Jennifer Mahon

Overseas Student Teaching: Affecting Personal, Professional, and Global Competencies in an Age of Globalization

Conditions in the world today demand that teachers have increased international knowledge and experience that they can transmit to the students in their charge. Developing the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve such objectives requires significant immersion experiences in cultures other than one’s own.Schools of edu cation, however, give scant attention to this reality.This study examined the nature of the international student teaching experience and its impact on the professional and personal development of new teachers.Fifty returned student teachers reported how such an experience affected them personally as well as professionally.Findings reflect the study-abroad literature in general, suggesting that an overseas experience has immense benefits for the student teacher.Students reported impact on their beliefs about self and others as evidenced through increased cultural awareness and improved self-efficacy, as well as professional development in terms of global- mindedness.

Under the invisibility cloak? Teacher understanding of cultural difference

While research does exist on how teachers feel about multicultural education or bilingual education, very little data exists on how teachers cognitively construct a core concept of these educational approaches—cultural difference. This article describes the investigation of this understanding among 155 teachers in midwestern USA from rural, urban and suburban schools across grade levels. Utilizing data from the Intercultural Development Inventory, one important finding reveals the degree to which teachers minimize cultural differences. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

The Overseas Student Teaching Experience: Creating Optimal Culture Learning

The preparation of teachers to address the diverse needs of societies demands that more than just the demographics of the teaching force be questioned. This study examined the nature of the international student teaching experience and its impact on the professional and personal development of new teachers. Fifty returning students responded to an open-ended questionnaire designed to elicit how the experience helped or hindered them personally and professionally. Findings suggest that an overseas experience has immense benefits for the student teacher, having impact on beliefs about self and others, professional development in terms of global mindedness, and improved self-efficacy. These categories combine to demonstrate a new understanding of ones own role and improved ability to interact and teach in diverse cultural settings.

Fact or fiction? Analyzing institutional barriers and individual responsibility to advance the internationalization of teacher education

We live in a global age, and our schools and teachers must prepare today’s students to take their places as global citizens. Such education requires an awareness of the world, its people, and its conditions. Some of the ways we may achieve such awareness include infusing a global perspective into the curriculum, sending students overseas, or bringing foreign educators to our schools. This article concentrates on the extent to which teacher education programs support, advocate, and broadcast one such opportunity for increased global awareness – overseas student teaching. It also examines whether state laws prohibit such experience, and the degree to which our states are open to foreign teachers. Through survey of states and content analysis of websites of 409 NCATE accredited institutions, conclusions are drawn regarding institutional commitment to internationalization in teacher education.

Revising and updating the inventory of cross-cultural sensitivity

The following article outlines research conducted to examine cross-cultural sensitivity in a sample of 949 incoming university students in the USA. The study was conducted during the process of updating an existing measure of cross-cultural sensitivity known as the Inventory of Cross-Cultural Sensitivity (ICCS), and to examine the various levels of understanding among the students. Additionally, data were gathered to determine whether there was any relationship between the results and the demographic factors commonly cited in the literature. Results of the study indicate that the updated version of the ICCS, the ICCSv2, is a more robust and reliable measure of intercultural sensitivity for a specific group of freshmen students. Recommendations are made for future research.

Secondary Teachers' Experiences with Students with Disabilities: Examining the Global Landscape.

ABSTRACT This study contributes to the international conversation about the education for students with disabilities at the secondary level by providing some international data about secondary teachers’ training and experiences with inclusive practices. Teacher leaders from 20 different countries participated in this exploratory survey research about the context in which they work, their experiences and their training as related to their efficacy to educate individuals with disabilities. We acknowledge that efficacy and teacher training for inclusion are predominated by a discourse defined through Western best practice. We learned that despite variations in the countries’ concept of disability and their implementation of inclusive educational systems, the teachers had moderately high self-efficacy for inclusive practices yet had limited training and experience with students with special needs. Results are discussed in relation to the preparation of secondary teachers for educating students with special needs.

Work in progress - exposing the Cool Stuff in C. S.

We report on the goals, activities, and some early results related to a new course that has been implemented in our Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department. The course is developed to expose students to curricular and career related options available in our department, and to provide them with hands-on experiences in a broad variety of Computer Science areas. To this end, we have provided Computer Science experiences such as problem solving, group and team work, and multiple interactions with the hardware and software components of computers and other technologies. In addition, we have had Professors bring their leading-edge research to the class to show incoming students the exciting activities they could pursue as juniors and seniors, and in their future careers. The course also accepts non-CS students who are exposed to this same ldquoCool Stuffrdquo with the result that some of them decide to change their major, while all of them come away with a better understanding of what Computer Science really is. Finally, virtually every class activity incorporates some cognitive or metacognitive component that supports student thinking with the intention that they have exercised their higher-level thinking skills by the time they step up to future coursework.