This research study examined the long-term effects of a professional development study tour to Southeast Asia that took place in 2001. Participants included ten public school teachers from Western Massachusetts, which has a significant population of people of Vietnamese and Cambodian descent. Funded by a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant, the purpose of the study tour was to increase teacher awareness, knowledge and understanding of contemporary Southeast Asia so that they could more effectively address the educational needs of students representing diverse cultural backgrounds, particularly immigrant and refugee youth, through the development of culturally relevant curricula and lesson plans. From 2007 to 2009, this researcher conducted a series of phenomenological interviews with nine of the original participants to investigate more deeply how their personal and professional lives were impacted by the study tour experience. The decision to interview using a phenomenological approach was based on the belief that in order to more fully understand how and why individuals constructed meaning(s) from certain experiences, it was essential to have some contextual knowledge of that person's life, including those formative episodes that helped establish their original worldview. Analysis of study tour impact areas revealed areas of personal and professional growth particularly as it pertained to the development of sociocultural consciousness, cultural understanding, sensitivity and empathy towards students of diverse cultural backgrounds. Another finding was that the experience of being an "outsider" in another country provided the context for teachers to explore and critically reflect on issues related to their own social and cultural identities. Further analyses revealed that the overall impact of the study tour varied based on the participant's prior intercultural and life experiences. Participants with less experience and practical knowledge of issues of multiculturalism and identity were more likely than their counterparts to come away from the experience with more profound changes to their worldview. This study is theoretically grounded with research in multicultural education, experiential education, transformative learning, global education and study abroad.

Study abroad has received much attention as an effective educational practice in today’s globalized world, and a wide range of skills, attitudes, and knowledge has been recognized as potential learning outcomes resulting from it. Accordingly, in the context of higher education, international students’ learning experiences have been understood in terms of measurable outcomes. Outcome-oriented understanding, however, has put international students’ learning experiences into a binary category of successful or failed learning experiences, based on whether they learned what they were supposed to learn during study abroad. This study takes a critical stance that binary understanding of student learning during study abroad fails to grasp the uniqueness and complexity of each international student’s learning experiences and aims to go beyond binaries to provide a more nuanced understanding of them. Through autobiographical narrative interviews, five students’ narratives about their learning experiences during study abroad were collected. The five students were graduate students studying in Sweden, which represent an under-researched group in the previous literature. Their narratives were comparatively analyzed using thematic narrative analysis, from the perspective of existential learning theory. The results demonstrated the uniqueness of the five international students’ learning experiences, by showing that they experienced existential learning with different dimensions of their existence and in different settings, including formal and informal settings. The results also highlighted the complexity of their learning processes, where each student sought to learn in a way in which the new values, beliefs, or knowledge that they encountered could be consistently integrated into their own biographies. This study shed new light on international students’ learning experiences, highlighting the uniqueness and complexity of them from the perspective of existential learning theory.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This study investigates how Korean Parachute Kids perform academically in their schools and what social factors contribute to Korean Parachute Kids' academic performance. Korean children who came to the U.S. for educational purposes without their parental supervision are called `Korean Parachute Kids'. They have several characteristics: most of them come from high SES families, their parents have high expectations of their children and force them to go to the U.S., Korean Parachute Kids are pressured to attend Ivy League colleges, and their parents tend to compensate for their absence with money or presents. Korean Parachute Kids who come to the United States without their parents encounter many problems, both academically and socially. Many Korean Parachute Kids struggle to adjust and face academic failure due to language barriers, cultural differences, and the different curricula in the U.S. This failure occurs even though acquiring an education is the reason for Korean Parachute Kids' stay in the U.S. and is what their parents have invested exorbitant amounts of money. In light of the absence of their parents, many Korean Parachute Kids' behaviors go unchecked, which may, in turn, cause these children to be maladjusted in many aspects of their school lives. Korean parents' high expectation for their children's academic success is regarded as one of the factors that cause their children to misbehave. Research is needed in order to inform Korean parents and Korean and U.S. society about the academic and social implications of early study abroad for Korean children. Guidelines should also be provided in order for Korean parents to discern what the good and bad aspects of early study abroad in the U.S. are for their children. This research will also be beneficial to educators in America in that they will be aware of Korean Parachute Kids' academic and social difficulties in school since the number of Korean Parachute kids who study in the U.S. continues to increase. / Urban Education

The study abroad field has progressed into an innovative and exciting stage given the high- rise of interest throughout the last twenty years. Study abroad is not showing signs of losing momentum concerning student interest or academic research. Numerous variables affect the direction the field is heading. This study intends to illuminate some of those variables through classifying study abroad results. This research study is part of the 21st century phenomena regarding increased travel through study abroad programs. It investigates the results of U.S. students’ study abroad experiences in Spain and Australia, through identifying aspects of the knowledge outcomes, changes in perspective, and the social, professional, and personal implications on a U.S. student after returning home from such an endeavor. It is critical to recognize and comprehend student results from the study abroad perspective to provide higher education institutions, study abroad companies, educators, students, and researchers with a contextual, first-hand encounter through the eyes of the student. This student analysis provides a greater framework for various stakeholders to continue the promotion of studying abroad, while enriching study abroad programs, and to continue the provision of breadth of opportunity for upcoming students interested.

