The study examined the impact of short-term study abroad, long-term study abroad with curriculum integration, and only study abroad and no study abroad on the intercultural sensitivity of students. The study consisted of four groups of students in short-term study abroad consisting of 13 students who completed a short-term study abroad for two weeks. Group 1 consisted of 16 students who participated in study abroad in England and were also enrolled in a group Dynamics course. The Group 2 consisted of 16 students who went to study abroad in England but were not part of the course, and Group 3 consisted of 13 students who did not do study abroad and stayed back in their home country. Students who went on short-term study abroad demonstrated a statistically significant increase in denial and defense sub-scale after studying abroad. Students in Group 1 demonstrated a significant and meaningful increase in their DO scores by 11.56 points and students in Groups 2 and 3 demonstrated a marginal gain in DO scores by 2.14 and 1.43 respectively. The findings of the study confirm the importance of engaging students in guided reflections and providing a culturally immersive experience along with studying abroad to help students develop interculturally.

The study was conducted to understand the impact of study abroad program on 14 chinese students. The students went on a study abroad trip to England. All the students who participated in the program were enrolled in Special English Stream course. The data was collected using a mixed-method design but the study had reported only the quantitative results. The IDI was conducted hrice when they entered the program, prior to the study abroad and post study abroad.The results of the study demonstrated that student upon entering the program were at the cusp of polarization and minimization the DO score was 88.32. During the program students participated in various activities, reflections related to intercultural learning. Students were required to complete an IDI prior to their study abroad trip and the results revealed that their was a gain of 8.02 points on IDC and DO score was 96.25. Student also participated in a 5 week long study abroad trip to England. The IDI results post study abroad completion demonstrated that students IDI score for the group increased by 8.57 points and DO score was (104.82). The study demonstrated that structured engagement helped the students to move ahead on the IDC. It was also interesting to note the growth of the students interms on intercultural sensitivity from the time of entry to the completion of study abroad program.

This study also highlights the impact of professional development in helping district school teachers to develop intercultural competence. The study was conducted in a large midwestern urban district. The district schools consisted of more than 50% of students of color, and 94% of teachers were white. A district-wide professional development for teachers was conducted, and the study focused on understanding the impact of professional development programs on teachers. The study used IDI v2 pre and post to assess the intercultural competence level of the teachers. 86 teachers participated in the study. First, the pre-IDI was conducted, and then teachers were required to participate in the professional development workshop. The workshop helped teachers to understand the underlying theories of intercultural competence and the DMIS framework. The group debrief was conducted for the teachers, and thirty minutes of time was given to the teacher if they wanted to know their individual IDI scores and discuss the results with the facilitators. In the next phase, site-based professional development was planned for teachers. All the site development programs were developed on the principles of DMIS. All teachers participated in various training over the course of four years. They were also encouraged to take courses on diversity, equity, and inclusion, read books and engage in community services. After 2.5 to 3.5 years of administering the pre-IDI, post-IDI was administered. The results of the study demonstrated there was a significant increase in DO and PO scores from pre to post-IDI. There was also a significant increase in minimization similarity, minimization universalism, minimization, acceptance, behavioral adaptation sub-scale, and overall adaptation subscale. However, it is also important to note that out of 86 students, 70 were female students. All the female students demonstrated a significant increase in their DO scores. Teachers with graduate degrees demonstrated a significant increase in DO.

Historically, we have not had a sufficient “intercultural competence toolkit” from which to assess how “competent” an individual or an organization is in terms of working across cultures nor a framework from which systematic efforts at developing increased intercultural competence can undertaken. With the development of the Intercultural Development Inventory (Hammer, 2007; Hammer, Bennett & Wiseman, 2003), our “toolkit” has been greatly expanded.2 The Intercultural Development Inventory (v.3; hereafter referred to as IDI) is the premier, crossculturally valid and reliable measure of intercultural competence. The IDI has direct application to global leadership, defined by Harris, Moran & Moran (2004) as “being capable of operating 246effectively in a global environment while being respectful of cultural diversity” (p. 25). While a relatively new assessment tool, the IDI is already demonstrating significant impact with over 1200 qualified IDI Administrators from over 30 countries. Further, the IDI has been rigorously “back translated” (Brislin, 1980; 1976; 1970) into 12 languages, thus insuring both linguistic and conceptual equivalence.

The study was conducted to understand the impact of short-term study abroad on students enrolled in a Special English Stream course at a Chinese university. The participants of the study were 14 students took IDI thrice when they entered the program, prior to the study abroad and post study abroad. The qualitative data was also conducted pre-sojurn, during the sojourn and post journ. The data was in the form of reflection and interviews. The results of the study demonstrated that students upon their entry into the program the IDI results were as follows: 1 student was in defense, 5 students in defense reversal, 3 in minimization and 1 in acceptance. Students after spending sometime in the program and just prior to their study abroad trip to England, it was observed that there was no student in defense. But their was 4 student in defense reversal, 7 in Minimization and 3 in acceptance. Lastly the IDI was conducted after the study abroad program and the results indicated 1 student in defense reversal, 8 in Minimization and 4 in acceptance. One student did not take the iDI upon return, therefore the score was missing for one student. The author also provided qualitative examples for each of the three phases. The results of the study were encourgaing as it engaging students in reflection and participating in study abroad helped students to move ahead on the IDC.