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groups (becker et al., 2012), concludes that personal development. yet, as with all other
these experiences do confer added value to tools, there is also evidence to the effect that
the participants. first and foremost, the added it can do harm if not handled in a proper
value is in the shape of personal develop manner – it is by no means difficult to find
ment: increased self-esteem, self-confidence, examples of participants who return home
independence, adaptability as well as social prematurely or with a negative experience be-
and communication skills. in addition, the cause something went wrong along the way.
development of more hard-nosed skills, like
increased foreign language proficiency and learning by leaving
improved vocational skills, is observed. the “learning by leaving” is a complex process, but
mid-term evaluation of the ida-programme the main dynamics spring from the experi-
(2011) comes to similar conclusions, and there ence of what the american theoretician and
are several other studies and evaluations as researcher Jack Mezirow (Mezirow, 2000) has
well as masses of anecdotal evidence that all called a “disorienting dilemma” when meet-
point in the same direction – enough to allow ing with another culture, or “experiences
us to conclude that a structured stay abroad of disjuncture” in the words of the english
can be a very powerful tool for learning and researcher peter Jarvis (Jarvis, 1999). aspects of

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