ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Confirmed Beliefs or False Assumptions? A Study of Home Stay Experiences in the French Study Abroad Context
Author: Diao, Wenhao
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Achievement Tests,Research Projects,Standardized Tests,Syntax,Native Speakers,Phonology,Study Abroad,French,Language Proficiency,Scores,Oral Language,Language Tests,Language Fluency,Vocabulary Development,Comparative Analysis,Achievement Gains,Interpersonal Communication,Family Environment,Student Attitudes,Attitude Change,Second Language Learning

The past 20 years have witnessed enormous growth in a diverse array of studies which explore the linguistic impact of study abroad (SA) experiences. During this period a multitude of research projects have investigated SLA/L2 learning in SA, in a number of different languages (Russian, Japanese, French, Spanish, English), utilizing diverse analytic methodologies, addressing different skill modalities, all from various perspectives. While a number of research projects completed before 1990 used standardized tests to confirm the linguistic benefits of SA experiences, many studies of the early 1990s measured gain by using the global scores of the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Test (OPI). Subsequently, scholars recognized the limitations of results based solely on wholistic test scores and emphasized the need to examine precise areas of language growth for SA students. Such studies have focused on gains in oral fluency, syntax, vocabulary, phonology, sociolinguistic and pragmatic usage, and communicative strategies. As the field matured, researchers continued to compare language gain in SA versus At Home (AH) but also expanded their perspective by beginning to examine the very nature of the immersion experience itself. Research of this type has explored more closely the kinds of opportunities students have for interacting with native speaker (NS) interlocutors and the qualities of such interactions, qualities of the home stay (HS) experience, student beliefs, attitudes and evaluations and how these affected learning. What has emerged from what might be called the second generation of SA research is the questioning of some of the most long-standing beliefs about the SA experience itself. In brief, doubt has been cast on a number of prevalent, if sometimes undocumented, assumptions associated with living and learning abroad. These include: (1) Linguistic development benefits from L2 learning in the SA context; (2) The belief that the amount and frequency of contact that students have with NS will increase their language gain; (3) SA assures immersion experiences for students; and (4) HS is the richest and most important source of L2 learning for SA students. It is the last of these areas that motivates this study. In brief, this study collects robust data and explores, in greater depth, specific aspects of the HS experience, the attitudes of student participants in these settings and how these feelings and attitudes change in the course of a semester, for individuals and for a collective group. (Contains 8 tables, 2 figures and 2 notes.)
A Necessary Partnership: Study Abroad and Sustainability in Higher Education
Author: Dvorak, Andrea M. W.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Higher Education,Foreign Countries,Sustainable Development,Case Studies,International Education,Study Abroad,Sustainability,Energy Conservation,Climate,Politics,Educational Opportunities,Comparative Analysis,Urban Areas,Partnerships in Education,Conservation (Environment),Educational Strategies,College Faculty,Administrators

The last two decades have seen institutions of higher education put increasing emphasis on both internationalizing their institutions and making them more sustainable. While laudable in their own right, there are contradictions and tensions between these goals, in particular when the carbon emissions involved in international activities like study abroad are considered. But there is also potential synergy between these goals. In this article, the authors explore two case studies of programs abroad that seriously engaged both the contradictions and opportunities inherent in the idea of sustainable international education. The first examines environmental politics and ecology in New Zealand and the Cook Islands and the second compares sustainable urban practices in Canada and the United States. Based on the lessons learned from these case studies, the authors argue that partnership between internationalization and sustainability efforts is necessary to help institutions of higher learning become both global and &quot;green.&quot; To that effect, the authors discuss specific and concrete ways to &quot;green&quot; study abroad courses throughout this article, particularly within the two case studies and in their concluding discussion of strategies for international educators, faculty, and higher education administrators. (Contains 2 notes.)
Host Language Proficiency, Intercultural Sensitivity, and Study Abroad
Author: Jackson, Jane
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Intercultural Communication,Second Language Learning,Language Proficiency,Family Environment,Communicative Competence (Languages),Linguistic Competence,Study Abroad,Cultural Awareness,Case Studies,College Students,Asians,Student Attitudes,English (Second Language),Majors (Students)

