Session II: July 19-23, 2010

24. Learner-Centered Study Abroad: What Students Are Learning Over There, What       They're Not, and What We Can Do About It Mick Vande Berg and Adriana Medina-López-Portillo This workshop reviews several courses that are now facilitating and significantly improving the learning and intercultural development of students abroad—including courses designed by the workshop facilitators. Developmental and experiential, this workshop will ask participants to experience what students abroad experience when enrolled in courses that provide them opportunities to become more aware of their own cultural identities, to increase their awareness of the cultural identities of others, and to learn to bridge the gap across this cultural divide.

Designed for Objectives Learning Activities Adriana Medina-López-Portillo Mick Vande Berg Study abroad directors and advisors; university and college faculty who prepare or lead student groups abroad; professionals working for study abroad providers in the U.S. and abroad; resident directors and other staff responsible for delivering programs abroad; and university/college faculty, high school teac­ers, or university/college student services professionals interested in preparing for a study abroad career.  Participants will have the opportunity to: Explore and analyze important and ongoing changes in study abroad theory and practice Review the considerable evidence that is rapidly undermining the traditional view that students abroad normally learn and develop well 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 abroad experience when enrolled in courses designed to help them develop interculturally Understand how to introduce and facilitate several key intercultural and pedagogical concepts and activities that are typically included in the curricula of effective courses that intervene in student learning abroad Identify and discuss the teaching and training competencies required of teachers interested in intervening in the learning and development of students abroad Small-group work in designing and delivering a competency-based course designed to improve student intercultural, second language, and disciplinary learning abroad Brief lectures and group discussions Interactive activities and exercises that illustrate intercultural learning interven­tions Participant discussions and presentations about introducing a learner-centered study abroad course within the context of their own institutions or organizations   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 orientation and reentry officer for The Scholar Ship.   Dr. Mick Vande Berg has worked at several institutions and organizations well known for their commitment to study abroad. Now vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer at CIEE, where his current responsibilities include designing and delivering workshops for faculty and staff abroad, he has held leadership positions at Georgetown University, The School for International Training, Michigan State University, and Kalamazoo College. He has published widely on education abroad topics, is a founding board member of the Forum on Education Abroad, and frequently presents on, and leads workshops about, student learning and development abroad. He has been the principal investigator of several study abroad research projects and served as guest editor of the special issue of Frontiers that focused on the assessment of student learning abroad.