2009 Workshops

FULL-DAY WORKSHOPS

Conference registration and fees apply to workshop participants. Full-day workshops cost an additional fee of $185. *Please note the "Student Learning Abroad" workshop is $195 to cover fees for participants to complete an on-line learning style test.

Interrogating the Educational Purpose of Off-Campus Study in the Liberal Arts

• Andrew Law, Director of International and Off-Campus Study, Denison University

• Sue Mennicke, Director of Intercultural Learning, Southwestern University

 This workshop is an exercise in thinking reflectively about broad issues of educational mission and practice. Participants will be asked to read a variety of articles before the workshop then reflect on issues of educational philosophy that should inform our work at liberal arts institutions and divisions of universities. The format will be highly interactive, including some lecture but with an emphasis on small and large group discussion.

Student Learning Abroad:  From Intercultural Theory to Practice

• Michael Vande Berg, Vice President of Academic Affairs, CIEE

• Janet Bennett, Executive Director, Intercultural Communication Institute  (ICI)

This full-day workshop will focus on developing intercultural competence through examining two areas: first, the assessment of students’ developmental and learning needs, and second, effective training strategies for enhancing students’ abilities to learn while they are abroad.  Participants will learn to:

• Identify and apply the patterned stages of intercultural development that impact learning abroad.
• Assess their own learning styles and learn to gauge how students’ individual learning styles affect them as they learn interculturally.
• Review several effective strategies for developing curiosity, intercultural competence, and skills for learning how to learn.

HALF-DAY WORKSHOPS

Conference registration and fees apply to workshop participants. Half-day workshops cost an additional fee of $105.

Morning Workshops:

The Millennial Generation: Strategies for Education Abroad Programming

• Brian Brubaker, Associate Director for Study Abroad, Dickinson College

• Sylvie Toux, Resident Director in France, Dickinson College

• TBA, Resident Director

This workshop will begin by re-capping some of the key attributes of the Millennial generation and how these characteristics intersect with study abroad programming, followed by participants discussing attributes and correlating them to challenges they face with students studying abroad on their programs.  Resident Directors on the panel will share some of their experiences working with students (and parents) and identify critical shifts in student learning styles and orientations to the study abroad experience that they have observed over the years.  Participants and panelists will identify a spectrum of potential ways to work with Millennial traits as well as strategies for enhancing pedagogy while being cognizant of these characteristics.  Case studies may be used in group discussion to highlight common situations that arise overseas.

Assessing Global Learning and Development: Using the Global Perspective Inventory (GPI) to Promote Holistic Learning and Development

• Larry Braskamp, Professor Emeritus, Loyola Chicago University
• Dennis Doyle, Professor of Communications, Central College
• Brian Zylstra, Director, Central College Abroad

The three goals of this workshop are to

1. Introduce Global Perspective Inventory as one tool that can be used to assess global learning.
2. Learn how one college, Central College, has used GPI in enhancing its programs for fostering holistic student learning and development.
3. Allow participants in small groups to discuss a case study, estimate how their students are expected to grow on the three domains of global learning and development as measured by the GPI and to consider how the GP,I and additional types of evidence that can be used to promote holistic student learning and development.

An Introduction to the Forum's Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad

• Members of Forum Standards Committee

The purpose of this workshop is to provide a basic overview of the Forum’s Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad.  It is ideally suited to those unfamiliar with the Standards, and who may be relatively new to the education abroad field. The workshop will examine the philosophy behind the Standards, their development, and the implications of their implementation.  Workshop activities will draw on case studies to illustrate how the Standards are a useful tool for assessment and improvement of practices.

Afternoon Workshops:

Threat Assessment, Crisis Management and International Programs:  A Team Approach 

• William P. Hoye, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, IES

• Michael Steinberg, Executive Vice President & Director of Academic Programs, IES

• TBA, Counseling Center Director

This workshop will address the unique and complex issues of threat assessment and crisis management for participants who operate international education programs. In the wake of the tragic Virginia Tech and NIU shootings, many insitutions and programs have formed their own threat assessment team to deal with students who are potentially violent and may cause harm to themselves or others.  In this session, we will discuss threat assessment and crisis management protocols in the unique context of international programs, as well as ways to help ensure that on-campus plans makes sense in the unique context of study abroad.   Participants will receive sample protocols and policies.  They will also discuss the importance of training team members, conducting regular drills, and utilizing technology to make their on-campus teams more responsive, effective and efficient. Participants will gain hands-on training by working through hypothetical crisis scenarios using a team approach.   

Limits and Luxuries of Liminality:  Critical Teaching and Learning in a changing Context

• Carol Brandt, Vice President for International Programs, Pitzer College
• Karen Rodriguez, Director, CIEE Study Center, Guanajuato, Mexico
• Ana Marie Wiseman, Dean of International Programs, Wofford College

This workshop examines experiences of social/linguistic/psychic/professional liminality (on-site and after) for both teachers and learners by presenting strategies for new sorts of practice.  It will move back and forth between theory, experience, and application.  Participants will reflect upon the changes in study abroad's context, discuss how teaching and learning can be critically re-imagined to fit the times, and strategize directly for new pedagogical approaches appropriate to their particular role, institution or setting.

Alignment and Accountability:  The Effective Design and Implementation of Qualitative Assessment in the Field of Study Abroad

• Lilli Engle, President and On-Site Director, American University Center of Provence
• Patricia Martin, Senior Program Manager for Office of International Programs, University of Pennsylvania

Participants will look closely at the conception and implementation of questionnaires to assess the  students' qualitative experience abroad without catering to client-comfort, ethnocentric concerns.  Participants will examine the integral value of qualitative assessment process in view of a diversity of study abroad program types. Participants will determine the ideal learning experience offered by the central components of study abroad programs and then will conceive and elaborate model questions and questionnaires to elicit meaningful, responsible and clearly focused accounts of the sutdents' experience designed in relation to identifiable educational goals.

 QUIP Peer Reviewer Training Workshop

• Forum Staff

This workshop is a prerequisite for becoming a QUIP Peer Reviewer. It will focus on the concept of quality improvement for education abroad, the implementation of the Forum’s Standards of Good Practice, and the role and responsibilities of the QUIP Peer Reviewer. The workshop will detail the processes of the QUIP reviews, including the Site Visit and writing the Peer Review Report. Participants will analyze actual case studies in dialogue groups, then present their analysis for group discussion.