The number of foreign language students who join study abroad programs continues to increase annually, especially those who take part in short-term sojourns lasting eight weeks or less. What can be accomplished in such a short stay in the host culture? Is it possible for sojourners to enhance their proficiency in the host language and simultaneously develop their ability to communicate appropriately in intercultural encounters in the host culture? Does the developmental sequence of intercultural competence parallel that of linguistic competence, as suggested by Bennett, Bennett &amp; Allen (2003)? What steps can be taken to maximize the language &quot;and&quot; cultural learning of short-term sojourners? This article focuses on a case study of advanced foreign language students who took part in a short-term study abroad program. By examining their journeys, from their home environment to the host culture and back again, one gains a deeper understanding of the development of their intercultural communicative competence. In the process, the linkage between linguistic and intercultural development is problematized. While the participants were Hong Kong university students who sojourned in England, elements of their stories should reach across ethnic, linguistic, and geographic lines and resonate with foreign language learners in other parts of the world. (Contains 1 table.)
Internationalizing Social Work Education: Models, Methods and Meanings
Author: Merrill, Martha C.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Cultural Differences,Social Work,Department Heads,Foreign Students,Cultural Awareness,Intercultural Communication,Counselor Training,Certification,International Education,Study Abroad,Field Experience Programs,Student Placement

International and intercultural learning requires flexibility, openness, and a willingness to adjust--on the part of the school as well as the student. Yet in social work, as in other professions requiring licensure and preparing professionals to work with vulnerable populations, flexibility is not simply a matter of convincing a department head or registrar to substitute one course for another or to waive a requirement. Becoming a professional social worker requires meeting a set of mandated requirements in a way that becoming a historian or a sociologist does not. Although social workers are encountering increasing amounts of social and cultural difference in their daily practice, certification in the profession nevertheless does--and should--require a known set of competencies and skills. How, then, are social work students to have international and intercultural experiences, without extending the length of their training? In order to understand the options that are available for internationalizing social work education, and, in particular, internationalizing its field work placements through education abroad, one first must examine the requirements of the field in the U.S., definitions of international social work, and the rationales that have been advanced for internationalizing the field. The models for international student learning that have been proposed and practiced--the prescriptive and the descriptive--need to be reviewed and their plusses and minuses weighed. New options can be considered when the existing situation is known. (Contains 2 endnotes.)
Curricular and Extra-Curricular Programs Supporting Improved International Learning Mobility Experiences: An Emerging Trend in Australia
Author: Molony, John
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Program Development,Foreign Countries,Scholarships,Labor Force Development,Strategic Planning,Federal Government,Student Mobility,Competition,Cultural Awareness,Universities,Travel,Grants,International Education,Foreign Students,Social Integration,Study Abroad

International learning mobility is a strategic and operational priority for both the federal government and the majority of universities in Australia. Dating back over a decade, successive governments have stressed the public good to be derived from having an increased proportion of students participating in mobility programs. It is seen as contributing to the nation's competitiveness through a more globally competent cohort and a more globally engaged higher education sector. Strategic planning among universities with very few exceptions makes specific or indirect reference to the importance of learning mobility and both government and institutions have continued to invest in growing the program. This investment has included significant annual increases in scholarships and travel grants that act as a critical catalyst in getting the students mobile as well as adding the administration required to support a growing program. In this positive environment students have taken up the option in increasing numbers to the point where Australian is now no longer a laggard in learning mobility and it can be compared with participation levels in the US and Europe. In this article, planning and promotional documents from five global leadership programs are reviewed to identify the motivations behind the establishment of this new wave of programs. The common motivations of the programs--to increase participation in learning mobility programs, to improve students' global and inter-cultural competence, to prepare students to compete in global labor markets, to better induct students to new cultures, to support internationalization of the campus and the curriculum, and to encourage greater integration of domestic and international students--can all be seen as aspiring to improve the international learning mobility experience for students. (Contains 2 tables.)
Meta-Travel: A Critical Inquiry into a China Study Tour
Author: Riggan, Jennifer
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Cultural Differences,Foreign Countries,Graduate Students,Study Abroad,Travel,Undergraduate Students,Cultural Awareness,Program Effectiveness,World Views,Stereotypes,Reflection,Student Attitudes,Attitude Change,Role,Guidelines

