Intercultural Competence And Short-Term Study Abroad: Assessment Of Truman State University’s Program In Costa Rica

This study examines the level of global awareness obtained by a Costa Rica eight-week, short-term study abroad program and compares it with a semester-long program. The short-term group abroad students from Truman State University (TSU) included academic immersion, professor guidance, and local interaction with the host country. The semester programs were located in 26 countries, with different host institutions, and various types of accommodation and the similarity in these groups were the length of the program. The conceptual framework utilized was the Intercultural Competence theory and the case study methodology. This study used the Assessment of Intercultural Competences (AIC) forms to measures global awareness in the post sojourn. The data consisted of interviews to the staff of the Center for International Education at TSU and the director of the faculty-led Costa Rican short-term program and also a survey questionnaire for the students. The survey was sent to 950 students and 124 responded anonymously. The data was gathered and tabulated using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and the instruments used were ANOVA, Pearson Chi Square test and T-test. The findings were divided in qualitative and quantitative analysis. Results and conclusions were summarized as they pertained to the primary hypothesis “Exposure to another culture for eight-week through a well-planned short-term study abroad program can provide global awareness in the participating students.