This Frontiers article and YouTube author interview (each linked above) "introduce the Special Issue on Assessment as Pedagogy in Education Abroad, which seeks to answer the question: How can we guide educators toward specific and intentional alignment of learning objectives, the learning context, and learner capacities and needs so that students achieve the desired learning outcomes?" (Acheson et al., 2021). 

Authors: Kris Acheson, Lan Jin, Aletha Stahl, and Katherine Yngve

This activity challenges participants to set aside their own beliefs and attempt to truly listen to a perspective different from their own.             

As a result of this activity, participants will be able to practice listening for understanding, demonstrate respect, curiosity and empathy for others, and develop relationships with culturally different others.

In this activity, participants will practice offering perspectives without the goal of persuasion and practice listening to other’s perspectives without judgment.

This instrument is designed to measure orientation toward listening with relation to listener perceptions of a speaker. 

This article cautions that while Theatre of the Oppressed workshops work toward inclusivity and equity, workshop facilitators can easily fall into assuming participants' physical abilities, with the potential to lead to exclusion and inequity. The author therefore provides resources to maintain and continuously improve equity in facilitation by highlighting disability scholarship and Universal Design pedagogy to include and honor the diversity of bodies in workshops. 

This podcast addresses emotional labor in the foreign language classroom.

This short survey tool measures capacity for wonder, which is comprised of two sub-constructs: Emotional Re-awakening and Perspective Shifting.

"Wonderment" has been identified, in the research literature on education abroad (Engberg &Jourian, 2015), as one of the most frequent outcomes of short-term study abroad, particularly for individuals who have not yet been abroad. Ability to shift perspectives is often identified as an outcome that study abroad leaders desire to impart to their learners.  This instrument offers a valid and reliable way of measuring both of those things.

This article offer a list of 18 icebreaker activities from Professor Wendy Smooth and The Ohio State University with the goal of "building connections and starting conversations" (The Ohio State University).

This article emphasizes the importance of classroom routines in supporting student well-being.

In this documentary trailer, Yo-Yo Ma travels the world, shedding light on the collaborative and linguistic nature of music. 

This article from George Predota describes Yo-Yo Ma's intercultural journey. 

This blog post explores the historical and familial factors that impact the evolution of a musician- from Yo-Yo Ma's father, "It takes three generations to make a musician: the first to leave poverty, the second to go to school, and the third to master an instrument."

This activity challenges participants to make meaning of their study abroad experience. They will choose a song that they feel is representative of their study abroad and analyze the song in relation to their experiences based on the four levels of cultural awareness.

The website in this activity lists social justice songs from throughout history and encourages learners to discuss social justice issues from a variety of perspectives. 

After exploring this media resource, learners will be able to experience music and cultural discourses from global cultures by listening to live radio stations all over the world.

The purpose of this activity is to help participants understand their own cultural rules and biases, as well as conduct research and critically analyze media that will help shape their responses to cultural biases. Participants will engage with the musical Hamilton, a show that details the life of Alexander Hamilton, but also provides an avenue for viewers to critically self-reflect on current American cultural practices. This activity will challenge students to critically analyze a piece of popular culture, conduct research, and understand new aspects of American culture.

This lesson plan challenges participants to connect with someone from a different culture through music. In this activity, participants will find a partner and share their favorite songs that are in some way emblematic of their home culture. They will share what the song means to them and discuss the emotions that the song evokes.

Synthesis Through Song is a think-pair-share/small group activity where students work together to analyze and discuss song lyrics through the lens of cultural norms. The activity simulates the process of synthesizing resources.

“We Americans,” a song by The Avett Brothers, provides an interpretation on American life and culture. In this activity, participants will listen to the song/read the lyrics and discuss how their worldview affects their reaction to it.

For better or worse, group dynamics form quickly in team settings and are informed by many factors. Within every diverse team setting, groups have the potential to collaborate effectively and creatively, however, miscommunication and misunderstandings are inevitable. Solutions to issues must be identified and addressed for positive shifts to occur. This activity encourages participants to consider their own communication styles and the styles of others when working on diverse teams and to reflect upon and enact behaviors that contribute to healthier and more inclusive team dynamics.

A key aspect of intersectionality is the context in which an identity is expressed. With each of our identities, we both perceive ourselves and others receive us differently depending on the context and circumstances. We are always who we are, but we don't think about certain parts of ourselves in the same way until we change school, company, location, etc. In this activity, participants will explore how different identities become more salient under different circumstances.

This activity introduces a case study of international development and humanitarian aid to participants to consider the ways in which intensity factors impact cross-cultural interactions and collaboration. Participants are introduced to the background of the case study step-by-step, with each step introducing additional insight and nuance into the complexities of the situation.

The Stevens Initiative, a program that supports virtual exchange programs, has curated a collection of resources to assist educators and institutions in implementing virtual exchange initiatives. This collection, known as the "Stevens Initiative Curated Resources for Virtual Exchange," is a comprehensive compilation of tools, guides, and best practices aimed at enhancing the effectiveness and impact of virtual exchange programs.

The curated resources cover a wide range of topics relevant to virtual exchange, including program design, partnership development, curriculum integration, assessment and evaluation, intercultural communication, and technology selection. These resources are carefully selected to provide practical insights, evidence-based strategies, and real-world examples that can inform and guide educators in their virtual exchange endeavors.