Abstract
Objective: Given how globally-connected our world and our challenges have become, this generation of young people will need to be equipped with a specific set of skills to drive meaningful change in their communities and across sectors. Specifically, higher education needs to help young people learn to engage in civil dialogue, navigate diverse perspectives, and develop cross-cultural empathy. Experiential learning opportunities provide an important pathway for college-aged individuals to develop these skills. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an innovative experiential learning program serving young adults across the globe: Tilting Futures’ Take Action Lab: Human Rights.
Methods: A within-subject repeated-measures design was used to evaluate the intervention. The intervention was run with a global cohort of students across an academic semester, with a combination of virtual and in-person/in-country experiences. All students were invited to complete two surveys, with a limited retrospective assessment built into the second survey for one cohort of students. Each of the program’s primary outcomes of interest (Self Discovery: wellbeing, agency/initiative, self awareness; Global Orientation: global perspective taking, empathy, and interrelatedness) were assessed at each time point.
Results: Traditional pretest-posttest results indicate a positive program effect in some outcomes of interest, resulting in a small to medium effect size. However, results also indicate that response shift bias was present, and the traditional pretest-posttest comparisons resulted in an underestimation of program effects. When correcting for response shift bias, we see a medium to large effect size in outcomes of interest.
Conclusion: Participation in this hybrid experiential learning program is associated with positive effects in self discovery and global orientation in young adults (ages 17-21), the constructs that encompass the future-ready skills and attitudes that will help them drive meaningful change in cross-regional challenges. Future research needs to evaluate the effectiveness of this kind of educational experience in various other contexts.
Paper
Introduction
There is growing consensus that young adults must develop future-ready skills to address pressing global challenges—such as climate change, inequality, and rapid technological change—that no single nation can solve alone (United Nations, n.d.). To thrive in an increasingly interconnected world, young people need a broad set of competencies that enhance employability and enable meaningful contributions to cross-border initiatives.
Research from academic and industry sources (e.g., Google for Education, 2022) identifies several key skills essential for success. Cross-cultural competence is critical for navigating diverse work environments, while a strong sense of global citizenship helps young adults understand complex global issues and act responsibly for the common good. Empathy and conflict resolution are essential for effective teamwork, especially in multicultural contexts (Mandela Institute for Development Studies, 2023). Emotional intelligence—including self-awareness, empathy, and interpersonal skills—also significantly impacts professional success.
Companies like Google and Bank of America have begun integrating these competencies into their hiring and training strategies (Deloitte, 2023). Equipping young adults with these skills not only enhances their employability (Rawal et al., 2021; Google for Education, 2022) but also empowers them to collaborate globally and contribute to sustainable solutions.
However, higher education systems struggle to build these skills in their students due to a variety of structural and pedagogical barriers. For example, current degree requirements and departmental silos often limit interdisciplinary collaboration and experiential learning opportunities—both essential for developing soft skills. Hudzik (2004) observed that many U.S. universities lack infrastructure to support internationalization and global competencies, further constraining skill development. And, despite their importance, soft skills like emotional intelligence, adaptability, and cross-cultural communication are often undervalued in assessment and course design. Developing global competence also requires meaningful exposure to international contexts. However, access to study abroad or cross-cultural engagement remains limited, especially for low-income students. Smith-Isabell and Rubaii (2020) highlight how resource limitations constrain efforts to build global, international, and intercultural competencies.
To meet the demands of today, U.S. higher education must reimagine curricular and institutional structures to emphasize interdisciplinary learning and soft skill development. Integrating global and experiential learning into traditional education systems can better prepare students to be employable and contribute meaningfully to addressing the complex challenges of the 21st century.
