The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between undergraduate student performance on an information literacy assessment activity and their performance in global learning assessment activities for three global learning outcomes: global awareness, global perspective, and global engagement. Global learning is the process whereby people from varied backgrounds collaboratively analyze and seek solutions for complex problems that go beyond borders. Important components of global learning are the acquisition, analysis and use of information, relating to complex problems which may include, but are not limited to, poverty, environmental protection and food security. These components of global learning are analogous to information literacy, which represents skills that students apply to recognize, access, evaluate, and use information for decision making. Students enrolled in global learning courses, at Florida International University, participated in this investigation during the fall of 2016. Data from an 18-question information literacy assessment survey, and results of three global learning assessment activities were collected. Instructors teaching the global learning courses scored the global learning assessment activities. Information literacy and global learning data for 43 students were analyzed using multiple regression correlation methods. Research findings indicate no significant relationship between information literacy and the three global learning outcomes: global awareness, perspective and engagement. Descriptive data analysis show that over 79% (n=34) of participants reported having never received information literacy instruction from a librarian. Curricular implications include exploring opportunities for exposing students in global learning courses to information literacy processes either by adding information literacy to the general education core curriculum or by integrating information literacy into these courses. Recommendations for future research include replicating this study with a larger sample of students and conducting a study involving an information literacy intervention with pre- and post-test components.

The role of national education systems is changing, and many drivers of this phenomenon have been identified (Green, 1997). On the one side, there is a growing convergence in global education policy developments given by globalisation processes, on the other side, a political and ideological discourse has spread that promotes education as essential to the achievement of a model of economic productivity and competitiveness (Ball, 2013). The current research aims to shed light not only on the degree to which national education policy in the last two decades have been influenced by this movement, referred to as the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) by Sahlberg (2016), but also on its possible consequences on equity. In order to do so, three western and European countries have been chosen: England, Sweden, and Italy. Through a mixed-method approach, in which the analysis of policy reforms is combined with PISA secondary data, each country’s specific political landscape and variation in socio-economic inequalities in the period between 2000 and 2020 is discussed. The final comparison between the countries allows seeing that even if all three countries present features of the GERM in the policy reforms enacted from the 2000s on, the consequences on equity are ambiguous. While the three countries present divergent trends both in PISA results and indicators of socio-economic inequalities, one common phenomenon worth deepening considering the increasing focus on standards is the steep increment in scores’ variation.

This research project had the following goals: 1) To locate, describe, and synthesize recognized authoritative standards of performance and guiding principles of effective good practice for study abroad programs that have been established, endorsed, and supported by professionals and national organizations in the study abroad field. 2) To review selected literature on intercultural communication that has been published in the last fifteen years and examine intercultural communication theories and strategies applicable to the study abroad field to identify aspects which can most clearly benefit the study abroad experience of a sojourner through improved communication competence. 3) To assess the extent to which study abroad institutions or programs are operating according to the principles and standards of good practice specified by the professionals and national organizations in the study abroad field, and to discover how important study abroad program administrators feel these principles and standards are for their programs. 4) To assess the degree to which study abroad institutions or programs are incorporating relevant intercultural communication training into their study programs abroad.

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This project provides research and insight towards expanding the ETSU at Rome Program into a larger multidisciplinary study abroad program. The program's goal is to evolve from its presummer session with a one-course offering curriculum into a multidisciplinary, multicourse study abroad program for both the presummer session and entire summer session. Research and analysis have been conducted to discover best practices for study abroad programs in surrounding institutions. Additionally, in expansion upon existing efforts, this research helps seek out partnerships and collaborations within the institution and outside the institution. Professors from numerous departments throughout ETSU have been interviewed regarding their position and views of study abroad programs for students within their departments. Data have also been gathered to help better understand the potential and existing funding opportunities in a study abroad program. Additionally, other opportunities for growth and expansion and the challenges associated with these have been studied.

This research shows that the expansion of cooperative education programs and university-industry partnerships can help to address some of the problems that engineering education in Armenia is facing today. These problems include lack of connections between universities and industry, outdated curricula, shortages of funding for university staff and facilities, and limited success in helping students qualify for job-related demands of the global economy. In order to identify requirements for developing effective cooperative education programs in Armenia, this study analyzes the characteristics and features of highly successful cooperative education programs in the United States that might be applicable to the requirements of Armenian engineering education programs. The lessons learned from international best practices of cooperative education in this research, provide guidelines that can be used to expand cooperative education programs in Armenian engineering education.

The author spent four years in Latin America--almost three of those years in Maracaibo, Venezuela (1962-1965). As a Student Affairs Grantee with the United States Information Agency and working out of the cultural America House, it was his duty to know the university scene, and especially its student leaders. Among other duties were the teaching and organizing of English classes within the university and assisting the American Embassy by providing student leaders to conference where prominent North American and Venezuelan educators would speak and offer an exchange of ideas regarding the contemporary university scene. During that time it was his pleasure to become acquainted with the Director of the Planning Commission and Dean of the School of Architecture, Dr. Miguel Casas Armengol, and his assistant, Dr. Alberto Mendoza, whose unyielding efforts served as an inspiration and impetus for this thesis.

