Impacts of a Faculty Abroad Experience on Teaching Style and Technology Use in a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Abstract

Faculty abroad programs are becoming a popular method to provide faculty in colleges of agriculture with international experiences so they may internationalize their curricula. These programs also serve to provide experiential faculty development opportunities. Eight faculty members from Texas A&M Univer- sity participated in a faculty abroad experience in Trinidad and Tobago and developed instructional ma- terials using technology. Pre-reflective and reflective interview responses were qualitatively analyzed to determine the impact of this experience on participants’ teaching style and technology usage. The com- parison of the pre-reflective and reflective data sets indicated participants perceived impact on teaching style, specifically in relation to their curriculum content and use of global connections as it pertained to their discipline and global relationships with native counterparts. Many participants were already using technology in the classroom prior to the international experience. As a result of the experience, the level of their technology usage increased as they incorporated media, such as audio and video, to communicate their experiences and create context for their lessons. It was concluded that teaching style, technology usage, and excitement for teaching were renewed as a result of an international experience. Future stud- ies should be conducted to compare these findings with similar faculty abroad experiences.