopolitan educators is not only intimately linked to the process of re-construction of oneself as a reflexive person. The process can also be conflicting and unsettling because of how we were positioned by our pre-service teachers. It concludes by highlighting the conditions in which our multiple identities come into existence and how they shape our ways of becoming, and the need for teacher educators to engage in a continual process of professional development as cosmopolitan teacher educators.

Learning to Teach in the Field: Five Professors Tell How Running an Overseas Study Tour Improved Their Classroom Teaching

This article examines the positive impact of overseas study tours on the teaching philosophies and classroom strategies used by the professors running the tours. While education scholars have identified long term benefits of overseas study tours for students, less attention has been paid to flow on benefits for teachers. This article aims to address this gap in the literature by having five Australian professors describe how their international study tour experiences changed and improved their teaching in the classroom. The article shows that in the process of developing a successful overseas study tour, professors can learn lessons about teaching that they can use productively in the classroom.

The Grand Tour in the Twenty-first Century: Perspectives of Chinese Adolescents and Their Parents

ABSTRACTThis study investigates Chinese adolescents’ overseas study tours from the perspectives of both Chinese adolescents and their parents. Fifty in-depth interviews were conducted and analyzed with 30 adolescents and 20 parents. Data analysis results suggest three primary types of activities in an overseas study tour: sightseeing tours, schooling programs and socializing with the locals. A variety of reasons for overseas study tours from the perspectives of Chinese adolescents (a taste of college education in foreign countries, global perspectives, socialization, independence, novelty and fun) and their parents (child’s future plans, child’s social development, the lost college dream) are identified. The key findings of this study pinpoint a number of important social, economic, cultural forces in today’s China society that shape and are reflected in Chinese adolescents’ and their parents’ perspectives on overseas study tours, including globalization, China’s modernization, China’s contemporary single-child family structure and Chinese traditional cultural values.

"The Belt and Road" and Environmental Education for College Students before Overseas Study Tour*

"The Belt and Road" and Environmental Education for College Students before Overseas Study Tour*

Short-term Overseas Study Tours by Secondary Students in China : What to Do and What to Gain?

This work is an exploratory study that investigates the quality and outcomes of short-term overseas study tours taken by secondary school students in China. A short-term overseas study tour is defined in this study as an educational tour that takes place in foreign destinations for less than a month. Although short-term overseas study tours attracted a great number of secondary school students for the last decade in China, whether expected educational outcomes can be achieved through this short trip is questionable, because a prolonged length of stay is crucial to achieve educational purposes in educational tourism (Du, 2003; Dwyer, 2004). Previous studies on educational tourism have focused on the outcomes and benefits of long-term overseas study tours (i.e., one to two semesters) by university students and adults (Stone & Petrick, 2013). The findings from the previous studies may not be applied to short-term overseas study tours taken by secondary students, due to the distinct context (i.e., timing) and participants (i.e., younger, secondary school students). Also, short-term study tours for Chinese students have been criticized as a tour without study or even depicted as shopping tours (Tam, 2013). Furthermore, such short study tours for Chinese secondary students cost around a half of annual household income of Chinese “middle class” family. Therefore, it is critical to understand the quality and outcome of such short-term overseas study tours to leverage the high costs. To shed light on this contemporary issue in China’s education and tourism industry, this study surveyed Chinese secondary students in six major cities in China and analyzed data about their perceived quality of and satisfaction with short-term overseas study tours they have participated in, and outcome achieved through such tours. Findings of this study indicate the importance of tour guides in enhancing secondary students’ short-term overseas study tour experiences. Tour guides’ interpersonal skills were found to be the most important factor for the students’ satisfaction with the tours. It was also found that short-term overseas study tours were most effective in enhancing attitude towards various culture. Strikingly, core-study related components such as language learning programs and university visits were not as important as other culture-related activities/outcomes for students’ satisfaction with the tours, even though the tours are named a ‘study tour’ and the educational aspect of the tours are highlighted in the promotions by tour organizers. The results imply problems in the lack of efficiency in learning course design. As one of only a few studies on short-term overseas study tours by secondary school students in China, this study assists tour educators and practitioners to further understand the effects of such activities and design better tour packages.

Individuation, vitalism and space in the overseas study tour

ABSTRACTStudy abroad programs at university are supported as a means to expand university operations beyond the study walls of the institution, and to help students become aware of and cope with the demands of an increasingly interconnected and globalised world. This paper questions the assumptions that underlie the tendencies in contemporary study abroad programs, whose ethos it is argued, at the same time misunderstands and underestimates the potential effects of the study abroad practice. Using a theoretical framework derived from the French philosophy of science of Gilbert Simondon, Gaston Bachelard and Georges Canguilhem, this paper puts to work fully elaborated and contextualised concepts, which look to change and expand one’s notion of the learning possible due to study abroad programs, beyond experiential change. Simondon’s individuation questions the ways in which particular student agencies and learning characteristics are constructed in study abroad tours, Bachelard’s concept of space questions the reality of precise coordinates and concrete analyses of the study abroad tour itinerary, and Canguilhem’s vitalism puts under pressure ‘the life’ of the tour learnings and effects. This paper will be furnished with empirical evidence taken from a recent overseas tour involving Australian students performing teaching practicums in schools in Penang, Malaysia.

