Beyond sea, sun and fun in Rio de Janeiro: understanding exchange students motivations and interests

O objetivo deste estudo é compreender o que leva estudantes de intercâmbio ao Rio de Janeiro, quais são suas motivações e interesses que influenciam na escolha dessa cidade, um destino pouco tradicional para intercâmbios, que recebe um crescente número de intercambistas de países desenvolvidos. Também apresentamos uma discussão mais ampla sobre a educação internacional do século 21, posicionando programas de intercâmbio como uma das possíveis iniciativas para a internacionalização de instituições de ensino superior. Para responder essa questão, 20 estudantes de 11 países foram entrevistados. Os resultados indicam que existe muito mais no Rio de Janeiro além do sol e das belas praias. Há uma grande variedade de interesses que explicam porque estudantes de intercâmbio escolhem esse destino. O clichê sobre sol, praia e carnaval se manifestou em diversas respostas, no entanto, nunca como principal fator. Intercambistas se interessam pela cidade por diversos motivos além das atrações turísticas, como aprender português, melhorar o currículo e estar em uma economia emergente. Recomendações para a internacionalização de instituições de educação e uma agenda de pesquisa para o desenvolvimento desse tópico são apresentadas na parte final.

Exchange students in Brazil: some factors behind its choice - empirical evidences from a Brazilian school

O Brasil sempre foi um lugar conveniente para se visitar em termos de cultura, diversão e entretenimento. No entanto, este estudo visa o lado educacional do país, particularmente, os estudantes estrangeiros que escolhem o Brasil para programas de intercâmbio. Fins e razões por trás das escolhas dos estudantes foram identificados através de pesquisas quantitativas e qualitativas, juntamente com a revisão da literatura já existente. A pesquisa primária foi feita por meio de entrevistas com estudantes de intercâmbio já no Brasil. Os dados coletados foram analisados e são apresentados de forma estatística, juntamente com a representação gráfica. O seguinte estudo apontou que os denominados “turistas” e, assim chamados, “money seekers”, serem os principais fatores por trás da escolha de estudantes. A pesquisa também mostra que os alunos mais satisfeitos foram os que escolheram o Brasil por causa da qualidade da universidade sede, assim como para explorar as perspectivas de emprego, juntamente com iniciar uma carreira no Brasil.

Tutors as mediators of exchange student experiences: evaluation of the international student tutor system at the University of Turku

As academic student mobility is increasing, improving the functionality of international operations is recognised as a competitive advantage at tertiary education institutions. Although many scholars have researched the experiences of exchange students, the role of student tutors and their contribution to exchange students’ experiences is still an unknown factor. This research examines international tutoring at the University of Turku, and aims to understand better the way tutoring contributes to exchange experiences and to explore the functionality of the tutor system and discover areas for improvements. To achieve these goals, the research seeks to answer the fundamental research question: What is the role of tutors in mediating exchange experiences? The theoretical framework combines literature on mediating exchange experiences, the phenomenon of studying abroad, the process of adaptation, the importance of cross-cultural communication, and the role of student tutors as mediators. Based on the literature review, a theoretical model for studying the mediation of exchange experiences is introduced. The model’s applicability and validity is examined through a case study. Three methods were used in the empirical research: surveys, participant observations, and interviews. These methods provided extensive data from three major parties of the tutor system: tutors, exchange students, and the international office. The findings of the research reveal that tutoring – instrumental leading and social and cultural mediating – generates both negative and positive experiences depending on the individuals’ expectations, motivations, relationships, and the nature of the tutoring. Although functional, there are a few weaknesses in the tutor system. Tutors tend to act as effective instrumental leaders, but often fail to create a friendship and contribute to the exchange students’ experience through social and cultural mediation, which is significantly more important in the exchange students’ overall experience in terms of building networks, adapting, gaining emotional experiences, and achieving the stage of personal development and mental change. Based on the weaknesses, three improvements are suggested: (1) increasing comprehensive sharing of information, effective communication, and collective cooperation, (2) emphasising the importance of social and cultural mediation and increasing the frequency of interaction between tutors and exchange students, and (3) improving the recruitment and training, revising the process of reporting and rewarding, and finally, enhancing services and coordination.

Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) human half lives estimated from North Americans moving to Australia

Human half-lives of PentaBDE congeners have been estimated from the decline in serum concentrations measured over a 6-12 month period for a population of exchange students moving from North America to Australia. Australian serum PBDE concentrations are typically between 5 -10 times lower than in North America and we can therefore hypothesize that if the biological half-life is sufficiently short we would observe a decline in serum concentration with length of residence in Australia. Thirty students were recruited over a period of 3 years from whom serum were archived every 2 months during their stay in Australia. Australian residents (n=22) were also sampled longitudinally to estimate general population background levels. All serum samples were analyzed by gas chromatography high resolution mass spectrometry. Key findings confirmed that BDE-47 concentrations in the Australians (median 2.3;

Terceiro setor, interculturalidade e ações educativas de uma organização transnacional

A pesquisa busca analisar a operacionalização das diretrizes pedagógicas não formais oferecidas por uma Organização do Terceiro Setor, de base internacional, com comitês locais em vários municípios do Brasil. A investigação pretende, também, abordar a contribuição das programações ofertadas para o desenvolvimento de uma nova relação com o saber segundo Bernard Charlot, de acordo com avaliação dos seus membros, no sentido de interculturalidade. A escolha da organização, objeto de estudo, se justifica por ter surgido após a Segunda Guerra Mundial, em 1948, fundada por estudantes de sete países europeus (Noruega, Dinamarca, França, Suécia, Finlândia, Bélgica e Países Baixos), com o propósito de contribuir para a integração entre diferentes culturas, promovendo o entendimento e a cooperação entre seus países membros, através do intercâmbio de técnicas administrativas e de recursos humanos (AIESEC, 2014). Trata-se de um estudo de caso no qual o referencial teórico destaca os autores Maria da Glória Gohn, Jaime Trilla, José Carlos Libâneo e Simone Park por caracterizarem a educação não formal. Os conceitos relacionados ao Terceiro Setor são trabalhados à luz das concepções dos autores Leilah Landin, Sérgio Haddad e Carlos Montaño. Para o conceito de competências são usadas, principalmente, as abordagens de Acácia Kuenzer e Neise Deluiz e, finalmente, Vera Candau e Maria Aneas, para a abordagem da interculturalidade. A metodologia da pesquisa com abordagem qualitativa se utiliza de métodos diferenciados como: observação não participante, entrevista semipadronizada com quatro intercambistas, pesquisa documental e análise de documentos na internet. Os dados revelam que as práticas pedagógicas de Educação Não Formal apresentam uma dicotomia entre seus valores de paz e os seus fazeres convergentes com a lógica do mercado globalizado. A pesquisa aponta que as ações educativas deveriam ultrapassar a concepção de multiculturalismo, para a de interculturalismo, instaurando o diálogo com as diferenças.

O projeto COMAP - comissão de apadrinhamento

Trabalho de Projeto apresentado ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Marketing Digital, sob orientação do Mestre António da Silva Vieira

«Le grand retour» : le processus de rapatriement chez l’étudiant en échange à l’international

L’augmentation rapide de l’interdépendance mondiale, provoquée par le développement de la mondialisation, exige une redéfinition de la notion traditionnelle de l’éducation supérieure. Au Canada, comme dans le reste du monde, plusieurs universitaires, fonctionnaires du gouvernement et étudiants insistent maintenant sur l’intégration de l’internationalisation dans l’éducation supérieure à travers des échanges interculturels et des études à l’étranger, dans l’espoir que les générations canadiennes à venir développent une perspective globale et deviennent des « citoyens du monde » (Comité consultatif sur la stratégie du Canada en matière d’éducation internationale, 2012). Pourtant, pour garantir que l’étudiant qui participe à un échange profite le plus de son expérience internationale, nous devrons comprendre comment une telle expérience l’influence tant à court terme qu’à long terme. Bien que d’autres études se soient concentrées sur le court terme (le séjour à l’étranger et ses impacts immédiats), peu ont examiné le retour de l’étudiant, sa réintégration dans sa société d’origine et les effets subséquents à long terme, tels que les développements personnels qui pourraient suivre le rapatriement. Cette étude qualitative examine les témoignages de huit étudiants au premier cycle de l’Université de Montréal sur la façon dont ils ont vécu leur rapatriement à Montréal après un échange pédagogique à l’étranger. Quoique certains chercheurs présentent la notion de rapatriement comme une série d’événements déconnectés, notre analyse fait ressortir une tendance similaire dans tous nos témoignages qui nous permet dorénavant de considérer ce rapatriement comme un processus en trois étapes interconnectées. En empruntant à la théorie Intercultural Personhood de Kim (2008), nous sommes désormais en mesure de qualifier ces trois étapes comme étant le stress, l’adaptation et l’évolution. Non seulement cette interprétation nous aide à mieux comprendre les difficultés rencontrées par l’étudiant à l’occasion de son retour, mais elle facilite également l’identification des transformations identitaires qui apparaissent à ce moment-là et la manière dont ces transformations influencent le processus de rapatriement.

