Summary
Abroad courses are becoming apart of many higher education programs. Such courses can introduce students to the global perspective of business discipline and provide them with valuable international experience. Student's personality traits, however, may have an influence on how they perceive the effectiveness of the abroad courses. Accordingly, this study investigated the relationships between students' personality traits (risk-taking propensity, goal orientation, and openness to experience) and their perception of the effectiveness of summer abroad courses. A total of 121 students (twenty graduate students and 101 undergraduate students) who participated in a summer abroad program constituted the survey group. The findings of this study suggest that students are fairly satisfied with various components of the summer abroad courses while they see a need for improvement in extracurricular activities, such as company visits and plant tours. Furthermore, goal oriented students, particularly those with a higher level of learning goal orientation, find the in-class lectures (both in the U.S. and at abroad colleges/universities), guest lecturers, and outside class activities to be more effective.
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Extract
The Effect of Personality Traits On the Perceived Effectiveness of Summer Study Abroad Programs: An Empirical Study in the United States
Introduction
One's individual characteristics could determine his/her behaviors and perceptions. Similarly, students' personality traits may reveal their learning behaviors and influence their perception of course effectiveness. The field of psychology has uncovered a variety of personality trait measures. Through empirical research (Goldberg, 1993), these personality measures have been clustered under a widely accepted five-factor model (Judge, et al., 1999) known as "Big Five" which includes traits of extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness to experience (Costa & McCrae,1992, and Digman, 1990). For this study, however, we focus on three specific, relevant personality traits (risk-taking propensity, goal orientation, and openness to experience) and examine the relationships between these personality traits and perceived effectiveness of summer abroad short courses.From an ...See the full content of this document
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