The intent of this thesis is to study the diverse experiences of 13 University of Central Florida students who participated in the Bilingual Study Abroad Teaching Experience in Spain. The group included nine education students and four in other majors. The experiences of study abroad participants can help to better understand what future participants can look to gain from the program, and what the organizers of the program can potentially look to improve. The research involved was a qualitative study which sought to record the experiences of participants, and then interpret those experiences. The participants were asked to determine the benefits of the program across three dimensions: academic, professional, and personal. This was accomplished through Likert scale questions which gauged their opinions, and by reflecting on their experiences in a more open-ended way, writing broadly about the impact of the program. In analyzing the responses, connections were drawn between the quantitative data in the Likert scale questions, and the qualitative data in the open responses. It was found that as a whole, participants considered the study abroad experience to be overwhelmingly positive across all surveyed dimensions. In addition, a number of connections were found that could be drawn between the broad experiences of the participants, and specific benefits which they noted in the survey. A number of unique experiences and circumstances will be considered, both positive and negative. Finally, the conclusions and implications of the study will be discussed. Recommendations are included in regard to future participants can expect to gain, potential areas of improvement in the program, and things which should be included in the orientation for future participants in the bilingual teaching experience.

Malaysians’ journeys to pursue graduate education in the U.S. generate more than just degree attainment. This dissertation looks at how experiences in the U.S., both in graduate school and in the workplace, influenced highly educated Malaysians, especially in their exploration of push and pull factors that influence their decisions to remain in the U.S. or to return to Malaysia. This study focuses on twenty-two participants comprised of those who have returned to Malaysia, those who are working in the U.S. on non-immigrant visas, those who became Permanent Residents and those who are naturalized U.S. citizens. The first major finding demonstrates that decisional turning points emerged mainly based upon national policies and employment opportunities prompted by the high demand for talented human capital. Such turning points are crucial telling moments of when individuals make decisions. The second major finding is that push and pull factors -- which include economic conditions and opportunities, quality of life, social justice and freedom perspectives, as well as social network/ social capital -- are assessed through the comparative views acquired between living in Malaysia and in the U.S. The third major finding is that the challenges and experiences participants encountered in the U.S. prompted the formation of transnationalism, wherein their identities, behaviors and values are not limited by the location in which they live. They use a dual frame of reference to evaluate their experiences in the U.S. and the continuous relationships with their family and communities in Malaysia. Understanding the notion of transnationalism in the process of individuals’ decision making could help states develop policies that promote brain circulation. Policies that support this global mobility of the highly educated and skilled workforce would not just benefit those nations that send and receive students for higher education enrollment. Because 1) the knowledge economy demands the global flow of highly educated workers and 2) people who study transnationally develop a flexible sense of identity and location, policies that enable international mobility for brain circulation are significant for all nations.

One of the major debates regarding studying abroad concerns criticism that it lacks measurable and demonstrable learning outcomes and is usually viewed as less rigorous than other university courses (McKeown 2009). As one Western Kentucky University (WKU) faculty member noted when responding to the Faculty Attitudes Survey deployed for this project, all too often “too many study abroad experiences [are] little more than glorified fieldtrips.....” (Anonymous WKU Faculty Member, 2009, Appendix IV). While this may be the case, upon their return to the United States, students often say their study abroad experience proved life changing. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze students’ acquisition of geographic knowledge as a result of their engagement in a study abroad course regardless of their major academic discipline, with a secondary objective of creating baseline data for future research on the effects of study abroad for students at WKU. The analysis summarizes what geographic literacy (geo-literacy) is and how it relates to study abroad. The research also presents trends about education abroad on a national, state, and university level. Additionally, general attitudes about study abroad from University Experience (generally first-year) students at WKU are discussed. Also analyzed is the geographic knowledge gained by students, using the National Geography Standards of 1994, with evidence of attitudes and literacy collected using surveys, focus groups, and a cultural assessment tool called the Global Competence Aptitude Assessment – Young Adult version (GCAA-YA). Throughout the study, students showed signs of being geographically informed measured against the National Geography Standards of 1994; however, as illustrated by the GCAA-YA, both students who had studied abroad and those who had not, scored in the underdeveloped or developing range of global competence (with students who had studied abroad scoring higher in all components of the assessment). Students who participated in various research projects for this thesis had completed their education abroad course within 12 months or less before participating in any of the research. It is generally accepted that study abroad can improve students’ geo-literacy. Concrete evidence of immediate improvement in geographic literacy was not obtained from this research, suggesting that the short-term implications of a study abroad experience could not be precisely articulated by the students or captured by the researcher. Further, the research suggests that improvements are only marginal and cannot really be measured successfully until many years after students’ graduation. What was discovered is that students who studied abroad, almost without exception, exhibited that their minds were opened to the world around them and that a desire for further learning was clear. The results suggest that further research on the effects of education abroad is needed, using the baseline data collected during the 2009-2010 academic year at WKU.