Academic Outcomes of Study Abroad
Written by: Elizabeth Redden
July 13, 2010

In 2000, researchers began an ambitious effort to document the academic outcomes of study abroad across the 35-institution University System of Georgia. Ten years later, they’ve found that students who study abroad have improved academic performance upon returning to their home campus, higher graduation rates, and improved knowledge of cultural practices and context compared to students in control groups. They’ve also found that studying abroad helps, rather than hinders, academic performance of at-risk students.

“The skeptics of study abroad have always made the argument that study abroad is a distraction from the business of getting educated, so you can enter the economy and become a contributing member of society,” said Don Rubin, professor emeritus of speech communication and language education at the University of Georgia and research director for GLOSSARI — the Georgia Learning Outcomes of Students Studying Abroad Research Initiative. “I think if there’s one take-home message from this research as a whole it is that study abroad does not undermine educational outcomes, it doesn’t undermine graduation rate, it doesn’t undermine final semester GPA. It’s not a distraction.

“At worst, it can have relatively little impact on some students’ educational careers. And at best it enhances the progress toward degree. It enhances the quality of learning as reflected in things like GPA.”

The GLOSSARI project is of impressive scope and scale, and not every finding shows a positive impact of study abroad — self-reported knowledge of world geography, for instance, actually decreased across time both for study abroad students and for a control group, and researchers found no significant difference in knowledge of global interdependence between the two sets of students. Rubin and Richard C. Sutton, director of the GLOSSARI project, executive director of international programs at Western Kentucky University, and formerly assistant vice chancellor for international programs at the University System of Georgia, presented these and other findings in a “final report” on the GLOSSARI project at the recent NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference in Kansas City.

Among their findings:

Graduation Rates and GPA: Researchers compared graduation rates and grade point averages for 19,109 study abroad students, from across the state system (which includes community colleges, research universities and institutions in between), with a control group of 17,903 students selected to match the institution, semester of study and class standing of the students who’d studied abroad. “What we’ve tried to do in this project is to be very, very careful about who we compare with study abroad students,” said Rubin. “There are all these arguments that say the reason why graduation rates are higher for study abroad students are they are of higher socioeconomic status, or they may be more industrious, or they may be choosing easier majors.”

Study abroad students, in other words, aren’t representative of all students in the Georgia system. So, rather than merely compare the study abroad students’ graduation rates and other academic outcomes with systemwide rates for first-time, full-time freshmen, who drop out for any number of reasons, the researchers compared study abroad students to a control group of students who had already persisted to the same point in college. They also constructed the control group to closely represent the institutions the study abroad students were coming from (the University of Georgia sends more students abroad than, say, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, and the control group was created with a goal of reflecting that). “Our goal,” said Rubin, “was to isolate the effect of study abroad and to make our groups as comparable in every respect except that one group studied abroad and the other did not.”

They found that the four-year graduation rate was 49.6 percent for study abroad students, compared to 42.1 percent for students in the control group (and 24 percent for students in the University System of Georgia as a whole). Six-year rates were 88.7 percent for study abroad participants and 83.4 percent for students in the control group (and 49.3 percent systemwide). The effect held across various subgroups of students divided by gender, race and SAT score, but was particularly pronounced for certain groups – most dramatically, four-year graduation rates for African-Americans who’d studied abroad were 31 percent higher than for African-American students in the control group. Four-year graduation rates for other nonwhite students who’d studied abroad were 18 percent higher than for their peers in the control group. Nationally, nonwhite students remain underrepresented in study abroad — according to the latest data, from the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors survey, 81.8 percent of Americans studying abroad in 2007-8 were white.

The GLOSSARI Project found that for students who’d studied abroad, their mean cumulative GPA prior to going overseas was 3.24 and their mean cumulative GPA afterward was 3.30. For the control group over the same period, the mean GPA increased from 3.03 to 3.06. Researchers found a particularly pronounced effect of study abroad on academic performance among students who entered college with the lowest SAT scores. Among students who entered college with a combined SAT score of 800 (on the verbal and math sections), those who studied abroad ended up with a GPA of 3.21 compared to 3.14 for those students who stayed stateside. On the other extreme, for those students who entered college with a perfect SAT score of 1600, study abroad had no effect on their GPA, which on average was 3.25 regardless.

