The three-summer research seminar will facilitate multi-institutional research on study abroad and off-campus domestic study as integrated global learning practices.
The Center for Engaged Learning at Elon will host a 2015-2017 Research Seminar on Integrating Global Learning with the University Experience: Higher-Impact Study Abroad and Off-Campus Domestic Study. This Research Seminar builds on existing knowledge of implementation of study abroad and off-campus domestic study to maximize their potential as high-impact global learning experiences. Interested scholars and practitioners, regardless of discipline, are invited to apply to join a multi-institutional cohort of researchers collaborating to investigate questions like:
- How do students’ prior experiences (e.g., engagement with difference, personality factors, language proficiency, previous coursework) affect learning in study abroad and off-campus domestic study experiences?
- How do students integrate global learning knowledge, skills, and attitudes/dispositions/habits of mind through study abroad and off-campus domestic study with other educational experiences?
- Does integrating students’ study abroad and off-campus domestic study experiences into their major, discipline, and/or professional studies lead to increased global learning competencies?
- How do particular programmatic factors (e.g., long term vs. short term, study abroad vs. off-campus domestic study, individual vs. group program, homestay vs. group living, applied vs. academic focus) affect students’ global learning?
- How do educators best integrate and infuse study abroad and off-campus domestic study throughout an institution with the goal of promoting students’ global learning?
The Center for Engaged Learning Research Seminar will support multi-institutional research addressing and surrounding this theme over a two-year period, with three one-week summer meetings on the Elon University campus. “I think that one of the things that is so remarkable and special about the Elon research seminars is that they demonstrate a level of seriousness and commitment to a kind of inquiry into teaching that is both rare and possibly diminishing even in its rarity,” says Randy Bass (Associate Provost and Professor of English at Georgetown University, and a co-leader of a previous CEL seminar). “To make a statement that it matters to gather smart faculty in a room to give them time to develop as a community to undertake serious questions in systematic ways… that it matters to the future of higher education to ask faculty to undertake that kind of work and to make it a part of the expression of their expertise. I’m very grateful to Elon for creating this proof-of-concept.”
Past Center for Engaged Learning research seminars have generated edited volumes, journal articles and book chapters, white papers, and conference presentations – as well as local initiatives on participants’ home campuses. Participants in the 2015-2017 research seminar will be well-positioned to have a positive and substantial impact on evidence-based study abroad and off-campus domestic study – both at their home institutions and throughout higher education.
The 2015-2017 Center for Engaged Learning Research Seminar will be led by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill (Elon University), Neal Sobania (author of Putting the Local in Global Education, forthcoming from Stylus Press), and Mick Vande Berg (lead editor and author of Student Learning Abroad: What Our Students are Learning, What They’re Not, and What We Can Do About It).
The full call for applications and instructions for applying can be found on the Global Learning Seminar page on the Center for Engaged Learning website. Applications are due November 3, 2014.
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The Center for Engaged Learning brings together international leaders in higher education to develop and to synthesize rigorous research on central questions about student learning; hosts multi-institutional research and practice-based initiatives, conferences, and seminars; and shares related resources for faculty and faculty developers on high-impact practices for engaged learning.
For more information on the Center for Engaged Learning, please visit the Center’s website.