Short-term study tours are among the fastest growing of study abroad experiences and serve the largest percentage of students choosing to study abroad. Fifty-six percent of students studying abroad go on short-term study trips lasting anywhere from two to eight weeks. These trips have the advantage of being able to provide study travel experiences to increasingly large numbers of students at the graduate and undergraduate levels because they are cheaper and they are often more convenient and feasible for students. However, these trips are potentially ill-equipped to promote in-depth experiences of another place and culture. As short-term study tours are likely to continue to grow in popularity, it is imperative to look critically at the goals and structures of these programs, not only to explore how participants can have a more intellectually and personally valuable experience, but also to question the political and social implications of short-term study travel. This article questions whether participants on short-term study tours typically allow themselves and their understandings about the world to be transformed by their experiences or if these brief trips only serve to reify and legitimize preconceived notions and stereotypes about the world. Based on an analysis of U.S. graduate students' experiences on a trip to China, the authors argue that short-term study tours have the potential to provide a valuable opportunity for participants to deepen their understanding of themselves and their role in the world. However, they can only do so if a critical reflection component is incorporated in the study tour. In this article, the authors use the case of a study tour to China to propose a framework for reflection during short-term study travel that they call &quot;meta-travel.&quot; They explore what they mean by critical reflection and make a case for why critical reflection needs to be a key piece of study travel. They then discuss the case itself and the processes through which they developed this framework. Next, they discuss several critical incidents from the study tour itself and suggest ways in which the framework illuminates hidden lessons in each incident. Finally they conclude with some suggestions for how this framework might be utilized on other study tours. (Contains 1 figure.)
Community Redefined: School Leaders Moving from Autonomy to Global Interdependence through Short-Term Study Abroad
Author: Fine, Janis B.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Learner Engagement,Ethics,Instructional Leadership,Leadership Training,Global Approach,Study Abroad,Social Stratification,Leaders,Global Education,Social Justice,Pretests Posttests,Leadership,Foreign Countries,Case Studies,Interpersonal Relationship,Graduate Students,Higher Education,Cultural Context,Cultural Differences,Education

In times of increased global interdependence, producing inter-culturally competent school leaders who can engage in informed, ethical decision-making when confronted with problems that involve a diversity of perspectives is becoming an urgent leadership priority. Helping school leaders form and internalize a global perspective requires today's leadership preparation programs to assist future leaders in developing the capacity to think with complexity taking into account multiple cultural perspectives. Yet, while an understanding of cultural patterns, social stratification mobility, principles of human development, and racial dynamics are often cited as markers of successful student preparation for leadership for global interdependence, these learning outcomes are often poorly defined and not well integrated into the curriculum for educational leadership. Study abroad, the primary mechanism by which students experience foreign cultures, has become a seminal vehicle for global learning. Education abroad has become an increasingly important educational program experience in global learning and development, intercultural competence, intercultural maturity, and intercultural sensitivity. This article presents a framework for how to use global learning to develop in today's educational leaders the conceptualization and disposition to bring about the revolutionary changes that eliminate marginalizing practices in schools. By providing a global framework to guide this development, tomorrow's educational leaders will be provided with the learning they need to address the problems they will face in the future. Such a strategy aims to revitalize educational leadership preparation programs and increase student engagement by showing the relevance of global knowledge to education's most urgent social, ethical, and civic challenges. (Contains 3 tables and 4 charts.)
Franco-American Teachers-in-Training: A Study of Best Practices in Teaching and Studying Abroad
Author: Colville-Hall, Susan
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Cultural Pluralism,Student Teaching,Teaching Experience,Cultural Awareness,Language Skills,Best Practices,Program Design,Elementary Secondary Education,College Students,Higher Education,Teachers,Study Abroad,Scores,Mentors,Preservice Teachers,Intervention,Foreign Countries,Outcomes of Education

