Study Abroad Course Research Articles

Journaling to Develop a Study Abroad Course for Business Majors

Objective - This research explored the cultural and educational insights in Thailand to develop a study abroad course for Business Communication students including a pre-departure segment followed by a trip to Thailand. The context was a small mid-western teaching university in the United States of America. Methodology/Technique – The primary researcher collected textual data by means of keeping a daily journal in Thailand including visits and stays in both urban and rural areas for over a period of two months. The journaling included reflections on the primary researcher’s observations and comments about learning sites, opportunities and cultural activities. The data collection also included videotaped interviews, photos of sites, local people, and cultural artifacts to be utilized in the course. Finding & Novelty - Content analysis of the journal yielded three sets of themes which resulted in the development of the course: a) Identification of opportunities to develop and practice intercultural sensitivity, intercultural development, and intercultural competencies; b) recognition of cultural artifacts to bring awareness to the culture of the country visited; and c) identification of a set of practical issues related to international travel. Type of Paper: Empirical. Keywords: Curation, experiential learning, journaling, study abroad, social enterprise, reflection. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Ward; J.G; Ward Y.D; Jones; S. 2020. Journaling to Develop a Study Abroad Course for Business Majors, Global J. Bus. Soc. Sci. Review, 8(1): 30 – 40. https://doi.org/10.35609/gjbssr.2020.8.1(4) JEL Classification: A30, A39.

Developing the Team While Travelling: Infusing Elements of High Impact Practices into a Study Abroad Course for Student-Athletes

Undergraduate institutions today are increasingly looking to adopt high impact practices (HIP) as a means to provide optimal learning experiences for their students. Study abroad courses are a particularly popular HIP offerings for students, as they provide opportunities to not only experience new cultures around the world but also to gain insights into their own cultural identities. However, because of the many demands placed on Division I collegiate student-athletes, they unfortunately are often not able to engage in such a global experience. This case study describes a credit-bearing, short-term study abroad course that not only taught Division I volleyball student-athletes about theories of culture and how to analyze culture at the individual, team, and national levels; but infused a variety of experiential activities and other elements characteristic of effective HIPs. As a means to make the course more personally relevant and meaningful to these students, special attention was given to present topics in a context specific to a collegiate athletic team. These student-athletes were introduced to a host of relevant validated models and theories of culture, and engaged in a number of individual assessments to gain insights into their cultural identities and their influences, as well as in formal assessments of as their team’s dynamics and overall effectiveness. In addition, the course included team-based activities and workshops that addressed the team’s weakest areas related to performance. identified areas in need of improvement. All of these activities were aligned with a 10-day travel experience to Italy. Overall, this case study is an example of how an innovative course can be created to not only provide a study abroad opportunity for student-athletes, but also be tailored to address individual players’ and team needs and create a positive and lasing experience for all involved.

The World as a Living Economics Classroom: Lessons from ‘Economies in Transition’, a Faculty-Led Study Abroad Course in Central and Eastern Europe

The World as a Living Economics Classroom: Lessons from ‘Economies in Transition’, a Faculty-Led Study Abroad Course in Central and Eastern Europe

A Metric for Prediciting Student Motivation to Participate in a Study Abroad Course

This study investigated the factor structure of the Perceived Costs of Studying Abroad Instrument (PCoSAI), as adapted from the expectancy-value-cost model instrument, with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) from 1 independent sample of students enrolled in a College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) at Oklahoma State University (OSU). The EFA sample of 381 students was assessed during an in-class recruitment event for international courses or experiences offered through the CASNR during the 2017 Fall semester. The participants included 113 male and 268 female students; 118 had previously traveled abroad at least once. The mean composite score for the sample varied from average to somewhat below average and evinced substantial differences among scores. A 4-factor solution was considered using principal axis factoring with a Promax rotation. Selected extraction criteria and parameter estimates supported the 4-factor PCoSAI explaining 81% of the variance. Cronbach’s alpha scores for the four sub-scales ranged from .90 to .93. The study produced a usable instrument for determining incoming students’ motivation to participate in study abroad experiences. Future research should employ a confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the factor structures.

