Articles Development of University Students’ International Awareness through Overseas Training: Focusing on Analysis of Pre- and Post-Questionnaire of the School Education Study and Training in America

This research is intended to clarify how overseas training programs bring about the development of international awareness among university students aspiring to be teachers in the future and what impact the programs have on education. To this end,pre- and post-attitude surveys were conducted on 80 students who have participated for the last three years in the ‘School Education Study and Training in America’, a short-term overseas education training program which has been organized by Bunkyo University for over 30 years since 1990. The survey results have revealed ① that regarding each domain of (1) cross-cultural understanding, (2) understanding of one’s own culture and (3) communication/international exchange, for which this training program is designed, the training proved to be highly effective for enhancement of confidence in abilities and skills and for development of international awareness in terms of interest, attitude and motivation, ② that as for the relativity between the frequency of lessons at a training school and the development of students’ awareness, there was a tendency that ‘in each domain related to international awareness the more lessons they give, the more confident they will be after the training’, and ③ that concerning the relevance between students who stay with a host family alone vis-à-vis students who stay with a host family together with another participant and the development of students’ awareness, ‘staying with a host family alone is obviously more effective in enhancing students’ confidence in each domain relevant to international awareness after the training.