International education has been a growing trend globally over the past thirty years. Since the late 1980s, the popularity of study abroad programme amongst Japanese students has also seen a significant increase following the international education trend. A more recent trend in international education has been the development of shorter term study abroad programmes and the value of these programmes has been widely recognised in Japan. In response to Japanese government initiatives, Japanese secondary schools have developed short-term programmes in order to develop students’ international awareness. As a result, a large number of Japanese high school students have participated in a short-term study abroad programme in the last 20 years. Japan and New Zealand have a long history of sister school relationships. By 2012, 191 Japanese high schools had established sister school relationships, and these school links have provided the impetus for exchange programmes; which means that many Japanese high school students visit New Zealand schools to study in short-term programmes (for less than 3 months) or longer. Several scholars have investigated the learners’ outcomes of the short-term study abroad of university students. From their studies, it has been established that the main learning objectives of study abroad programmes, are second language acquisition, intercultural competence and personal development. However, little is yet known about the outcomes of younger students who have participated in short-term programmes; only a few attempts have so far been made to analyse the case of Japanese secondary school students’ short-term programmes, and few still refer specifically to programmes in New Zealand. One of my main objectives was to determine a) what were the objectives of Japanese secondary students to participation in a short-term study abroad programme in New Zealand, b) whether they feel satisfied that their objectives have been. Also, as other researchers mentioned, could benefits such as second language acquisition, intercultural competence and personal development be claimed by secondary schools participating in these programmes – specifically the Darfield High School short-term programme that is my case study. In order to do this, I conducted two surveys with four different groups of Japanese secondary school students who visited Darfield High School from 2009 to 2012 as a case study. The findings suggest that many Japanese secondary school students expected to improve their English conversation skills, but they did not feel much improvement in this area after the programme, however, upon reflection, after the programme, students recognised that they had gained far more than they had expected in a general sense. For example, many participants expected to learn about some of the aspects of New Zealand culture as a result of the programme and indeed many students felt that they accomplished this objective, in addition to learning more about their own culture. It is anticipated that the results of my research will assist those who organise study abroad programmes, assist students to maximise their learning, and benefit organisations who host students from overseas.

<p>Agriculturalists, educators, students, and professionals alike, function in a global industry. In order to work effectively and efficiently to meet industry goals and address challenges, possession of a specific skillset is necessary. This skillset includes the skill of intercultural competence. The objective of Chapter 2 was to assess students’ intercultural competence development following participation in an embedded study abroad program. This program included students studying food security and environmental challenges who were also engaged in intercultural learning activities before, during, and after a 9-day trip through Vietnam. Results showed an average increase in students’ Developmental Orientation (DO) on the Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC) of 13.68 points through their participation in the course (p < .05). This positive growth indicates that on average, student participants increased their intercultural competence throughout the semester program. </p> <p> Chapter 3 describes results of a study conducted using the same group of participants of the embedded study abroad program to Vietnam. The objective of this study was to assess the beliefs, events, and values of student participants at the beginning of the semester and following completion of the semester course using the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory (BEVI). Additionally, it was an objective to explore any changes that occurred throughout the duration of the 16-week course. Results from this study revealed little progression on scales related to course outcomes, unintended meaningful changes in scales unrelated to course outcomes, and variations between subgroups (gender and ethnic). These data suggest that the curriculum as delivered requires revision in order to support individual student needs and further development of formative assessment emphasizing emotional and attitudinal dimensions, in addition to discipline content, of student experiences during a study abroad program. </p> <p> Chapter 4 describes the intercultural competence development of the Cooperative Extension Educators who served as mentors to the undergraduate participants in the embedded study abroad program to Vietnam discussed in Chapters 2 and 3. Results from this study indicated that there was an overall decrease in Extension Educators’ DO of 8.0 points. Though this decrease was evident, only 2 of the 5 Educators decreased meaningfully on the IDC according to IDI instrumentation. Further analysis of quantitative and qualitative data revealed professional development benefits, such as developing new perspectives and connecting with undergraduate students, of the student-mentor relationship for the Educators. </p> <p> Chapter 5 describes results from a study conducted in a combined learning community/short-term study abroad program restricted to incoming and current first-year students studying food production in Italy. The objective was to assess student intercultural competence development pre- and post-participation in the program that had incorporated intercultural learning activities both during and throughout the course following the study abroad. Results revealed that 42% of students advanced on the IDC and 26% progressed into a new stage on the IDC. Overall group growth was not statistically significant at a gain of 4.1 points on the IDC. This indicates that participating in the program did not significantly increase students’ intercultural competence. </p> <p> Data in this thesis support that intercultural competence has the potential to be developed in short-term study abroad programs with the implementation of intercultural intervention. However, literature indicates that destination, duration, stage of development, and incoming participant worldviews influence outcomes in the development of intercultural competence. Emphasis on participant stage development on the IDC and preparedness for meeting course learning outcomes should be taken into consideration by study abroad leaders when constructing program design. </p>

