Broadening the lens: a pilot study of student cognitive flexibility and intercultural sensitivity in short-term study abroad experiences

Abstract

Study abroad has emerged as an essential element in many U.S. students' college careers, as many degree programs have implemented study abroad as a degree requirement and globalization has fostered a flourishing globalized economy and society. Over half of these students are choosing to go abroad for short-term programs of six weeks or less, and thus this pilot study considered the effects short programs can have on participants. The study included a study abroad participant group who went abroad for one month or less and a control group of students who did not go abroad. The study utilized a pre-posttest design, and participants in both groups were sent online surveys before and after the one month study period. The study utilized Martin and Rubin's (1995) Cognitive Flexibility Scale and Chen and Starosta's (2000) Intercultural Sensitivity Scale to measure changes in participant intercultural personhood, to which both cognitive flexibility and intercultural sensitivity contribute. The study also used open-ended questions in the posttest to gather study abroad participant narratives and add qualitative depth to the findings. The data analysis found the study abroad students did exhibit an increase in cognitive flexibility after their trips abroad (M = 5.00, SD = 0.65) when compared with the longitudinal data for control group participants who stayed in country (M = 4.72, SD = 0.32); however, due to the size of the small pilot study, these findings were not statistically significant: F (1, 1) = 0.867, p > .05. The study encountered an unexpected trend when study abroad students exhibited lower intercultural sensitivity after their trips (M = 3.55, SD = 0.54) than control group students who stayed in country (M = 4.00, SD = 0.45), though also not a statistically significant finding: F (1, 1) = 1.14, p > .05. Interestingly, a data analysis considering changes in cognitive flexibility when controlling for second language fluency did approach significance: F (1, 1) = 13.262, p = .068. The difference in level of cognitive flexibility in study abroad participants (M = 4.92, SD = 0.65) and control group participants (M = 4.80, SD = 0.32) when controlling for second language fluency also continued to trend in the expected direction. While I provide insight into potential explanations for the three trends, the findings and conclusions from this pilot study are used to posit questions and ideas for future research. The findings of this pilot study not only contribute holistically to the field of study abroad research, but can also be applied to future short-term study abroad research and even to the actual design of study abroad program support structures.