Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

1. Welcome to session 6.02 Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad 15 September 2011

2. SAFSAStudy Abroad and Foreign Student Advisors WHO: EAIE members involved in providing services and guidance to foreign students and scholars, advising students about study abroad opportunities or promoting study abroad programmes in their institutions. WHAT: The focus of SAFSA is on enhancing intercultural communication skills, orientation and advising programmes, practical aspects of international programmes, promotion and advocacy of international mobility and quality in advising. So SAFSA is a platform for discussion and networking with other professionals! Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

3. SAFSAStudy Abroad and Foreign Student Advisors For questions please contact any member of the SAFSA board: Chair: Karin Klitgaard Møller, University of Copenhagen Faculty of Life Sciences, Denmark kkgm@life.ku.dk Vice-chair: Ingrid Gehrke, FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences, Austria Ingrid.Gehrke@fh-joanneum.at Board: Barbara Boldt, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland Barbara.boldt@epfl.ch Kevin Murphy, CEA Global Education, Italy Kevin.Murphy@gowithcea.com Léa D. Senn, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy lea.senn@unicatt.it Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

4. Chair and Speaker: Zachary Androus, CEA Global Education, Florence Speaker: Trevor Nelson, Iowa State University Speaker: Kevin Murphy, CEA Global Education Italy

5. Trevor Nelson - a brief introduction What is experiential learning? Theorists - John Dewy & David Kolb Kolb's Learning Cycle

6. Kolb's Learning Cycle

7. Reflection - An experience remains just that without reflection. • Types of experiential learning: • Internship • Practicum • Cooperative education • Field experience • Cross cultural experiences • Service learning

8. Increase in study abroad and experiential learning participation • Institutional motivations • Student motivations • Working with partners and providers

9. Experiential Learning during Study Abroad in Florence, ItalyProf. Zachary Androus, CEA Global Campus Florence Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

10. I am… • a US trained anthropologist • a professor in Florence teaching • Communication and Global Competence • Intercultural Communication (for International Fashion Merchandising and Marketing) • Anthropology of Contemporary Italian Society • Sport and Culture in Contemporary Italy Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

11. Experiential Learning? • what anthropology does as anthropology (participant-observation) • what I do as a teacher abroad Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

12. What I’m talking about today draws on… • my own participant-observation during Spring and Summer 2011 • site visits, demonstrations, field trips: • six different courses across five different • programs) • surveys: six professors and one director representing 11 different programs • Interviews with two CEA students. Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

13. The Professors I Surveyed… • represent eleven different programs • teach courses including • Italian Culture and Society • Italian Urban History • Renaissance and Modern Architecture • Women in Italian Society • Feminist Thought • Anthropology of Fashion Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

14. Professors on experiential learning… • “absolutely essential” • “crucial for the study abroad experience” • “makes the difference between studying at home and studying in a foreign country” • “the only way for them to learn” Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

15. Course Related EL in Florence… • site visits/field trips: • museums • cinema • central market • artist/artisan studios • art galleries • local businesses Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

16. Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

17. Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

18. Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

19. Course Related EL in Florence… • observational/interactional • «cultural encounter» • scavenger hunt • participant-observation • conversation exchange • special activities Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

20. Course Related EL in Florence… Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

21. Course Related EL in Florence… Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

22. Key Points and New Insights… • Faculty often use their own social networks to create EL opportunities for their students. • Life outside the classroom is always an aspect of students’ own EL but is not always brought into the classroom (my survey suggests that course topic or content may be a factor in this, but not necessarily) Cooperating with the community: experiential learning activities abroad

23. Kevin Murphy • I am… • a UK-trained art historian • a professor in Florence teaching Art History • Dean and Director of two Study Abroad programs in Italy • Experiential learning in Art History?

24. Well, Study Abroad itself is a form of experiential learning • but • What should\can a foreign institution\provider contribute? • Local know-how • Institutional & faculty personal contacts • Safety • Well-rehearsed systems of validating the educational value of experience • On-site emphasis on careers value of experience - resume building • advice. • Freedom to instruct (faculty-led programmes) • Technology and communication, for program administrators & • instructors create strong links with home institution.

25. Local Library Membership Mission Communication Tolerance Patience Independence Adaptation Appreciation Café Solo What kind of people are there? Outside? How do they use the space/s? What are they doing, how are they dressed? What interactions are taking place? Verbal? Non-verbal? What is the sound\smell environment? How do you feel being there? And making your order? How were you treated? …and so on.

26. Challenges Experience is not enough – measurement is required Contact hours and teaching on site? Programme length – not realistic in a brief trip or tour of a foreign country. Transparency of academic integrity (SVH)

27. Clarity of Intention. • The student, instructor, and study abroad administrator should determine and agree on the learning objective of any experience (sign a contract?): • Why is the student going abroad? • What can be gained in a learning context from the experience? • See the “Principles of Good Practice” of the National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE).