Student Learning Abroad: What Our Students Are Learning, What They're Not, and What We Can Do About It

A central purpose of this book is to question the claims commonly made about the educational benefits of study abroad.
Traditional metrics of enrollment increases and student self report and practices of structural immersion are being questioned as educators voice growing uncertainty about what students are or are not in fact learning abroad. This book looks into whether these criticisms are justified―and what can be done if they are.
Student Learning Abroad reviews existing paradigms of study abroad; marshals research findings about what undergraduates are or are not learning; brings to bear the latest knowledge about human learning and development to raise questions about current theory and practice; and presents six examples of study abroad courses or programs whose interventions apply this knowledge.
This book aims to prompt a re-consideration of long-held assumptions, beliefs and practices about teaching and learning in study abroad, and a reexamination of the design and delivery of programs. In doing so, it provides a foundation for responding to the question that may faculty and staff are now asking: What do I need to know, and what do I need to be able to do, to help my students learn and develop more effectively abroad?

Contributors [name in square brackets to be checked at proof stage]]
Laura Bathurst
[Janet Bennett]
Milton Bennett
Gabriele Weber Bosley
Andrew D. Cohen
John Engle
Lilli Engle
Mitchell Hammer
David Kolb
Bruce La Brack
Kris Hemming Lou
Catherine Menyhart
R. Michael Paige
Angela Passarelli
Adriana Medina-López Portillo
Meghan Quinn
Jennifer Meta Robinson
Riikka Salonen
Victor Savicki
Douglas Stuart
Michael Vande Berg
James Zull

Michael Vande Berg is vice president for Academic Affairs at the Council on International Educational Exchange. He completed his PhD in comparative literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He has held leadership positions at several institutions that are unusually committed to the international education of their students, including Georgetown University; the School for International Training; Michigan State University; Kalamazoo College; and el Instituto Internacional, in Madrid, Spain. Michael has authored a wide range of international education, intercultural relations, and comparative literature publications, including Spanish-to-English translations of two classics of 20th-century Spanish literature. He has been the principal investigator of several study abroad research projects, including the Georgetown Consortium Project; frequently consults with faculty and staff about international education topics; and leads intercultural workshops in the United States and abroad. A founding board member of the Forum on Education Abroad, he now serves as a senior faculty member of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication. Michael is also the recipient of The Forum on Education Abroad’s 2012 Peter A. Wollitzer award.

R. Michael Paige was professor of international and intercultural education in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota. He was the cofounder of the university’s Comparative and International Development Education (CIDE) program and the EdD program for International Educators. His research focused on the impact of study abroad, the development of intercultural competence, the internationalization of higher education, and global engagement. He codirected or served as a research consultant on a number of major studies including Maximizing Study Abroad, the Georgetown Consortium Project, CIEE’s Transformative Power of Study Abroad, and Study Abroad for Global Engagement (SAGE). As an active scholar, he coauthored the Maximizing Study Abroad volumes, coedited Culture as the Core: Perspectives on Culture in Second Language Learning, edited Education for the Intercultural Experience, and authored numerous research articles. He was also the recipient of The Forum on Education Abroad’s 2007 Peter A. Wollitzer award.

We deeply mourn the loss of author, teacher, and friend R. Michael Paige†.
†Deceased 9 November 2018.


Kris Hemming Lou has been director of international education and associate professor of international studies at Willamette University since 2003. He is an active member of the Association of International Educators (AIEA), CIEE: Council on International Educational Exchange, the European Association of International Education, the Forum on Education Abroad, ISEP: International Student Exchange Programs, and NAFSA: Association of International Educators. He presents frequently on issues of intercultural learning abroad and has taught in the United States, Austria, and Japan. Kris previously held faculty and administrative positions at Aquinas College (where he established the international programs office as the college’s assistant dean of International Programs & Cultural Studies), the Oregon University System, and the University of Innsbruck. His education includes studying abroad as both an undergraduate and a graduate student for more than three years in Germany (Tübingen and Munich) and the Soviet Union (Leningrad), culminating in a PhD in political science (international relations) from the University of Oregon. Kris is CEO of Hemming & Weber Consulting, LLC, which provides intercultural consulting services to educational institutions.