Study Abroad Course for Pre-pharmacy and Pharmacy Students to Learn About Global Health

Objective. To design, implement, and assess a study abroad course in Ireland for pre-professional and Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students. Methods. An elective study abroad course was created for pre-professional and PharmD students at North Dakota State University. The course included comparison of the US and Ireland's health care delivery systems and participation in history and cultural experiences in Ireland. Prior to the trip, students and preceptors attended seminars related to the culture of Ireland. The three-week trip to Ireland took place between the spring and summer semesters in 2016. Student assignments while abroad included completion of a self-reflection journal with daily entries describing what the student learned and how the experience impacted them, and completion and presentation of a term paper comparing Ireland's pharmacy system with that in the United States. Pre- and post-travel surveys were conducted to assess students' perceptions of and learning from the experience, and to identify areas for course improvement. Results. Students' evaluations of the course and travel experiences were positive. However, students' perceptions of their cultural awareness were largely unchanged. Conclusion. The course was well received by students. Other PharmD programs may benefit from implementing similar study abroad experiences.

From Machu Picchu to Masaya Volcano: An Interdisciplinary Approach to offering Study Abroad Courses on International Disasters and Crisis Communication

As the nature of managing hazards and disasters grows increasingly complex, educating the next generation of emergency management practitioners and scholars requires innovative strategies. This article describes the utilization of a collaborative teaching approach when offering a study abroad course examining hazards, emergency management, and crisis communication in Central and South America. Co-taught cross-disciplinary courses provide opportunities for students to gain exposure to the different perspectives inherent in the study and management of hazards and disasters. This, coupled with the study abroad experience, offers students a unique viewpoint on how hazards, risks, and communication are managed and perceived in other countries. This paper highlights the recent research about benefits of co-teaching and study abroad courses, provides a description of our study abroad programs, and offers tips and suggestions for developing similar courses at other higher education institutions.

Applications for Teaching Sustainability: An Interdisciplinary, Service Learning, Study Abroad Course

This teaching note delineates the broad understanding of sustainability and environmental justice as it relates to social work practice and social work education. The curricular applications of sustainability and environmental justice through an undergraduate, service learning, interdisciplinary, 12-day study abroad course to India are described. The teaching note includes the conceptualization of the course co-taught by faculty members from social work and chemistry as well as pretrip, trip, and posttrip learning activities.

Using Guided Reflection to Link Cultural and Service Learning in a Study Abroad Course.

The literature indicates that service learning integrated into a study abroad course results in cultural learning, personal growth, and professional development. However, there are inadequate examples of strategies to achieve cultural learning in the context of study abroad. The purpose of this article is to briefly describe the authors' collaboration with leaders of an international health system in developing a faculty-led study abroad course and describe strategies to promote guided reflection to achieve cultural learning. The preparation phase of the course was delivered with two video conferences and an online learning management system for students on three campuses. Service learning with clinic nursing staff of the international health system and children in a residential home was purposefully incorporated in the study abroad phase of the course. During the first week of study abroad, specific prompts for daily journaling were introduced to the students to promote guided reflection as a critical component of service learning. During the second week, students discussed concepts that had been introduced during the preparation phase. The students wrote a final summary reflection paper with the guidance of additional prompts and an evaluation rubric. In summary, preparation phase learning activities, study abroad phase daily journaling and group discussion combined with a summary reflection paper were used as strategies to achieve cultural learning.

What Are We Teaching Abroad? Faculty Goals for Short-Term Study Abroad Courses

Based on survey data from over 400 faculty members who taught short-term study abroad courses, the purpose of this study was to identify the types of goals that faculty members have in teaching short-term study abroad courses and the relationship between faculty background characteristics (i.e., race, gender, discipline, and prior experience) and their teaching goals. By further understanding the goals that these faculty members have for their study abroad programs, we are better able to assess how these programs may or may not be meeting overall internationalization goals and then to use this information to assist faculty members and higher education administrators in finding ways to further align study abroad goals with the broader goals of international education.