Presumtiva studenter finns på sociala medier och det viktigt att högskolor/universitet använder sig av strategisk och effektiv kommunikation för att påverka utfallet av hur många och vilka studenter som söker sig till skolan. Vi tagit reda på vilka budskap som Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan och Chalmers Tekniska Högskola kommunicerar ut via deras Facebooksidor med hjälp av ett analysverktyg som är baserat på studenters rationella och emotionella aspekter när de söker utbildning utomlands. Vi har också undersökt var de är lika och olika i sin kommunikation genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Vi har använt oss av Angulo’s personlighetsteorier, Costumer Relationship Marketing-teorin och Sökbeteende på internet för att hitta ett resultat. Resultatet på totalt 16 analysenheter visar att KTH bland annat sänder ut budskap om att ha kul, trygghet, skapa en bra karriär och att det är vackert i Stockholm. Chalmers inlägg är kortare och de är mer fokuserade på kvalité och personliga mål än emotionella aspekter för att övertyga studenten. / Prospective students are using social media to find information about higher education. It is important for universities to use an effective communication to affect the outcome of how many and what kind of students that apply for the specific school. With an analyzing tool that is based on student’s rational and emotional aspects when they apply for a university, we found what messages that KTH and Chalmers communicate through their Facebook pages. We have also looked at where they are similar and different in their communication. We have used Angulo’s Personality Theory, Costumer Relationship Management and Searching behavior in internet to find a result. The result from a total of 16 analysis units shows that KTH is sending out messages about having fun, social security, career prospects and that it is beautiful in Sweden and at KTH. This is communicated through stories from students. Chalmers publications are shorter and more focused on quality and personal goals then any emotional factors to persuade students.

Increasingly, government and educational institutions are turning to study abroad programs as one of the primary means of providing students with important cross-cultural and linguistic skills. However, because of constraints on time and financial resources most students participate in short term programs lasting approximately two months. Additionally, research regarding students’ linguistic and cultural growth in study abroad shows that some students gain far more from their participation than others. The purpose of this study was to examine the cultural and linguistic learning that takes place in short-term programs and discover some of the factors that predict students’ growth while abroad. This study examined the relationship between important factors such as students’ level of cultural sensitivity, students’ relationship with their host family, motivation to learn the language, the amount of time students’ spent interacting with native speakers, as well as students’ oral language skills during a seven-week study abroad program. Surveys were used to measure each of the variables except for students’ oral language skills. To measure changes in oral skills, the researcher created an innovative instrument in which native speakers rated clips of student speech in the target language from before and after their time abroad. As found in previous research, students varied greatly in the amount of progress made in oral language skills and cultural sensitivity while abroad. However, students generally demonstrated small, but significant improvements in their oral language skills, despite the brief nature of their program. Further, the instrument created to measure growth in oral language skills showed high reliability. Interestingly, students’ level of cultural sensitivity prior to going abroad predicted changes in oral language skills. These results provide support for students’ participation in short-term study abroad programs since students generally experience noticeable improvements in language skills. They also suggest that students who are more culturally sensitive may have an advantage in language learning during study abroad programs. These results could be helpful for administrators in determining who may benefit most from such programs and may suggest that helping students gain cultural sensitivity could also aid students’ language learning. / text

This study used a quasi-experimental design with 1,237 students to investigate the association between participation in a study-abroad program and persistence at a liberal arts university. The theoretical basis for the study was Tinto's Theory of Individual Departure. The independent variable of interest, also known as the treatment, was participation in the University of Dallas Rome Program during the sophomore year. The control group consisted of students who were qualified to participate in the Rome Program, but chose not to do so. The dependent variable was the number of fall and spring semesters enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Dallas post-treatment through spring 2003. Nine variables that measured background characteristics, academic integration, and social integration explained 3.8% of the variation in number of semesters enrolled post-treatment. Participation in the Rome Program explained an additional 4.2%. In all of the statistical measures examined in this study (incremental increase in R2, b weights, adjusted β weights, and structure coefficients), there was evidence of an important positive association between participation in the Rome Program and persistence. Based on the b weight in the regression equation, holding all other variables constant, students who participated in the Rome Program persisted on average .83 semesters longer post-treatment at the University of Dallas than those who did not go to Rome. Of the 1,007 students in this study who went to Rome, 96% were enrolled at the University of Dallas one semester after Rome participation and 91% were still enrolled after two semesters. This compared to 80% and 72%, respectively, for the 230 students in the control group. Of the 674 students in the study who went to Rome and had the opportunity to graduate within 4 years, 79% graduated within 4 years. This compared to 51% for the 123 students in the control group. Persistence during and after the sophomore year was not associated to the same extent with pre-entry background characteristics, academic integration, and social integration as was persistence from freshman to sophomore year.