Changes in the department of physical therapy students' awareness after an international student exchange program.

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to determine the change in students' awareness of one's possibility in terms of being able to make oneself understood in English after an international student exchange program. [Participants and Methods] A total of 15 students (4 males, 11 females), with a mean age of 19.2 ± 0.4 years, who were interested in international exchange programs participated in this survey. The study used a questionnaire that was administered before and after the international student exchange program. A visual analog scale was used to assess the changes in awareness.
[Results] Significant differences were noted between students' responses to the questionnaire before and after the international exchange program. The students indicated that they were "Confident at communicating with foreign people," interested in "Study abroad or overseas activities in future," and chose the response "Want more opportunities to study with overseas medical students."
[Conclusion] We investigated the change in awareness before and after an international student exchange program. The results suggested that even a short-term exchange influenced students' awareness.

INTRODUCTION

The university has “a university aiming for international nature” as one of the basic philosophy, and has been cultivating human resources aiming for international nature since its opening. As a part of our efforts to become truly international, we conduct overseas training, organize international medical exchange projects, and actively engage in international exchange through research cooperation and training activities1). “State of Health and Welfare in Foreign Countries,” an elective subject, is one of the comprehensive educational subjects for the sophomore year in all departments in the Ohtawara campus. The students who take this elective can participate in a two-week overseas training in one of the 14 countries during their summer or winter holidays. Last year, six students from PT department participated in this training.

Until 2016, the university had affiliations with 27 medical universities in 15 countries, and since November 2017, it is also affiliated with Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). A total of 41 students from SIT visited the Department of Physical Therapy, the Department of Occupational Therapy, and the department of Radiological Science in our campus for a week and participated in meetings as well as interacted with everyone at each department. In the Department of Physical Therapy, to which the author belongs, 15 students attended classes with undergraduate students of the university and engaged in other activities.

The purpose of this study is to determine the change in students’ awareness after interacting with foreign students, and investigate whether short-term exchanges can impact students’ awareness.

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS

The participants were 15 students (4 males, 11 females), with mean age of 19.2 ± 0.4, who were interested in interacting with foreign people. All the participating students belonged to International University of Health and Welfare, School of Health Science, and Department of Physical Therapy. This research was approved by the International Medical Welfare University Ethics Committee (approval number: 18-Io-48).

A questionnaire survey was conducted using the collective survey method. The first survey was conducted three days before the SIT students visited our university. The second survey was conducted five days after the SIT students had returned home. The questionnaire consists of 18 items, of which 17 items were adopted as VAS (Visual Analog Scale). VAS is described as a 10 cm straight line with “I really think so” indicated at the 0 cm mark, and “I don’t think so” indicated at the 10 cm mark, and asked to draw a vertical line in a subjective equivalent area and measured in 1 mm increments. One item was asked to write freely comments on this exchange student interaction.

The content of the questionnaire consisted of seven items; they were “Interested in going abroad,” “Confidenct at communicating with foreigners,” “Interested in foreign languages, including English,” “Interested in training and studying abroad as a university student,” “Want to study abroad or overseas activities in future”, “Interested in volunteering abroad in future,” “Wish to have specialized fields lesson in English,” “Wants more opportunities to study with overseas medical students.” In addition, the survey asked what was gained by interacting with overseas students. The alternatives included “Language ability” “Challenge mind” “Friendship,” “Confidence,” “Objective viewpoint,” “Understanding of different cultures,” “Values,” “Direction after graduation.” For the statistical analysis, the VAS value of the questionnaire taken before and after the training was compared using Wilcoxon’s signed rank sum test of statistical analysis software JSTAT, and the significance level was set to 5%.

RESULTS

The recovery rate of questionnaire survey was 100%. Items that confirmed significant differences in analysis were “Confident at communicating with foreign people” (p<0.05), “Want to study abroad or overseas activities in future” (p<0.05), and “Want more opportunities to study with overseas medical students” (p<0.05). As for the opinion regarding the interaction with foreign students, many students felt that “It was a lot of fun,” “It was a good experience to be able to know about other cultures,” “Although it was not easy to communicate, we enjoyed becoming friends with foreign students,” “It was good so I could communicate using a smartphone, etc.,” “I did not know how to talk to them, so I had to stay silent for a long time. I’d like to talk to them if I get this opportunity again,” “It was only a week but I got along well with them,” “When I was able to communicate with gestures, it was a lot of fun,” “There were things that I could hardly communicate to them, but I was happy that I could talk” (Table 1).

Table 1.

Participants and result of awareness change before and after international exchange

		Before	After	p-value
Participants		15
	Male	4
	Female	11
Age (years)		19.4 ± 0.4
Interested in going abroad		1.85 ± 1.9	1.93 ± 1.6	p<0.78
Confident at communicating with foreign people		5.84 ± 2.2	4.42 ± 2.6	p<0.02*
Interested in foreign languages including English		3.33 ± 2.3	2.97 ± 2.1	p<0.53
Interested in training and studying abroad during as a university student		3.06 ± 2.6	2.29 ± 2.0	p<0.11
Want to study abroad or overseas activities in the future		5.35 ± 2.4	4.52 ± 2.5	p<0.001*
Interested in volunteering abroad in future		4.86 ± 3.0	4.39 ± 2.8	p<0.22
Want to have specialized fields lesson in English		6.35 ± 2.7	5.86 ± 2.4	p<0.76
Want more opportunities to study with overseas medical students		5.00 ± 2.6	3.38 ± 2.1	p<0.002*
What was gained by participating in international exchange?
Language ability		3.09 ± 2.2	3.01 ± 1.9	p<0.84
Challenge mind		1.87 ± 1.3	1.91 ± 1.3	p<0.80
Friendship		2.21 ± 1.5	2.43 ± 2.0	p<0.89
Confidence		2.53 ± 1.6	2.95 ± 1.7	p<0.87
Objective viewpoint		3.53 ± 1.7	3.71 ± 2.5	p<0.52
Understanding of different cultures		2.73 ± 1.5	2.61 ± 1.6	p<0.76
Values		2.89 ± 1.5	2.67 ± 1.5	p<0.97
Direction after graduation		3.78 ± 1.9	5.07 ± 2.2	p<0.10

Mean ± standard deviation.

*Significant difference between before and after international exchange: p<0.05.

DISCUSSION

In this research, we examined how Japanese students’ awareness about foreign people and countries changed after their interaction with international students. The SIT trainees stayed for just one week and interacted with undergraduate students at our university for only a couple of days, but many students felt that “they feel confident about communicating with foreigners, ” “they want to study abroad in future,” and “they want to have more opportunities to know about overseas medical students .” In conclusion, awareness after the interaction significantly improved. According to Kubo et al.’s report2), the merit of participation in overseas exchange is evident in the positive responses of lower grades students, such as 1st and 2nd grade students. Consequently, it is beneficial even for young students to actively engage in overseas student exchange activities. In this research, we investigated the change of awareness after the short-term student exchange activity at the lower grade of the second grade. It turned out that even if it was a short-term exchange, there was a significant change. According to Ochiai et al.’s report3), although nursing students had programs such as measuring vital signs in English for foreign simulated patients, the students have not been analyzed for the change of awareness. Also, it is reported that there is a tendency for hope for studying abroad to be higher for lower grades as for interests in overseas study and attitudes towards English for the students of the Pharmacy, and reports on the importance of English education, however, it does not mention about conscious change4).

This research is the first empirical research report of its kind and it can be said that it is meaningful. These results indicate that we need to actively seek opportunities to promote student exchange programs and disseminate the results of change in students’ outlook.

Funding and Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.