Page 11 - NJC Newsletter Spring 2016

Personal Development and Intercultural Awareness
A 2004 study from Michigan State University reveals that studying abroad produces significant gains in personal and intercultural growth. Personal growth items include patience, sense of humour, confidence and self-reliance – all key individual competencies now in demand by university admissions officers and employers. Harvard University, for example, lists leadership, sense of humour and warmth of personality on its admissions site.
The Michigan State study also found that students with international experience show greater understanding of and adaptability to new cultures, increased knowledge of their home culture and better insight into comparative values, which is the ability to recognize that there are differing perspectives in
any situation.
In addition, a study led by Carmit Tadmor of Tel Aviv University has found that in-depth multicultural exposure reduces cultural stereotypes and racist attitudes. International students show lower levels of prejudice and discrimination than their stay-at-home peers. They are more comfortable with uncertainty and more open-minded in general. It’s no wonder that they thrive in a world characterized by multicultural connections and diverse perspectives.
Critical and Creative Thinking
Christine Lee of the University of Florida notes that “the ability to engage in cognitively complex tasks with regard to cultural information is becoming an increasingly valuable skill to acquire in today’s globally connected society.” In her study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, Lee concludes that “studying abroad supports complex cognitive processes that underlie
creative thinking.”
In agreement is William Maddux of INSEAD, the world’s leading international graduate school for business. His studies show that when individuals integrate or adapt to a foreign culture while living abroad, their behaviours and thinking become more multifaceted. They show an increase in what Maddux calls “integrative complexity.” They are “creative, open to new experiences, high in initiative, adventurous, clever, and able to bring unrelated ideas together into meaningful wholes.”
Professional Success and Leadership Capacity
Maddux has also found that “multicultural engagement – the extent to which students adapted to and learned about new cultures during their MBA training – predicted the number of job offers students received after the program.” These “integratively complex” individuals were highly valued for their
intellectual creativity and ability to approach problems from numerous and often contradictory perspectives. Creativity is at the heart of critical thinking and problem-solving.
As Maddux explains elsewhere – in the Harvard Business Review – people who have international experience or identify with more than one nationality “are better problem solvers and display more creativity” and “are more likely to create new businesses and products.”
Garee Earnest of the Ohio State University Leadership Center also sees international study experience as a powerful means for developing leadership capacities. He notes that “leaders will need to be prepared to lead in fast- changing environments that include a multiplicity of cultures and traditions and a complex labour force.” Like Maddux, Earnest asserts that immersion in a foreign culture is a powerful path to educating the next generation of leaders.
It’s Not Enough to Be a Tourist
Merely travelling abroad – being a tourist – is insufficient to bring about the numerous benefits of a multicultural experience. In all of the research, it is the immersion in a second culture that leads to significant gains.
Why is immersion so important? Because “for many tourists, travellers or temporary visitors, changing one’s actual thinking and behaviours to fit into the new culture is rarely required” (Leung et. al.). The value of living and studying abroad derives from challenging a person’s former thinking and behaviours and learning to adapt to a new context. Active engagement and adaptation are the drivers of a transformative international experience.
When studying abroad, hotels and dorms are barriers to the host culture – they keep students at a distance from their new world. Billeting with local families – the approach taken by NJC – provides a rich context for personal, intellectual and professional growth. In their host families, students speak the local language, eat the local foods, engage with culturally-different daily habits and develop close relationships. In this immersive environment, billeted students are challenged to think and behave differently, which is what matters most.
According to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, “Today’s employers are seeking employees with global awareness, critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities and strong communication and interpersonal skills.” Attending an international school with a philosophy of cultural immersion is an exciting and dependable route to living, learning and leading in the 21st century.
Dr. Karen Sumner
Educational Writer and Researcher
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