Crossing the Globe: Why Studying Abroad Is Essential to the Future of LIS Education

Increasingly, Library and Information Science (LIS) programs are offering study-abroad opportunities for students to have broader global classroom experiences to gain knowledge and exposure and to think beyond the confines of geographic boundaries. While study-abroad courses have long been a part of undergraduate and graduate education in North America, few opportunities exist for students in LIS. This paper argues for their continued offering as well as for the creation of new study-abroad courses in LIS. The simple reason is that global study programs help students understand the interconnectedness and interdependence of the world (Smith, Hallam, & Ghosh, 2012). They expose students to other practices in the information professions and create opportunities for library science programs to tap into new markets for recruitment. They also foster critical thinking on a range of issues including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, and gender. A study-abroad program will serve as a model for discussing these factors as well as pedagogy, strategies for student learning, and cross-classroom collaboration.

Long-Term Student Benefit of International Agricultural Study Abroad Courses

Core Ideas Do agricultural travel courses have an impact on the student-travelers’ careers, and do the employer and employee perceive any benefits? We surveyed 335 students who had participated in an Iowa State ag-led international ag study course between 1964 and 1990. Overall the survey showed strong impacts and favorable attitudes decades after participation in an international agricultural travel course. Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) has offered international agricultural travel courses since 1963. Students traveled to Europe, Eastern Europe, or Asia on roughly a bi-annual basis. We were interested in learning if agricultural travel courses had an impact on the student-travelers’ careers, and if the employer and employee perceived any benefits. Lists of student travelers collected over decades in the Agronomy Department at Iowa State University gave a unique opportunity to take a long-term perspective. We sent 335 surveys to students who had participated in a CALS-led international ag study course between 1964 and 1990. We received 132 valid responses. Respondents were asked to rate on a 5-point Likert scale to what extent they agreed or disagreed with statements regarding their international study course and career advancement and their personal development and attitudes regarding international awareness and humanitarianism. The responses relating to significant career advancement correlated with overall positive attitudes, a mean of 3.70 on the 5-point scale, toward the effect of student travel. Most respondents felt their employers benefitted as well. The questions on personal development such as improved self-confidence had a mean score of 3.86, and broadened attitudes regarding others’ customs and beliefs scored 4.22. One question regarding increased international interest had a mean score of 4.16. Overall the survey showed strong impacts and favorable attitudes decades after participation in an international agricultural travel course.

Lessons Learned in Designing and Implementing a Mission Focused Study Abroad Course

Introduction: Based on Duffy’s (2009) Quality Caring Model and Hill and Watson’s Caring Science Curriculum Model (2011), the School of Nursing embraces the philosophy that caring collaborative relationships are the center of a culture of quality caring in nursing. Culture and cultural competence are integral to caring. Immersion experiences have been identified as impacting cultural competence (Bentley & Ellison, 2007; Kohlbry, 2016; Larsen & Reif, 2011; Long, 2012). Methodology: This paper describes the planning, implementation and lessons learned from an immersion experience as part of a mission focused study abroad course to Quito, Ecuador. Discussion: Twelve students, three faculty, and two nurse practitioners cared for approximately 100 patients per day for 10 days. Lessons learned related to faculty, students and logistics are discussed. Results: Students demonstrated positive outcomes related to critical thinking and clinical reasoning, holistic care of diverse populations, communication and collaboration, professional accountability, and effective teaching strategies.

