The first part of the study visit took place in Zurich from February 24-28. The participating students met with two exchange students from the University of Tokyo who were at ETH at this time and discussed international students' life, differences between their home university and ETH in graduate students' courses and research team structure, as well as the advantages of studying abroad. The students also participated in a meeting about TA training and were given a brief explanation on the courses available to TAs at ETH. The courses seemed to be very structured and dealt with topics such as the objectives of learning, planning, activating students and receiving feedback. After the meeting, the students attended a class taught by a TA who had previously taken the training and could see for themselves how the class was conducted. On the next day, the participants had a meeting about globalization and faculty development, too.
The study visit continued in Stockholm. There the University of Tokyo students met fellow Swedish students studying Japanese and talked with them about their motivation to study the language, their interest in Japan and their daily life as students at KTH. This study visit concluded with a very fruitful meeting and workshop about TA training given at KTH. The students could see for themselves what a TA course involves and try some of the activities used there. Believing in your students seemed to be one of the most memorable messages which the participants took home.
The students were very satisfied with their study visits and reported it to be a valuable experience. They could not only see how teaching assistant training is done, but also consider their own role as a future teacher and leader. Furthermore, seeing not one, but two different universities and their campuses helped them broaden their views and consider studying abroad, so it could be concluded that this study trip was extremely successful as both an educational and international event.