Tilting Futures recently developed and launched a research-backed proof of concept, Take Action Lab (TAL), as a method to help students develop these future-ready skills and attitudes. This effort is particularly timely as many of the principles embedded into this program can be embedded in higher education programs that are being re-imagined and re-launched after a hiatus related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Intervention
Participants
Candidates apply to TAL and are accepted based on individual merit and global representation. All students who meet eligibility criteria are invited to participate in the program or, once we have reached capacity, placed on our program. Each cohort of students within this program varies greatly based on socio-economic status, country of origin, racial identity, gender identity, and cultural affiliation, among other qualities.
Program Design
TAL is an innovative experiential learning program that combines virtual learning and in-person learning for a cohort of global student peers. The program curriculum model is guided by two ideas of transformation: Systems Transformation and Transformative Learning. These ideas of transformation are situated within the history and realities of a complex global social issue such as Human Rights or Sustainability. Further, while recognising the important role of service delivery, TAL supports students to think about how they can play a role in creating more just and regenerative systems for all. Systems thinking is used to help students navigate the complexity of making change happen in these complex issue areas.
TAL was designed based on more than a decade of experience delivering immersive and experiential learning programs. TAL was backwards designed to develop six core competencies within two domains: Self Discovery and Global Orientation. These competencies (Empathy, Interrelatedness, Global Perspective Taking, Self-Awareness, Agency/Initiative, and Wellbeing) represent exactly the skills and attitudes young adults need in today’s globalized world. The theory of action is depicted in Figure 1.
FIGURE 1
TAL is a hybrid program, beginning with four weeks of virtual curriculum (“Foundations”). Following the course, students travel to a host community to begin their 12 week in-country practicum, including a 1-week orientation, 10-week apprenticeship experience in a local community organization, a 1-week reflection period, and an explicit opportunity to prepare for re-immersion into their own home countries and explore future professional possibilities (“Pathways and Possibilities”). During their practicum, students live in shared housing with their global peers and participate in weekly sessions to reflect on their real-world learning experiences (“Learning Connects”), weekly “Culture Series” activities to steep them in the culture of their host country and community (“Culture Series”) and additional region-specific excursions. Further, the in-country program teams support vulnerable intergroup dialogue to facilitate peer-to-peer learning.
TAL is a learning journey that is not always meant to be comfortable or easy. The program is designed to encourage students to be in their learning zone (as opposed to the panic zone or the comfort zone) as they interrogate and challenge themselves, their ideas, and the world around them.
The TAL program model is depicted in Figure 2.
FIGURE 2
Tilting Futures launched its first iteration of TAL in Cape Town, South Africa in February 2023, situating it within the global challenges of human rights (“TAL: Human Rights”). TAL: Human Rights is now (February, 2025) serving its fifth cohort of students. The organization launched the program at a second site, situated within the global challenge of sustainability (“TAL: Environment + Sustainability”) in Penang Island Malaysia, with students beginning the program in August 2025.
Study Materials & Methods
Study Design
A within-subject repeated-measures design was used to evaluate the program. All study participants were assessed two times, once prior to beginning the program and once on the final days of the program.
Study participants completed the assessments via an online survey (SurveyMonkey). The survey took approximately 30 minutes to complete at each interval.
Survey completion was an expected part of the program though it was not required, and participants were informed that their individual-level data would not be shared with the program team and would instead be kept confidential to the Tilting Futures research team.
Study Sample
All students who participated in the first four cohorts of the TAL: Human Rights program (between February 2023 and December 2024) were invited to participate in the study. Table 1 presents descriptive statistics of the study sample.
TABLE 1
Outcome Measures
Students’ demographic data were collected during the application period. Online questionnaires were completed at baseline (T1) and during the final program experience (T2). For the most recent cohort of students (Aug24 Term), the T2 questionnaire included a limited retrospective assessment as well in order to explore and address a potential response shift bias.
The battery of measures used in the study evolved over the course of program implementation, with more recent cohorts of students completing surveys that included scales related to more program outcomes than earlier cohorts of students.
Global Orientation Outcomes
- Empathy: The Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy. This scale was developed to measure empathy directed toward members of racial and ethnic groups different from one’s own.