“The conventional wisdom is that students who are at risk should be discouraged from studying abroad altogether,” Rubin said. “But this suggests that study abroad can actually be an intervention to enhance the success for college students who are at-risk. Rather than derailing them, rather than diverting them, it actually focuses them.”

Intercultural Learning Outcomes: In another phase of the study, researchers administered a 29-question intercultural learning outcomes instrument to 440 study abroad and 230 non-study abroad participants from 13 Georgia institutions. “There are so many different ways in which students are going overseas and we had to look at a way to assess that across this variety of platforms,” said Sutton.

From pre- to post-test, study abroad participants surpassed non-study abroad participants in measures related to functional knowledge of cultural practices – the ability to say what’s funny in another culture, for instance, or take a train or bus to reach a destination. Study abroad students also grew in their knowledge of cultural context – for example, in their knowledge of how different cultural settings affect one’s own reactions and interactions with others – relative to non-study abroad students.

Again, on measures related to knowledge of global interdependence and world geography there was no significant difference between the control group and study abroad students. (The general decline in knowledge of world geography – the ability to name four rivers in Europe and three in Asia, or name six countries in Africa – was, unfortunately, a common finding irrespective of time overseas).

The GLOSSARI project did not consider outcomes related to second-language acquisition during study abroad (although lots of other studies have considered these questions). Researchers did find, however, that time spent speaking a target language was correlated with higher intercultural learning more generally, Rubin said.

Disciplinary Learning Outcomes: Another phase of the study considered student learning in courses taught on campus and abroad. Researchers looked at three case studies of courses taught on the home campus and overseas – a Novels of Jane Austen class (taught in Oxford), a French Revolution and Napoleon class (taught in Paris) and an Intercultural Communication class (also taught in Paris). “I was disappointed that despite some vigorous efforts we ended up with only three really good case studies,” said Rubin. “There were a variety of reasons why. We insisted that the majority of the learning objectives had to be the same [in both versions of the course]… another requirement was that they had to be taught by the same teacher.” Researchers also wanted the student assignments to be the same on campus and overseas, as external evaluators looked at student work in gauging student learning.

Students seemed to acquire more “fact detail” knowledge in courses taught on campus — in the Austen class, for instance, students who took the course on campus cited more examples in their essays. One external rater noted, of the campus-based class, “I saw more answers that demonstrated a deeper understanding, not just of Austen’s body of work, but also of the political and social climate during the time of her writing.” In some ways, Rubin said, this finding is to be expected, as the duration of the study abroad version of the course was shorter and students in that class read fewer of Austen’s books.

“On the other hand the big-picture kind of learning, the more conceptual learning and the sense of why this is important or why this is still relevant, clearly came across more strongly in the study abroad classes,” Rubin said. For instance, students in the French Revolution class “saw how the events of revolution are interwoven into contemporary France, which is something that students who studied it domestically never achieved. For them it was just a history class.”

“One of the implications that people who design programs might think about is the value of what’s now being called hybrid learning abroad — classes in which a substantial component is done domestically,” Rubin said.

The GLOSSARI project was funded in part by a $547,000 U.S. Department of Education grant, which expired June 30. Their data collection work completed, Rubin and Sutton are now making the GLOSSARI database available to other researchers to pursue further questions.

Outcomes Research in Study Abroad

“What’s distinctive about the GLOSSARI project is that it’s system-wide,” said Brian Whalen, president and CEO of the Forum on Education Abroad. “No other project really matches it, I don’t think, in terms of the scope and the coherence.”

But there’s no question that there has been a huge increase in research into study abroad outcomes, as study abroad has grown and as colleges increasingly emphasize the need to assess student learning outcomes more generally. As the latest indication of this, a NAFSA task force recently issued a report on assessing international education — which should, the report argued, “be fully integrated into the broader assessment of U.S. higher education.”

