Curricular Intervention in study abroad: The Australian experience
A School of Education seminar presented on October 26, 2016 by Zuocheng Zhang, Susan Feez, Mutuota Kigotho, Gaby Benthien and Goldie Sun
Study abroad, which has been variously defined and also known, for example, as residence abroad, in-country study, or student mobility, refers basically to the undertaking of a temporary sojourn in a country other than one’s home country for educational or personal development purposes. Research has shed considerable light on the complexity involved in study abroad students' linguistic, cognitive, and/or sociocultural learning. There seems to be limited research, however, on the ways of curricular intervention, or approaches to accommodating study abroad students on academic, student service, and social support dimensions, and the impacts of such intervention on student learning. This presentation draws on our several phases of literature search for study abroad, in particular the literature related to curricular intervention practised at Australian universities and elsewhere, to identify the major issues, trends, and ways of curricular intervention. Several salient features of Australia-based study abroad research will be discussed in comparison with those of US and UK-based studies to put Australia on the research map and suggest possible directions for research on curricular intervention in study abroad.