This qualitative study examined seven Korean students' language and culture learning experiences in a study abroad context. The purpose of this study is to gain insight about the processes of students' social interactions and development of communicative competence outside the classroom. My understanding and learning was guided by the framework of various communicative competence models, interactional practices, sociocultural theory, and cultural learning processes. The findings of the study show that participation in outside-the-classroom interactions enhances students' language and culture learning in study abroad situations. However, living or working with native speakers did not necessarily mean that there were meaningful interactions. Social interaction with native speakers was challenging for language learners because of the cultural distances, discontinuity, and conflicts between them. Despite the difficulties in social and cultural interactions in the target culture, active participation in social interactions was still an important factor in language and culture learning. Verbalizing cultural issues such as cultural differences, misunderstandings, and observations of the target culture was an indication of the learners' cultural awareness and development. Students believed that knowledge of grammar was an important factor for successful communication. At the same time, students were anxious about misunderstandings and miscommunication. I found that students easily engaged in interactions with their international peers, and these were less stressful than interactions with native speakers. This peer interaction eventually created opportunities for language learning. Students expected native speakers to correct their errors and to take roles as teachers of the target language even outside the classroom, but they also learned to initiate self-repairs and to ask for help. Engagement is the key to making a good conversation. The underlying condition for engagement is negotiation between two interlocutors to understand meanings. / Ph. D.

Cross-cultural knowledge and intercultural competence are highly valued qualities for 21st-century American college and university graduates, as these institutions endeavor to prepare students to live and work in an increasingly multicultural society. This task offers both a challenge and an opportunity for educators to design mechanisms to increase the global awareness and intercultural development of their student participants. The challenge is to create intentional learning experiences that avoid the pitfalls of perpetuating stereotypes and reproducing inequitable social relations. Faculty-led international travel courses provide an opportunity for program leaders to develop intercultural development curricula that are ethical, engaging, economically and environmentally sustainable, and pedagogically sound. This study examined how participants in a faculty-led short-term global service-learning course to Belize experienced and perceived cultural difference and how that professor attended to and sought to address cultural difference and issues of power, positionality, and privilege during that program. This study followed a convergent parallel mixed method design in which I collected and analyzed qualitative and quantitative data concurrently. This combination of methods yielded a more complete understanding of the learning process and intercultural learning outcomes of the student participants, as well as the pedagogical and programmatic features that encouraged the growth of intercultural competencies in each. The quantitative findings of this study indicated little change in the competency levels of the program's participants, whereas the qualitative data suggested that the Belize travel course students had experienced notable gains in cultural self-awareness and were better able to identify relevant cultural differences. Participants singled-out the immersive quality of the experience, the variety and multiple points of intercultural contact the program offered, relationships with the faculty leader, peers, and host community members, and the compassionate leadership of the faculty leader as critical factors in their intercultural growth. I found that emotions, cognitive dissonance, and critical reflection play key roles in the intercultural learning process. / Doctor of Philosophy / American society is becoming more diverse and ever more integrated with nations across the world. College graduates need to have the knowledge and skills to live and work with people from different backgrounds. Universities can prepare students better for this reality by helping them learn how to communicate and behave appropriately with people who are culturally different. One way to encourage this capacity, called intercultural competence, is for students to participate in courses that occur outside of the United States. To secure the possibility for personal and intellectual growth, it is important that professors who take students abroad carefully plan their courses. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether a group of students who went to Belize with a professor for a short service-oriented course returned with more knowledge about that country's culture and improved intercultural competence. I tested program participants before they left and after they returned to see if their intercultural competence improved. I also interviewed the students about what their experience was like and how their professor had prepared them and helped them to learn. I also talked with the program's faculty leader to determine why she had designed the course in the way that she did and whether she perceived that participating students had improved their intercultural competence. I learned several things from this research. First, the tests that students completed showed that there was not much difference in their before and after intercultural competence scores. Second, however, when I talked with participants, they did seem to have changed from going on this travel course even if the test did not show that they had experienced much growth. The students indicated they had learned a lot about themselves and about the people of the town in Belize they visited. Participants suggested that they spent a lot of time with local residents and that doing so had helped them to understand them better. Third, those experiences helped them to think about their own culture and what it means to be an American. Fourth, students bonded with each other and with their professor. As individuals and as a group, they reported experiencing a variety of emotions in reaction to the things they observed and experienced. All of these, difficult or not, helped participants to grow personally and to develop a more robust awareness of how residents of another culture view and navigate their everyday lives.