Whalen, the editor of Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, said increased assessment activity is happening on both institutional and faculty-driven levels. “Projects such as the GLOSSARI project, which are very comprehensive and are institutionally-based, are becoming more common as institutions are seeking to establish very good benchmarks for international education,” he said. “Accrediting associations are holding those institutions accountable.”

”And then you have another wave of research that’s coming out of faculty members in disciplines” – many of whom have led short-term study abroad programs. A recent issue of Frontiers, for instance, included an article by education scholars on the role of study abroad in teacher education, and another article — its first author a molecular and cellular biologist – documented changes in intercultural knowledge and competence as a result of international, undergraduate research experience.

That same issue also highlighted the findings of the Georgetown Consortium Project, another major, cross-university study that which compared language acquisition — gains in oral proficiency, specifically — and intercultural learning of students who studied abroad and those who studied the target language in U.S. classrooms. As the authors of the latter study write, in outlining the context for their research, research in student learning abroad has “increased dramatically. During the 1970s, 189 research studies were published; that number had increased by 675 by the 1990s. During the first decade of the 21st century, the number will almost certainly exceed 1,000.”

The research on study abroad outcomes covers a broad range of topics and uses a variety of instruments in asking questions related to second-language acquisition, or changes in attitudes, beliefs or knowledge as a result of study abroad. Among the many tools being used in study abroad research are the IDI (the Intercultural Development Inventory), the CCAI (the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory), the OPI (the oral proficiency interview), the SOPI (the simulated oral proficiency interview), and the BEVI (the Beliefs, Events and Values Inventory). The Beyond Immediate Impact: Study Abroad for Global Engagement (SAGE) project, based at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, uses an instrument called the Global Engagement Survey to track long-term outcomes of study abroad on dimensions including civic engagement, knowledge production, philanthropy and social entrepreneurship.

“There has been some outstanding research that’s already been done in second-language learning overseas, in personal development, intercultural growth, and attitudinal and behavioral changes that occur as a result of study abroad,” said Sutton, the GLOSSARI project director. “But what we felt when we began the GLOSSARI study was that there had been limited efforts and attention paid to learning outcomes and knowledge acquisition and skill acquisition that we felt really needed to be addressed.

“We saw this very much as a first step, although it turned out to be a very long step.”

Elizabeth Redding
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/13/abroad

Once you have decided to study the Chinese language in China the next question you want answered is, what is the Best Chinese Language School? There are different types of Chinese language courses you can opt for. As there are hundreds of Chinese language school china, finding an institution for studying the Chinese language lessons won’t be difficult but not all of the program in China are the same.

Nevertheless, Next Step China is here to guide you in finding the right Chinese language schools that fit your goals.

The first thing we should mention is that the best city to learn Chinese is in Beijing.  Beijing is where the Mandarin Language is spoken by its entire population.  In fact, there are no other official dialects in Beijing, whereas in Shanghai there is.  Also, Beijing is the capital of China and the government conducts all of its political and business affairs here so why not study Chinese in Beijing, the place where it all happens.

Finding the Best Chinese Language Schools really depends on you, however, each school or university has different benefits depending on what you are interested.  In Beijing there are three universities or Chinese language schools that are considered to possess the best Chinese language programs.

Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) is the author of many of the Chinese language books used by most of the private language schools in China and most probably in your home country.  The professors in this university are required to pass the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi or Chinese Level Proficiency Exam) at a level of 12, the highest level available.  BLCU created the HSK program.  The university has short-term and long-term programs throughout the year. Such as in the Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter for a duration of:

1 month (one month, 4 or Four weeks)

5 weeks (five weeks)

6 weeks (six weeks)

2 months (Two months or 8 weeks, Eight weeks),

One Semester Term (or 5 months, five months, 20 weeks, twenty weeks).

One year (1 year)

*BLCU is the only university in Beijing that offers Chinese language summer school programs.  They also have a high school China study Abroad summer programs for one to two months in the summer if you are 15, 16 and 17 years old.  Parents are required to accompany the minor for this program.

The other universities that are considered to be the Best Chinese Language School is: Tsinghua University and Peking University. Both of these schools offer Semester and one year program.

