Study abroad is a popular enrichment of the U.S. postsecondary academic experience with short-term programs providing a cost-effective opportunity to enhance student international travel experiences. In this review, we critically examine a U.S. program we led to Finland with the goal of identifying the pedagogical features from that program that maximize and optimize student learning. We provided thirteen undergraduate and graduate students in a department of education at a mid-sized, public, land-grant university an opportunity to participate in a short-term, faculty-led study abroad program to learn about Finland's public, K-12 educational system. Program learning outcomes included comparing the country's top-ranked educational system with U.S. public K-12 education in order to enhance students' future teaching practices. The purpose of this essay is to deconstruct the pedagogical features from that program to identify what worked well and what could have been improved upon with the goal of providing a critically examined model for consideration and thereby enhance comparative educational practice for faculty-led study abroad programs.