This study analyzed the perceptions of University of Kentucky Dietetic and Human Nutrition students as they relate to the benefits and barriers of study abroad educational opportunities. The final sample consisted of 164 participants, with 18.9% (n=31) in the Coordinated Program in Dietetics (CP), 32.3% (n=53) in the Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD), 42.7% (n=70) in the Human Nutrition (HN) program and 5.5% (n=9) who identified their program as ‘other’. The primary barriers to participation in study abroad were cost and problems fitting education abroad into the current program of study. The primary benefits were identified as dietary and health knowledge acquisition, cultural knowledge acquisition and forming relationships with other students, professors and members of the host community. The information found in this study can be used in the design of study abroad programs for nutrition majors to make programs tailored to fit these students’ needs.

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Solicitud de envío manuscrito de artículo científico. / La educación superior ha sido impactada de gran manera por un mundo crecientemente interconectado y las demandas de empleadores por graduados con educación internacional, catalizando una tendencia de programas study-abroad de corta duración. A pesar de su crecimiento prominente y la expansión de su alcance, surgen desafíos clave porque la investigación sobre los aprendizajes de los estudiantes y la efectividad de estos programas aún se encuentra en etapas iniciales. Es fundamental entender los study-abroad como una variable cambiante, en donde el diseño del programa se relaciona con los aprendizajes del estudiante y las experiencias específicas de ajuste intercultural estén enmarcadas en su contexto. El Iacocca Global Village en Lehigh University (EE. UU.) fue elegido como estudio de caso. Los hallazgos muestran que se necesita una pedagogía intencional enfocada en resultados interculturales respaldada por tutorías continuas. Es importante tener una participación obligatoria en integración cultural y grupos de apoyo, la presión por el trabajo real y la responsabilidad es un requisito previo para dejar la zona de confort y fomentar los encuentros interculturales y que las redes de egresados ​​puedan contribuir a mantener el sentido de pertenencia desarrollado en el programa. / The increasingly interconnected world and the demands for internationally educated graduates have had a major impact on higher education and have catalyzed the trend of short-term studies abroad. Key challenges arise because, despite their prominent growth and the expansion of their reach, the research on student outcomes and program effectiveness is still in initial stages. It is essential to approach education abroad as a non-steady variable, where the program design is related to student learning gains and specific intercultural adjustment experiences, framed within their context. The Iacocca Global Village in Lehigh University (USA) was chosen as a case study. Findings show there is a need for intentional pedagogy focused on intercultural outcomes supported by ongoing mentoring it´s important to have mandatory involvement in cultural integration and support groups, pressure for real work and accountability is a prerequisite to leave the comfort zone and foster intercultural encounters and that alumni networks can contribute to maintain the sense of belonging developed in the program. / Tesis