The university and Next Step China also provides its participants extracurricular activities such as going to the Great Wall, Acrobatics show etc. These extracurricular activities will also enhance the understanding of the students who are learning the language.

If you are not interested in attending a university and are looking for an intensive Chinese language study program then please look into Next Step China’s Intensive Tutoring Program.  , which will also provide short time courses for the interested candidates. If you are starting to learn the Chinese language, business of Chin or the culture of the country, it is very important to have a contact with the people who are living in the country.

If you consider these above-mentioned tips, you will be able to find the best school of Chinese language. Most of the well-known schools in China provide intensive Chinese course for the interested candidates. Once you complete this course, you will be able to write and speak Chinese language without any hassles. If you are thinking of learning Chinese course, China is the best country to do so, not at home and not online. Although there are several schools offering Chinese courses, it is for you to decide which one to opt for. Therefore, whatever program you pick, your main focus should be to study Chinese language.

Once you have selected the right school for learning Chinese language, the next important thing that comes up is the right student environment. Therefore, it becomes quite imperative that while learning Chinese language immersion environment is necessary. There are many institutes, which will give you a ‘home-away-from-home’ feeling. Next Step China makes sure this happens by providing Airport Transfers, Welcome Dinners, luxury accommodations and more for both University Student Programs and Intensive Tutoring Programs.  Learning any new language is certainly not an easy task, but with Next Step China it can become a piece of cake.

Undergoing the internships in Shanghai program with Next Step China will take you one step closer to building a resume that  will allow you to compete with peers back home. Once you start your internship program, you will definitely love the international working environment. Shanghai is one of the best places to do an internship programs and our after work Intensive Tutoring Chinese language studies as you will be exposed to clients and customers all over the world. As China is becoming the #1 economy in the world it will provide many job openings in many industries throughout the country.  Another advantage of the Shanghai internships is you can also easily find a suitable job in the same place, after you complete your internship program.

Internships Shanghai will also provide you many opportunities to learn new things. Your internship program in Shanghai will have you working with colleagues from different parts of China and all over the world as Shanghai is an international city.   The support and help of the colleagues and other team members will help you to learn new things easily. You will be able to manage the tasks successfully, even if you find it difficult in the beginning. Next Step China also provides Paid Internships Shanghai  for a few candidate with extensive experience. This is the best option for the people who are looking for the financial help, while they undergo their internship programs. Even though your monthly salary may not be comparable to your home country it is only the beginning as this trial period will allow corporations to determine whether to hire you after your program is completed.

Next Step China’s internship program application process is very simple.  Your decision to pick Next Step China’s Shanghai Internship program will not be a decision you will regret!

Once you have decided on the sector or industry you would like to work for you will need to do the following:

Step 1: Please contact Next Step China for a listing of available internships and to set up a free consultation with one of our expert internship placement specialists.

Step 2: After you have decided which internship(s) you would like to apply for (you may apply to as many as three internship choices), go to APPLY NOW , fill in the required and additional information needed and submit your application. Next Step China will contact you to confirm receipt of your application.

Step 3: After receipt of your application we ask that you kindly make a $200.00 USD REFUNDABLE program deposit.

Step 4: Once a Corporation has expressed an interest and an offer has been made and accepted, you are required to make the remaining payment of the program fee(depending on the program duration- 1 month, 2 months or 3 months). Please refer to the invoice sent by Next Step China’s corporate offices.

Step 5: Next Step China will coordinate your internship start date and will remain involved with you throughout the duration of the program to assure a mutually productive and successful internship.

Relax! One of our Next Step China staff members will greet you at the airport when you arrive to China.

NOTE: Applications and full payment must be submitted at least three months before the start date to provide ample time for you to apply for an F Visa and for the Program Coordinator to conduct evaluations and find suitable logistical and internship arrangements for you. We highly encourage applicants to submit their applications well in advance of the date available to start the program to secure a reservation because slots for internship are very limited and competitive.