A tripla perspectiva: a vinda, a permanência e a volta de estudantes angolanos no Brasil

Este artigo é uma reflexão sobre o papel que as universidades paulistas e paranaenses desempenham no processo de formação acadêmica dos estudantes dos Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa (Palop), em particular os angolanos. Essa formação na instituição de ensino superior propicia novos diálogos e novas sínteses identitárias possibilitadas por outras práticas culturais apreendidas no contato com alunos, docentes, funcionários, instituições acadêmicas e de pesquisa que ignoram a realidade vivenciada por eles em Angola. Constituiremos, assim, o cenário histórico-cultural; o percurso acadêmico e identitário do estudante angolano; o contexto estudantil angolano; a história recente desse país; o lugar do intelectual e do professor universitário; o papel e o uso da língua portuguesa no Brasil e em Angola no ambiente estudantil, familiar e na rua. Buscamos entender o imaginário do jovem estudante intercambista angolano que convive com os conflitos do estigma do migrante temporário e do estereótipo do refugiado de guerra.

Valores culturais e organizacionais em transformação: estudo sobre o Programa de Intercâmbio Social da Aiesec

Many young people have chosen go on exchange experiences, expecting to live in a context full of diversity, to know elements in the country they are visiting and also to develop themselves personally and professionally. Organizational and cultural values can be acquired or developed through these professional exchange experiences. This paper aimed to understand the vision of young people who went on the social exchange of AIESEC related to cultural and organizational values in the experience. AIESEC is a global and nonprofit organization formed by university students, with the objective of peace and the fulfillment of the humankind needs. Thus, professional exchanges are the main tool for achieving this goal. The study analyzes the experiences of 15 exchange students as well as the point of view of five managers of the organization in order to gain a broad perspective in relation to exchange experiences to understand how young people understand the concept of culture. The interview results suggest that in labor relations, autonomy and egalitarianism are values that go together, while the harmony could be observed by the fact that the projects deal with the issue of sustainability. Furthermore, responsibility, tolerance and collective were the human values that the exchange students developed the most, indicating that experience enables openness to live the diversity and to the intercultural dialogue in order to value local cultures of the visited countries

Structural plasticity in the language system related to increased second language proficiency

While functional changes linked to second language learning have been subject to extensive investigation, the issue of learning-dependent structural plasticity in the fields of bilingualism and language comprehension has so far received less notice. In the present study we used voxel-based morphometry to monitor structural changes occurring within five months of second language learning. Native English-speaking exchange students learning German in Switzerland were examined once at the beginning of their stay and once about five months later, when their German language skills had significantly increased. We show that structural changes in the left inferior frontal gyrus are correlated with the increase in second language proficiency as measured by a paper-and-pencil language test. Contrary to the increase in proficiency and grey matter, the absolute values of grey matter density and second language proficiency did not correlate (neither on first nor on second measurement). This indicates that the individual amount of learning is reflected in brain structure changes, regardless of absolute proficiency.

