Posts in category: International study

Every student has a unique experience, but many would say school is hard. It is meant to be difficult because students cannot learn effectively without pushing their limits every day. However, some things can make the educational process more enjoyable and rewarding. Having kind, understanding teachers is one aspect that can make the school better. Another equally important factor is learning in a comfortable and creative environment.

Read on and discover why learning in an inspiring environment is essential.

It promotes creativity

Students need to feel inspired and engaged in the classroom to access their creativity and express it accordingly. This explains why young students like to play with words or textures and come up with their own creations. In an inspiring environment they can give free rein to their creativity and feel at ease.

If you are a teacher, take the time to personalize the classroom so that your students continue to show interest in their learning environment. An excellent way to do this is to encourage the class to make decorations. Alternatively, you can surprise your students with fun decorations by looking at classroom decor themes. Decorating the classroom to mark an event or present a topic will keep your students excited about school.

It provides stimulation

Children and teenagers are endlessly curious about everything and their minds absorb information like sponges. Learning in a visually stimulating environment can keep students happy and satisfied. At school they should feel challenged to use their cognitive skills, senses and imagination. This stimulation can come from the lessons, but some of it can come from the environment. Students will find a simple classroom boring. Cognitive and visual stimulation is essential for brain development, so keeping students interested in their environment is an important part of the educational process.

A colorful, inspiring environment helps students get through the school days and be enthusiastic about their tasks and daily activities. It also helps them develop an emotional bond with the class, their classmates and the teachers. If they feel comfortable in the classroom, they are more likely to want to be there.

It can make learning easier

Children don’t need many physical or material things to thrive. However, they need opportunities to explore their interests, develop skills and test their creativity. An inspiring learning environment should provide students with all the tools, materials and resources needed to build skills and expand their knowledge of the physical and cognitive world.

To feel inspired in the classroom, students need access to books, photo albums, artwork, musical instruments, art supplies, and other materials that can spark their curiosity and prompt them to ask questions. If you are a teacher, introduce your students to materials and resources that can reward conversations about the topics covered in class.

An inspiring learning environment can make the teacher’s work easier. It can also help students develop a genuine interest in learning, keeping them motivated even in higher education.

It can increase motivation

Motivation is essential for effective learning. An inspiring learning environment can help students develop both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. For example, a child who enjoys going to school and feels comfortable in class will study more easily than a child who can hardly tolerate school. Intrinsic motivation is the inner drive that drives students to surpass themselves because they find value in the learning process. An inspiring environment signals and rewards intrinsic motivation.

Teachers can also help students develop extrinsic motivation by rewarding achievement and positive behavior. In this way, they can create a challenging, competitive environment that can inspire students to give their best in the classroom.

Students can find the motivation to learn within themselves. However, schools and teachers must help and support them in the learning process by providing them with all the essentials, including a safe, comfortable and stimulating environment.

It uses memory

School is one of life’s most defining experiences. The classroom is the place where students discover the world and themselves, make friendships, develop skills and grow into well-rounded people. Learning in an inspiring environment is crucial because appeals to the memory. Students form lasting memories at school.

Understanding the respective benefits of an international internship abroad versus online will put you in a better position to advise students – and open up options to them that they may not know exist.

One of the immediate consequences of the spread of Covid-19 has been the rapid need for study abroad providers and international education organizations to continue their courses in an online environment. This was as true for those on internships as it was for any other course. Every previous musing on the value of online internships led to an internal call from many providers for a hands-on deck and a move into previously uncharted waters.

Research into remote working and online learning took center stage, dispelling any doubts about the legitimacy or usefulness of online internships. The subsequent and for many unforeseen demand from both students and placements in English-speaking destinations.

As the reality of a Covid/post-Covid world becomes normalized across the globe, it is time for recalibration and reassessment: are online internships a kind of crutch or are they simply a stopgap?

The changing nature of work and internships

Chief Academic Officer has produced an internal document entitled The Changing Nature of Work and highlights the following key areas:

• Blurring of professional/personal time and space.
• Increased employee control over space and time
• Entrepreneurship/micro-enterprises/multiple businesses in one

The internal document contained a discussion that would not have been out of place at the beginning of 2020:

The fact is that in a modern workplace, supervision often takes place remotely and via technology. Interns are sometimes asked to bring their own computers to the workplace. Interns themselves are occasionally asked to work from home. Individual entrepreneurs often start or run multiple businesses simultaneously, and there are business complexes that house many start-ups where staff, interns and other resources are shared. Students often still expect a more fixed sense of time and space and tasks that are clearly labeled and defined rather than flexible and fluid. We must continue to prepare our students and our partners for this reality. What new realities might we encounter in the workplace in the next ten years?”

The themes highlighted were not new and have become embedded in many societies this century as part of the work culture. The fact is that, even in a pre-Covid 19 world, these trends have played a role in how companies work with interns and emphasize what interns can expect in the workplace.

Yet teachers continue to struggle with the changing work landscape – something that has been given credibility by the mass working from home in the months immediately following spring.

More specifically, to what extent what has taken place on site and in the country is compatible with the professional, personal and cultural learning outcomes set out in the curriculum.

Back to Basics – keeping focus on the goals of an internship

The advent of Covid-19 has prompted many in the sector to refocus on the core of what is delivered during an internship. Looking at what an internship is in its most basic form and assessing whether the concept of an internship will hold its form if conducted entirely over the Internet – not to mention across many time zones – is a starting point.

• Consists of educational enrichment projects with learning objectives, quality training and guidance and regular feedback.
• Provide assignments and projects related to the student’s major or career interests. A minimum portion of an intern’s assignments must include administrative work.

As with any educational delivery, the key is to always let the content drive the process. And because the process has no inherent features that require on-site participation, this paves the way for its creative execution.

All the ‘must-haves’ of the placement can take place remotely: this planned, controlled, structured experience with meaningful work and supervision is not bound by time or space. If there were any doubts about remote working as it has developed over the years, it has quickly become clear that many office jobs and types of work can be successfully performed from home.