Study abroad is generally recognized as a transformational experience for university students to help prepare them to be what many in higher education are now calling &quot;global citizens.&quot; Responding to the need to prepare citizens for the interconnected global world of the 21st century, K-12 educators recently established new standards and benchmarks to ensure learners become internationally competent. But how do U.S. teachers themselves reach levels of intercultural competence? Is living or studying abroad sufficient to provide the transformative linguistic and cultural experience future educators need to be able to cope with the cultural diversity of learners who come from backgrounds increasingly different from that of the majority of their teachers? As professionals, teachers tend to have the least intercultural experience. In the case of prospective teachers, study abroad can take the form of an international student teaching experience that engages them in cross-cultural encounters essential to intercultural learning. A defining characteristic of the global citizen is intercultural competence, something that college students will supposedly achieve through study abroad. As students study abroad in greater and greater numbers, the emphasis on assessment and accountability that prevails at many universities demands evidence that learning goals such as increased intercultural competence and improved language skills are being met. Study abroad advocates are looking specifically at ways to help students make the most of their time abroad, and are using tools such as the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to quantify the success of study abroad programs. The Franco-American Teacher in Training Institute (FATITI) offers one example of a program design that resulted in both increased intercultural sensitivity and improved language skills among the participants as measured by the IDI and oral proficiency scores. This article analyzes the structure of the FATITI program and compares it with the factors identified in literature as contributing to greater increases in intercultural development.
The Baggage They Carry: Study Abroad and the Construction of &quot;Europe&quot; in the American Mind
Author: Woolf, Michael
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Study Abroad,Culture,Educational Environment,Imagination,Educational Trends,Figurative Language,Time,Fairy Tales,Fantasy,European History,Cross Cultural Studies,Student Attitudes,Physical Environment,United States Literature,English Literature,French Literature,German Literature,Italian Literature

Western Europe has been constructed in the field of education abroad as a &quot;traditional&quot; location: in some sense or another that label is used to suggest that it has a kind of static or dormant significance. In reality, Western Europe is an enormously rich location for study abroad precisely because it is a fluid learning environment that contains and sustains multiple meanings and ambiguities. It is a location that has been represented and constructed by American culture in some key ways over time and what is represented is simultaneously true and untrue. Within that paradox resides a great learning opportunity. This article explores some of the ways in which Europe has been created and recreated in the American mind and relates those constructs to the limitations, opportunities, and dynamics that may be explored in education abroad. Those constructs represent in part the baggage that students bring with them. In this article, the structure will recreate the experience of students coming to Europe. The essay explores the baggage they carry; engagement with the European environment, and, finally, the process of return. In that structure, which mirrors the experience of the study abroad student, a partial but suggestive set of perspectives emerge that go further than defending the traditional and, instead, present a cogent set of rich realities that collectively create the case for Europe. (Contains 35 endnotes.)
Learning Posts: A Pedagogical Experiment with Undergraduate Music Education Majors
Author: Countryman, June
Date: 2012-12-08
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Music Education,Preservice Teacher Education,Undergraduate Students,Education Majors,Writing Assignments,Reflection,Interviews,Student Attitudes,Learning Theories,Foreign Countries

This article describes the effects of a year-long reflective writing assignment--weekly Learning Posts--designed for students in an undergraduate music education course. I created this assignment to cause students to regularly interrogate the teaching and learning they experience in their own daily lives. This study's research question emerged from critical reflection at the intersection of practice and theory. Does a weekly requirement to describe and interpret a personal learning experience encourage, over time, instances of significant learning (Fink, 2003). My data sources consist of regular entries in my teaching journal monitoring the assignment and post-course interviews conducted with four students. I identify the positive potential of Learning Posts, improvements to enhance their effectiveness and broader issues concerning the reflective writing we assign music education students. The concept of self-authorship confirms the importance of reflective writing for young adults and the notion of threshold concepts contributes a potential framing device. (Contains 3 footnotes.)
Humanizing Creativity: Valuing Our Journeys of Becoming
Author: Chappell, Kerry
Date: 2012-12-10
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Creativity,Identification,Dance Education,Secondary Education,Partnerships in Education,Teacher Student Relationship,Leadership,Cooperation,Student Development,Secondary School Students,Secondary School Teachers,Artists,Foreign Countries

In this paper we explore the relationship between creativity and identity in dance education. We consider how, when creating dance, young people can go on a &quot;journey of becoming&quot;; how in the process of making dance, they are also being made. We draw on the Dance Partners for Creativity research, a qualitative in depth study of creative partnership practice in secondary level English dance education, to develop these ideas. Understanding the journeys of becoming within this research has helped us to refine the concept of &quot;humanising creativity&quot;. This is an active process of change guided by compassion and shared values. It comes from people engaging in collaborative thinking and joint action to imaginatively develop new ideas which are valuable to them and their community. The research and conceptual development leads us to suggest that educationally, we might better recognise and value the journeys of becoming at the heart of humanising creativity, not only within dance but perhaps more widely. (Contains 7 figures and 3 footnotes.) [&quot;Humanizing Creativity: Valuing Our Journeys of Becoming&quot; was written with Anna R. Craft, Linda M. Rolfe, and Veronica Jobbins.]