Science Students’ Language Learning and Teaching in Overseas Study Tour: o Produce the Opportunity for Active English Use

Science Students’ Language Learning and Teaching in Overseas Study Tour: o Produce the Opportunity for Active English Use

Encountering Others in Overseas Study Tours: An Examination of Educational Potentials

Encountering Others in Overseas Study Tours: An Examination of Educational Potentials

Jafari and Transformation: A model to enhance short-term overseas study tours

This paper promotes the Jafari tourism model as a framework to understand the various stages of the student and staff travel experience while participating in an outbound mobility experiences (OME). Working through each of the components of the Jafari model allows recognition of the changing needs and requirements of both students and staff throughout an OME and the tensions that accompany this relationship. Drawing on experiences gained from the development and implementation of a two-week OME to Vietnam offered annually between 2011 and 2015, this paper will demonstrate how the Jafari tourism model can be used in relation to OMEs.

Early literacy programmes in public libraries: best practice

Health, housing, education, employment opportunities, income levels, involvement with crime and civic participation for individuals in our society can all be affected by an ability to read, with negative outcomes for those who are unable to read. Children who enter formal education behind in early literacy skills often struggle to catch up through the rest of their schooling, and on into their adult lives. An overseas study tour, enabled by the author winning a Kay Poustie Scholarship from the State Library of Western Australia Foundation, investigated how public libraries in four countries work with the early childhood sector to develop confidence in children’s literacy skills before entering formal schooling. Philosophies of library service were explored, along with specific programmes delivered by libraries to the community. The adaptability of ideas was assessed for use within the Australian public library system, and practitioners can use these ideas as starting points for presentation of early literacy skills according to the particular needs of their local children and parents/carers. The emphasis is on practical activities that libraries of all sizes can be encouraged to offer, including libraries of small size and limited staff. With the development of literacy being a social skill that requires effective and positive relationships between adults and small children, libraries can be a space and place where those relationships can be beneficially nurtured.

Encountering Others in Overseas Study Tours: An Examination of Educational Potentials

Encountering Others in Overseas Study Tours: An Examination of Educational Potentials

Engaging in Deep Cultural Learning through the Intersection of Multiple Contexts

The type of learning that takes place in teacher education courses typically results in pre-service teachers developing a mixture of knowledge, skills and values that enable them to become effective teachers in schools in the future. During their journey to become qualified teachers, pre-service teachers typically engage in coursework and experiential-based learning. By engaging in coursework experiences, an overseas practicum and an overseas study tour, students experienced a range of reflection-promoting activities and contexts during which they broadened and deepened their understanding of cultures other than their own. Using a cross-case analysis approach, the data gathered in these three cases were evaluated using an experiential learning theoretical framework. This article reports on findings from three separate but related studies in which students’ learning about cultures other than their own was analysed and used to provide a set of practical recommendations for teacher education courses and programs.

Exploration of Effectiveness of Workshop Conducted in Overseas Study Tours for University Students

Exploration of Effectiveness of Workshop Conducted in Overseas Study Tours for University Students

The Effect of Using Communities in University's SNS through an Overseas Study Tour on Motivation to Learn

The Effect of Using Communities in University's SNS through an Overseas Study Tour on Motivation to Learn

English-language Education and International Exchange for Engineering Students at Maizuru National College of Technology

The present report deals with an attempt at Maizuru National College of Technology (MNCT) to connect English education with international exchange. Such an attempt could be found in the English curriculum, academic agreement with overseas institutions of higher education, overseas study tour including a visit to a partner institution, mutual dispatch of selected students for international internship, and the implementation of English presentation contest, all with the aim of bringing up engineers who can communicate in English in an international context.

Planning, Organizing, and Conducting a 2-Week Study Abroad Trip for Undergraduate Students: Guidelines for First-Time Faculty

This article provides specific recommendations to help faculty members organize, plan, and conduct a short-term overseas study tour. Specifically, strategies are presented to help with managing student anxiety in the pretrip sessions, acclimating the students to their new environment in the early part of the trip, balancing academic content with cultural activities, selecting types of learning activities, and facilitating a student exchange with a local university. A secondary goal of this article is to discuss common on-the-ground problems that the faculty leader may face in the host country. Strategies are presented to help the faculty leader respond to these problems (or prevent them from occurring in the first place).

Overseas Observations of the Physiotherapist in the Work Place

A recent overseas study tour provided an opportunity for observation of the physiotherapist as one of a team concerned with health care in the workplace. This paper presents impressions gained during visits to some overseas institutions and industries in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. A number of roles are possible for the physiotherapist in the workplace, but the nature of the contribution made varies between countries. The special features of physiotherapy practice in some overseas industries, the practical problems faced by the physiotherapist in implementing ergonomic principles and some of the solutions devised by physiotherapists are described.

REPORT OF OVERSEAS STUDY TOUR (ABRIDGED

IN ADDITION to attending the International Grassland Congress in Finland, I was required under the terms of the Memorial Award to examine the Farm Advisory Services of Britain and the U.S.A.