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…

Among the responsibilities of international educators is to help students begin the process of identifying the foreign in their new environments in order to learn from it. The major obstacle for Americans studying abroad in developed economies, especially in English-speaking countries, is to become sensitive to the subtleties of foreignness. The…

Study abroad is the latest "must have" experience for undergraduate students according to an article in the November 4, 2007 "New York Times" (Pappano, 2007). University mission statements increasingly emphasize internationalization and employers increasingly seek graduates with experience in the global arena. This focus on international…

In this essay, the author examines how two groups of undergraduates, from Australia and the United States, negotiate their national and global identities in the context of studying abroad. In doing so the author demonstrates the nuances of "global citizenship" as it is actually experienced. Drawing on Craig Calhoun's (2002) scholarship on national…

This research investigated the cross-cultural adjustment of study abroad students and the associated impact of two personality variables--(1) emotional intelligence (EI) and entrepreneurial attitude orientation (EAO). This study was conducted among undergraduate sojourners from a small, private university in the southeastern United States. A…

Fishing industries around the world are currently undergoing a process of industrialization and commercialization. A similar story is unfolding in many fishing communities: large-scale industrial fishers who possess enormous capital and advanced technologies are threatening the lives of small-scale fisherfolk. The fishing industry in Lake Victoria…

This paper provides updates from some of the student authors whose research appeared in the first two Undergraduate Research Special Issues. These updates serve as testimony to the ongoing impact of the study abroad experience, and inspire everyone involved with study abroad, administrators, faculty, and students, to value the distinctiveness of…

Over the past fifteen years, at least a dozen articles have appeared in the management and marketing literature describing and supporting international study tours as valuable educational experiences. These articles, however, have focused primarily on the design and implementation of such tours, with minimal emphasis given to outcome assessments…

Constructivist learning theory holds that "learning consists less in recording information than in interpreting it. To interpret what is received and is attended to, the learner must personally construct meaning for it." Unfortunately, opportunities for interpreting conceptual information are often lacking in classroom environments--particularly…

Growth in US education abroad has been consistently strong for the past decade, surpassing 9 percent annually. Within the field of education abroad, this growth is both exciting and alarming. Education abroad helps students change learning structures, learn new paradigms and become more complex individuals. If a student's structures are not ready…

The East Gobi Basin (EGB), which covers over 1.5 million square kilometers in southeastern Mongolia, is one of several basins in eastern China and Mongolia that was formed by extension and intracontinental rifting during the late Mesozoic. For reasons that are poorly understood, the continental lithosphere covering areas that are now known as…

Coming upon Devon McKenna's entry one might ask two questions. First, why send undergraduates, specifically potential early childhood professionals, abroad? Second, why send them to Sweden? To both, the answer drawn from a comprehensive worldwide review of early childhood program provision provides an elegant recognition: "It is said that the…

Higher education in general and study abroad programming in particular are hardly strangers to stringent demands for accountability. What is new to higher education and to study abroad is the demand for accountability in terms of measurable student learning outcomes. This article is a first report from a system-wide initiative to document learning…

Michigan State University (MSU) is strongly committed to the idea that study abroad is deeply beneficial and important for undergraduate students. However there is a relative scarcity of systematically gathered qualitative and quantitative information that assesses the impact of study abroad. In the summer of 2000, MSU implemented a broad plan to…

As national boundaries have lost their traditional significance over the past thirty years through increased travel, global telecommunications, and international trade and investment, it has become important for individuals to possess firsthand experience with other cultures. Traditionally, American undergraduates accomplish this by studying…