Teaching Hemingway and Modernism ed. by Joseph Fruscione

Reviewed by: Teaching Hemingway and Modernism ed. by Joseph Fruscione Michael Von Cannon Teaching Hemingway and Modernism. Ed. Joseph Fruscione. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 2015. 240 pp. Paper $40.00. As part of the "Teaching Hemingway" series, Joseph Fruscione's essay collection Teaching Hemingway and Modernism follows Lisa Tyler's Teaching Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and Peter L. Hays's Teaching Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (2008) and precedes Alex Vernon's Teaching Hemingway and War (2016), Verna Kale's Teaching Hemingway and Gender (2016) and Kevin Maier's soon-to-be-published Teaching Hemingway and the Natural World (2017). In the forward to Fruscione's volume, Mark P. Ott notes the rationale for shifting away from specific novels and toward broader concepts: "To promote their usefulness to instructors and professors—from high schools, community colleges, and universities—the newest volumes in this series are organized thematically rather than around a single text." In the introduction and the fifteen pedagogically oriented essays that follow, the volume explores Hemingway and the "theme" of modernism through three sections on significant people, places, and cultural and theoretical contexts. Written by teacher-scholars—ranging from tenured faculty to adjuncts, from university administrators to cofounders of nonprofit organizations—these essays discuss the relationship between Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, Wallace Stevens, William Faulkner, and Zora Neale Hurston; the writer's rootedness to places such as Paris and Spain; and contexts including avant-garde art, warfare, postmodernism, and the digital age. Most importantly, contributors not only exhibit cutting-edge research but also stress innovative teaching practices both within and outside the traditional classroom setting. In the first section, contributors show how Hemingway's ostensible simplicity can help students decipher works by notoriously difficult modernist writers while, at the same time, deepening our appreciation of Hemingway's own complexity. Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick and Katie Owens-Murphy each compare Stein's portraits and narratives (e.g. "Picasso," Three Lives, and The Making of Americans) to In Our Time and Death in the Afternoon, contending that the juxtaposition provides access to stylistic similarities, specifically the writers' uses of repetition and elision. Likewise, Phillip Beard argues that "Big Two-Hearted River" and To Have and Have Not can help students understand Stevens's poetics of "extraordinary actuality" and, in turn, Hemingway's ecological understanding. James B. Carothers brings readers into his Hemingway and Faulkner undergraduate classroom, delving into the assigned reading list, class discussions (such as those on similarities between "The Short Happy [End Page 135] Life of Francis Macomber" and "A Rose for Emily"), essay prompts, and exam questions. For instance, Carothers warns against assignments or essay questions on the problematic Hemingway code; however, he does usefully suggest, "What you can do is ask students to consider the differences between the hero, the protagonist, and the central character, since the modern world that Hemingway and Faulkner confronted did not offer the heroic opportunity" (44). Most striking, Anna Lillios outlines her American Literature II unit on Hemingway and Hurston, in which she provides a day-by-day plan for The Sun Also Rises and Their Eyes Were Watching God. Like Carothers, she also offers suggestions for class discussions and essays that explore the gender and race dimensions of these modernist pilgrimage novels. Not surprisingly, the majority of essays in the second section (on place) center on Hemingway's Paris. Beginning with an immersive tour of her study-abroad course on American expatriate writers, Meg Gillette insightfully demonstrates how visits to museums (such as the Museum of Jewish Art and History, the Anthropology Museum, and the Musée d'Orsay) and other city sites—including statues, monuments, and memorials—help students examine the race, ethnicity, and gender in The Sun Also Rises, a novel that starts to read like a kind of postwar travelogue. She also helpfully offers tips for constructing a course with similar learning objectives but without the study-abroad requirement. Adam R. McKee focuses on the influence of Stein, James Joyce, and Paul Cézanne on the young writer's Paris-based experimentation, whereas David Barnes traces Ezra Pound's influence in order to recapture the political and socioeconomic aspects of In Our Time and...

Barriers to Teaching Social Determinants of Health: Nursing Study-Abroad Programs in a Digital Age.

The social determinants of health are the conditions in which humans are born, grow up, live, work, and age (World Health Organization [WHO], 2012). In nursing programs, this content is typically taught in community health courses. Another strategy for teaching students how to understand the social determinants of health is study-abroad courses. Budding nurses can learn how to assess conditions that influence the health of a community. Conducting this assessment in a culture that differs from the student's own can help highlight what factors impact one's own health. For the past eight years, the author has been teaching the social and cultural determinants of health to nursing students by taking them on 3-week cultural immersion/community health studyabroad programs. Destinations have included Ghana, Austria, the Netherlands, and Thailand. This article presents observations on how the teaching of social determinants of health has changed during the period 2008-2016.

Fine Tuning of a Study Abroad Course for Japanese EFL Students

The study abroad (SA) program of the Hokusei University Junior College English Department has been a vital part of the curriculum for more than 25 years. First year students spend their second semester, about four months, studying EFL courses at various colleges or universities throughout the world. Classes held prior to departure have to deal with many issues, from the mundane (i.e., school and visa applications, airline tickets, etc.) to cultural comparisons and learning goals. As with any course, how to utilize class time is of utmost importance. Thus, studies to discern which class activities were effective for best preparing departing SA students were undertaken. Students, upon completion of their EFL classes at their SA schools, answered surveys and then were interviewed. Students were mostly positive about interactions with previous SA students, and somewhat surprisingly, it seems that the very unimaginative act of filling out applications (e.g., course, home stay, or visa) was a useful task. These and other results are discussed in this paper.

