Session II: July 18-22, 2011

24. Training for Insight: A Learner-Centered Approach to International Education Mick Vande Berg and Adriana Medina-López-Portillo Until very recently, the common view in international education was that when students cross cultural boundaries, they learn best when simply left to their own devices. But do they? Recent research has cast substantial doubt on this premise. The new paradigm for culture learning asserts instead that educators need to be intentional and developmental in their programming if students are to learn to interact in the new culture in effective and appropriate ways. This workshop is developmental, experiential, and holistic; activities are designed to allow you to become more aware of what U.S. students abroad and international students experience when participating in activities designed to promote intercultural competence. You will leave the workshop with a set of activities that you will be able to use in your own training, and with enhanced skills to use them effectively.

Designed for Objectives Learning Activities Faculty: Mick Vande Berg Associate Faculty: Adriana Medina-López-Portillo Professionals involved in international education: directors, advisors, and faculty who prepare or lead student groups abroad; international student advisors; professionals working for study abroad providers; resident directors and other staff responsible for delivering programs abroad as well as faculty, high school teachers, or administrators interested in preparing for a study abroad or international student services career.   Participants will have the opportunity to: Explore and analyze important and ongoing changes in international education theory and practice Review the considerable evidence that is rapidly undermining the traditional view that individuals experiencing a new culture learn best simply when left to their own devices Review several different courses that are now intervening, with demonstrated success, in student learning and development Experience what students in cultural transition experience when enrolled in orientation and other sorts of training designed to help them develop interculturally Understand how to facilitate key intercultural concepts and activities that are often included in teaching students in cultural transition Small group work in designing and delivering a competency-based course designed to improve student intercultural, second language, and disciplinary learning Brief lectures and group discussions Interactive activities and exercises that illustrate intercultural learning interventions Participant discussions and presentations about introducing a learner-centered course for students studying in a new culture, within the context of their own institutions or organizations   Dr. Mick Vande Berg has worked at several institutions well known for their commitment to international education, including Georgetown University, The School for International Training, Michigan State University, and Kalamazoo College. Now vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer at CIEE, Mick is currently responsible for designing and delivering workshops for faculty and staff abroad. He is a founding board member of the Forum on Education Abroad, and frequently conducts programs on student learning and development. He has been the principal investigator of several study abroad research projects, and publishes widely on intercultural education topics.   Dr. Adriana Medina-López-Portillo is an assistant professor of intercultural communication in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has served as faculty director of several study abroad programs and was principal investigator of a research study that assessed the second language and intercultural learning of students abroad. She has taught courses in Spanish language and intercultural communication, in addition to having designed and led workshops on a wide variety of intercultural and diversity topics for higher education, nonprofit, governmental, and corporate clients in the U.S. and abroad, including serving as the orientation and reentry officer for The Scholar Ship.