Search results for "vaihto-opiskelijat"

Sources of stress and scholarly identity: the case of international doctoral students of education in Finland

2020

AbstractAlthough stressors and coping strategies have been examined in managing stress associated with doctoral education, stress continues to have a permeating and pernicious effect on doctoral students’ experience of their training and, by extension, their future participation in the academic community. International doctoral students have to not only effectively cope with tensions during their training and their socialization in their discipline but also address the values and expectations of higher education institutions in a foreign country. Considering the increase of international doctoral students in Finland, this study focuses on perceived sources of stress in their doctoral traini…

International Master’s Degree Students’ Well-being at a Finnish University During COVID-19

2020

The rapid developments and consequences of the COVID-19 crisis for university students' well-being are presently being studied across the world. This study contributes to the growing discourse on university students' well-being by exploring changes in international Master's degree students' well-being in relation to the move to online teaching and learning at a Finnish university during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study draws on 37 answers to an open-ended question about remote teaching and learning at the end of a survey on university students' stress. The text data were analysed conducting a preliminary quantitative content analysis and a more detailed thematic analysis, from which two the…

Communication behaviors of exchange students as perceived by themselves and by their hosts : Japanese students in Finland

2011

Participating in an exchange program abroad has been popular for university students all over the world. Likewise, there have been many studies on exchange students' identities or culture shocks, or their communication behaviors. However, little is known on the communication behaviors of exchange students with viewpoints of the hosts. The purpose of the present study is to examine how Japanese exchange students at the University of Jyväskylä interpret their communication behaviors in relation to their self-construals by combining the views of Japanese exchange students themselves with those of Finnish students as hosts. In addition, another purpose is to find out the function of Nihongo Mee…

Intercultural competence needs of exchange students coming to or going abroad from the university of Costa Rica

2012

Internationalization of higher education is a process in constant development that has occurred over many years. It involves efforts of the entire academic community and the implementation of diverse strategies. Focusing on the academic exchange, the less developed regions face certain particularities that limit them. The following study portraits this situation from the perspective of intercultural competence, in the context of one Latin American University, the University of Costa Rica (UCR). It explores the intercultural competence needs of exchange students, whose common ground is the UCR. The population considered in the study are regular students of the University of Costa Rica, who p…

The effectiveness of a five-session workshop on the distress of international students in Finland – a pilot study

2023

The mental health of international students has become a concern, as they face high levels of psychological distress. We designed a five-week acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) workshop with two additional individual assessment meetings. The intervention aimed at helping international students attending a Finnish university to reduce their symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety, and enhance skills of psychological flexibility. The post-assessment was conducted seven weeks after the pre-measurement. Using data from 53 participants, an evaluation indicated that statistically and clinically significant reductions in symptoms were observed, and the workshop was well received. Regressi…

University Exchange Students’ Practices of Learning Finnish: A Language Ecological Approach to Affordances in Linguistic Landscapes

2020

In linguistic landscape (LL) studies, various projects have demonstrated how language learners benefit from tasks that involve the documentation and interpretation of the LL. In this chapter, we investigate how Finnish as a second language learner exchange students turned the local LL into affordances during their time abroad in Finland. While language awareness and its relation to learning and teaching have been extensively discussed, it has often been regarded as a property of an individual consciousness: a faculty or a tendency of a particular person to perceive, notice and reflect upon the linguistic features present in their environments. In contrast, we argue for an approach that cont…

Intercultural communication experiences of foreign students with a focus on their perspectives of national, cultural and ethnic identity : case of ex…

2011

The aim of the study is to learn about intercultural communication experiences of foreign Exchange and Master degree students in Jyväskylä, Finland with a particular attention to the perspective of national, cultural and ethnic identity concepts. The study is qualitative in nature. The goal in creating the interview themes was to cover a variety of topics to allow the informants to speculate on different situations related to intercultural communication experiences in Jyväskylä, their country of origin and their national, cultural and ethnic identity. To reach the diverse perspectives on the subject individuals of different cultural origin were interviewed. The interview group involved Exch…

An international student as a library user – a short review

2015

Chinese students' perceptions of cooperative learning in Finland

2015

International students from China continue to have a strong presence in European tertiary institutions, however, only a limited number of studies can be found about their learning experiences and their perceptions towards western educational practices. How Chinese students in Finland perceive cooperative learning is the focus of this study, while different education cultures between China and Finland is identified as the dominant element that may determine students’ beliefs and their choices of coping strategies when confronting challenges during cooperative learning practice. Qualitative data from 10 participants were collected through interviews conducted in Chinese. Based on participants…

Relationship between intercultural friendship networks and homesickness level of international degree students at a Finnish university

2015

An increasing number of international students are coming to Finland due to a high quality and tuition free education. International students form the second biggest group of immigrants in Finland. Universities see international students as important for establishing international contacts and developing the country’s economy and, therefore, are concerned about their well-being. The current thesis explores the relationship between intercultural friendship and homesickness levels among international degree students at a Finnish university. The thesis consists of two parts: a monograph on cross-cultural adaptation of international students and a research article exploring the relationship bet…