The Reverberations of a Graduate Study Abroad Course in India

Faculty in a transdisciplinary graduate program in holistic health studies, which is grounded in transformational learning led a study abroad course in India. The focus of the course is on perspectives of health and healing in India, including an understanding of Yoga, meditation, Ayurvedic medicine, and Tibetan medicine. The purpose of this phenomenological research is to describe the experiences of 13 holistic health studies graduate students who participated in this graduate study abroad course. Qualitative data were collected from students at the time of application to the course, 1 month after returning from India, and 1 year later. In addition, student applications, posttrip reflection papers, photographs, notes taken by faculty at a 1-year reunion, and results of an electronic survey were used as data. Results suggest that students experienced “mind, body and spirit” transformations with reverberations on personal, community, and global levels.

There and Back Again: Fostering Undergraduate Research in Insect Biology Within a Study-Abroad Framework

Liberal arts colleges often afford a unique teaching and learning environment where pedagogical innovation is not only embraced by the academic community, but typically incentivized, nurtured, and celebrated. Undergraduate students often choose a liberal arts college over other academic models due to the small average class sizes, the opportunity to enroll in interdisciplinary courses, support for pursuing multiple unrelated majors, participation in extracurricular organizations, opportunities for involvement in research, and participation in study-abroad programming. As an entomologist or insect biologist interested in a rewarding teaching career, and considering a position at a liberal arts college, you might expect to become involved in many, if not all, of the above at one point or another during your tenure. Of special interest to those of us fascinated with the amazing biology of insects, however, is the opportunity to develop and teach entomological or insect-biology-themed study-abroad courses. Student participation in study-abroad programming has increased in past decades (Carlson 1990), and is nearly ubiquitous at liberal arts colleges, where close to 50% of all undergraduates enroll in some form of study-abroad course. Nearly half of these experiences occur in short-term study-abroad settings (less than a semester; Donnelly-Smith 2009), a course duration especially conducive to the integration of project-based or course-based research projects in entomology, and more logistically tractable for most faculty. For an entomologist balancing the liberal arts college demands of a heavy teaching load with the desire to maintain a research agenda, a study-abroad course to an international field study site may provide the platform for integration of both. Moreover, students that choose to enroll in the course may represent a distinctive demography from that likely to enroll in a traditional …

Does Content Matter? Analyzing the Change in Global Awareness Between Business- and Nonbusiness-Focused Short-Term Study Abroad Courses

Business schools have long sought to increase students’ global awareness. Short-term study abroad (STSA) experiences are becoming increasingly popular ways of generating awareness. While a handful of studies have found evidence of efficacy, none have specifically tested how courses with business content differ from other STSAs. Using a longitudinal data set, we find that all courses, regardless of content, increase students’ general awareness, awareness of global interdependence, and language exposure. However, for students with lower levels of global awareness to start with, business programs appear to be more effective in imparting awareness of global interdependence than nonbusiness programs.

Development of a Study Abroad Course

Development of a Study Abroad Course

Teaching Expatriate Adaptation While Dealing With Reality: The Impact of a Tragedy on the Study-Abroad Experience

This paper explores the relevance of the accepted U-shaped models of expatriate adaptation to students engaged in an international educational experience when they are faced with a tragedy. In this study-abroad course, an examination of the existing adaptation models and how they provide a set of expectations for the process of cultural adjustment is presented as course material. During a particular four-week summer program, one of the nineteen students who went abroad died in an accident at the end of the first week. It became clear after the tragedy that the models studied failed to explain the impact of a personal tragedy of this magnitude on the students’ adjustment process. This unfortunate event provided an opportunity to conduct a quasi-experiment to consider the impact of personal tragedy for students to question a body of research through their own personal experience and for scholars to re-examine and update the existing models.