Plasticity in the adult language system: a longitudinal electrophysiological study on second language learning

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to trace changes in brain activity related to progress in second language learning. Twelve English-speaking exchange students learning German in Switzerland were recruited. ERPs to visually presented single words from the subjects' native language (English), second language (German) and an unknown language (Romansh) were measured before (day 1) and after (day 2) 5 months of intense German language learning. When comparing ERPs to German words from day 1 and day 2, we found topographic differences between 396 and 540 ms. These differences could be interpreted as a latency shift indicating faster processing of German words on day 2. Source analysis indicated that the topographic differences were accounted for by shorter activation of left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) on day 2. In ERPs to English words, we found Global Field Power differences between 472 and 644 ms. This may due to memory traces related to English words being less easily activated on day 2. Alternatively, it might reflect the fact that--with German words becoming familiar on day 2--English words loose their oddball character and thus produce a weaker P300-like effect on day 2. In ERPs to Romansh words, no differences were observed. Our results reflect plasticity in the neuronal networks underlying second language acquisition. They indicate that with a higher level of second language proficiency, second language word processing is faster and requires shorter frontal activation. Thus, our results suggest that the reduced IFG activation found in previous fMRI studies might not reflect a generally lower activation but rather a shorter duration of activity.

Reduced frontal activation with increasing 2nd language proficiency

The factors influencing the degree of separation or overlap in the neuronal networks responsible for the processing of first and second language are still subject to investigation. This longitudinal study investigates how increasing second language proficiency influences activation differences during lexico-semantic processing of first and second language. Native English speaking exchange students learning German were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging while reading words in three different languages at two points in time: at the beginning of their stay (day 1) and 5 months later (day 2), when second language proficiency had significantly increased. On day 1, second language words evoked more frontal activation than words from the mother tongue. These differences were diminished on day 2. We therefore conclude that with increasing second language proficiency, lexico-semantic processing of second language words needs less frontal control. Our results demonstrate that lexico-semantic processing of first and second language converges onto similar networks as second language proficiency increases.

European student mobility and intercultural learning at a portuguese university

The purpose of this study is to understand, impact and evaluate the development of intercultural communicative competencies among European credit-seeking exchange students and other sojourners through purposeful intercultural pedagogy. This pedagogy encompasses intentional intercultural- educational approaches which aim to support and enhance sojourners’ intercultural learning throughout the study abroad cycle (pre-departure, in-country and reentry phases). To test and validate these pedagogies a 20-hour intervention was designed and implemented among two cohorts of 31 sojourners during the in-country phase of their sojourn in Portugal. The process to develop and validate the intercultural intervention was driven by a mixed-methods methodology which combined quantitative and qualitative data to triangulate, complement and expand research results from a pragmatic stance. The mixed methods research design adopted is multi-phased and encompasses a multi-case study and an evaluative component. The multi-case component is embodied by sojourner cohorts: (1) the primary case study involves 19 incoming students at the University of Aveiro (Portugal) as participants in the European exchange program Campus Europae; (2) the second case study comprises three incoming Erasmus students and nine highly skilled immigrants at the same university. All 31 sojourners attended two intermediate Portuguese as Foreign Language classrooms where the intervention was employed. Data collection was extensive and involved collecting, analyzing and mixing quantitative and qualitative strands across four research phases. These phases refer to the: (1) development, (2) implementation and (3) evaluation of the intervention, as well as to (4) a stakeholder analysis of the external value of the intervention and of the Campus Europae program. Data collection instruments included pre and posttest questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Results confirm the intercultural effectiveness of the intervention and the positive impact upon research participants’ intercultural gains. This impact was, however, greater in case study 2. Among explanatory variables, three stand out: (1) participant meaning-making abilities, (2) host language proficiency and related variables, and (3) type of sojourn or exchange programs. Implications for further research highlight the need to systematize purposeful intercultural pedagogy in sojourner populations in general, and in European credit student mobility in particular. In the latter case, these pedagogies should be part of the design and delivery of credit-bearing exchange programs in pre- departure, in-country and re-entry phases. Implications for practice point to the urge to improve intercultural practices in: macro (higher education institutions), mezzo (exchange programs) and micro (sojourner language classrooms) contexts where this research took place, and wider social scenarios they represent.

A interseccionalidade de gênero, raça e classe no Programa Ciência sem Fronteiras : um estudo sobre estudantes brasileiros com destino aos EUA

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Educação, Departamento de Pós-Graduação, Mestrado Profissional em Educação, 2015.

Functions of code-switching in multilingual student community

Dissertação de Mestrado, Ciências da Linguagem, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, 2013