Learning a new language is an amazing experience, it is only heightened when you are studying it in its native land. There is no doubt that learning Chinese in China will be far easier than doing so online or back home. One of the benefits of learning Chinese in China vs. back home is the amount of choices you have in selecting a university to study Mandarin. The high degree of quality which these programs are home to will help you to learn the language in an easy and effective manner. The universities and programs such as Next Step China also provide fun activities so that you can have the ability to enjoy China the right way. Once you complete your course, you will be able to write and speak in Chinese. Learning Mandarin in China will be one of the best decisions you ever make, the experience and skills you will leave China with is worth it!

The biggest benefit of learning Chinese China is that you will be able understand the long history and culture of China. Yes, you can learn about China’s history and culture in books, but when you learn the language it will become so much clearer to you. One of the best universities to study Chinese is in Beijing. The leading university for teaching foreigners Chinese as a second language is Beijing Language and Culture University the others are Peking University and Tsinghua University. In Shanghai is it the Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Fudan university, all of the universities mentioned provide innovative techniques and proven methods to learning Mandarin Chinese.

If you are interested in enrolling in a Chinese language program with these universities Next Step China is here to help. Our company provides a comprehensive suite of services so that all you have to worry about when you arrive in China is studying Chinese. You will live so close to these universities that you can walk, bike or take a taxi there. We provide luxury accommodations, comprehensive travel and medical insurance and other standard features so that your stay in China can be a memorable, worry free one.

Once you complete the university’s one year program you will be able to successfully learn writing Chinese and learn speaking Chinese fluently. Another option to learn Mandarin Chinese is Next Step China’s Intensive Tutoring program that is proven to make learning Mandarin Chinese fast and effective, given the level of concentration allotted to the students vs. attending a university. When you decide to learn Chinese China, it is very important to consider either studying at a university or with a tutor at your own pace.

Although the universities are very good at teaching Chinese to foreigners it has not been proven whether it is effective to learn Chinese online. We believe that the only way for a study Chinese online program to be successful is by learning the foundation of the language in China first and then continuing your education online as you expand on the core basics of the language. In this way you can learn Chinese Mandarin fast because you have an excellent foundation to build upon.

One of the benefits of choosing Next Step China is that after your language program is complete we provide you with the opportunities to find a job or internship in Beijing or Shanghai so that you can continue to use your Mandarin skills for the rest of your life. Our internship program is very thorough in finding internships that are valuable experiences so that you can gain international skills and use your new language while you work. In addition, Next Step China is a safe, reputable and reliable company as we operate legally in the United States of America and China. We are also very proud of our “A” rating from the Better Business Bureau. Choosing Next Step China will definitely be a decision you will not regret!

If you are interested in living in a modern, fast paced city and learn a new language than choosing to Study Mandarin in Shanghai is the place to go! Whether you are a professional or a student looking to receive college credit for a Study Abroad in Shanghai program then you have come to right place to find excellent tips to Study Mandarin in Shanghai.

There are many advantages in selecting a program to study abroad in Shanghai. Many high school and college students and graduates have ventured to Shanghai to experience life of the East and all of that is has to offer, especially when it comes to finding job and internship opportunities. However, many of these students decide to first Study Mandarin in Shanghai.

To Study in Shanghai will be a great experience you will not regret as there are many well-known universities in Shanghai like:

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU)

Fudan University

Most of these universities will also help you to study Chinese in Shanghai along with your graduation studies. The high quality language classes, which are provided by these universities will help you study the language quickly. To Study Mandarin Shanghai is not as expensive as one may think, however, it is more expensive than Studying Chinese in Beijing. Next Step China makes sure that all of our programs are competitively priced to fit your budget.  Our company provides a comprehensive suite of services such as luxury accommodations and medical and travel insurance. You can also enjoy many fun activities in China.

One of the benefits of living in Shanghai is that there are so many restaurants that offer foods from all over the world given the amount of foreigners in Shanghai. Therefore, you can easily find the food cuisine you are looking for in the city. As I have mentioned above, Study Abroad Shanghai, will be a memorable experience in your life. The professional friendly environment of these universities and language schools will help you to study Chinese Shanghai quickly.