This article investigates the increasing prominence of intercultural and global skills assessment in study abroad administration and pedagogy, and how it influences the practice of international education and the roles it plays in the administrative spaces of U.S. higher education. Drawing on a series of interviews with administrators, faculty…

Immersion in a strengths-based, study abroad program provides extensive opportunity for leadership growth. Navigating the unknown adds to the challenge students experience during their student-organized activities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how a strengths-based curricula design advanced the leadership competency levels…

Opportunities for working, volunteering, and studying abroad have become popular in higher education as vehicles for the development of cultural awareness and global citizenship. However, such experiences on their own do not guarantee the development of such attributes. What appears to be essential to maximizing the benefits of educational…

It is commonly accepted that we should and often do learn from our mistakes, and it is also quite common to be afraid of making mistakes. International educators are no exception to the experience of learning from mistakes. This author describes a professional meeting where several of the attendees who had been in their field for decades shared…

Education abroad is a high-impact practice that can lead to transformational learning because it challenges students emotionally and intellectually. However, differences in program design may have differential impacts on students' learning. The purpose of this study was to understand the relationships between design features of education abroad…

Foreign language proficiency and learning are crucial parts of many study abroad programs; especially those whose host culture language is different than that of the native language of students electing to study in them. Indeed, how a program organizes itself regarding pre-departure language proficiency requirements, on site language learning, and…

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 "global citizens." Responding to the need to prepare citizens for the interconnected global world of the 21st century, K-12 educators recently established new standards and…

Provides an overview of learning outside of the home culture, with particular emphasis on the role that memory plays. Examines the psychological literature and uses case studies to focus on the ways in which students learn bout their new society and culture and about themselves. Offers considerations for study abroad program design. (Author/VWL)

This essay focuses on how people respond to cultural difference, and, specifically, two tendencies. One tendency is to romanticize the cultural differences encountered. Another tendency is to rush to a negative judgment about the specific people involved, and about their culture more generally. In this essay, the author illustrates these…

Study abroad professionals have attempted in recent years to bring a statistical objectivity to the evaluation of the American study abroad experience. The complexity of international education is such that it is far from easy to move towards significant, objectively measurable, and comparable outcomes. This article presents a preliminary…