- Interrelatedness: The Watts Connectedness Scale: Interrelatedness with the World. This subscale measures an individual’s sense of connection with the world at large.
- Global Perspective Taking: Global Perspective Taking was measured using four distinct published scales.
- Center for Expanding Leadership + Opportunity (CELO), supported by Aspen Institute. Inclusive Leadership: Cultural Competence scale, taken from the Leadership Development Index, designed to measure “requisite awareness, values, and behaviors that enable effective communication and advocacy across cultures.” (Citation: https://index.expandingleadership.org/about-the-index/)
- Global Engagement Measurement Scale (GEMS), select items from a Cultural Engagement subscale. This scale was designed to “capture students’ worldview or attitudes toward cultural differences, diversity, and exchanges. It includes concepts such as global-mindedness, defined as a worldview that is future-oriented and extends beyond national borders.” (Citation: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1084447.pdf)
- Global Perspective Inventory (GPI), Cognitive Development, Knowing Scale. This is one of the six dimensions of the GPI’s construct of global perspective. This subscale is designed to measure “an individual’s ability to recognize the importance of cultural context when judging what is important to know and value, essentially assessing their awareness of different cultural perspectives and their influence on understanding information.” (Citation: https://www.gpi.hs.iastate.edu/dimensions.php)
- PISA Global Competence: Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (Interaction Relaxation Subscale: The Organization for Economic Cooperation + Development (OECD) administers its international assessment (PISA: Programme for International Student Assessment) every three years. The PISA instrument is used to measure students’ (age 15+) knowledge and ability in a variety of areas, including cultural global competence. This subscale, specifically, “refers to the ease at which the participant feels while conversing, specifically referring to their approachability, openness, and overall comfort level during the interaction.” (Citation: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=com_facpubs)
Self Discovery Outcomes
- Self-Awareness: Ask-G, Awareness of Self Subscale. The Ask-G is a reputable measure of cultural competence. The Awareness of Self subscale was identified as a valid and distinct factor of cultural competence during the validation phase of the instrument. (4 cohorts)
- Wellbeing: Wellbeing was measured using two distinct scales: one that assesses overall mental wellbeing and another that assesses individual-level happiness.
- Mental Wellbeing. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. The WEMWS is used internationally to understand individuals’ feelings and functioning aspects of mental wellbeing. (2 cohorts)
- Happiness. Harvard Flourishing Measure, Happiness and Life Satisfaction subscale. The questions in this scale were selected primarily from among existing questionnaires that had received some empirical validation and that are widely used in the well-being literature. (4 cohorts)
- Agency/Initiative:
- The Personal Initiative Scale. This scale measures a person’s tendency to act proactively and self-initiatively, overcoming barriers to achieve goals . (1 cohort)
- Personal Growth Initiative Scale. The authors of this scale define personal growth initiative as “a person’s active and intentional involvement in changing and developing as a person. The scale has demonstrated strong validity and reliability. (1 cohort)
- Agency/Initiative:
Other Outcomes of Interest
While the following outcomes are not the primary outcomes of interest for this study, they were represented in the surveys due to their relevance for this particular study population.
- Self Actualization. Self Actualization was measured using an adjusted Experienced Self and Other Scale, asking students to assess their perception of self in relation to the perception of their ideal self.
- Close Social Relationships. An assessment of students’ Close Social Relationships was measured using the Harvard Flourishing Index’s subscale aligned to this construct.
Procedure
All surveys were completed at a place and time of the students’ choosing, while the intervention took place both virtually (while students were in their home or chosen environments) and in Cape Town South Africa program spaces. All program students were eligible for study participation.
All surveys were conducted in English. All program participants were screened for English language proficiency prior to being selected for the program. Many TAL: Human Rights students speak English as a second (or third) language but each has a firm grasp of the language and relied on it as the primary language used throughout the program.
All participants were informed that completing the survey was voluntary (though an expected part of program participation) and that their individual responses would be kept confidential. Each participant was competent to consent and could choose to skip any question or stop taking the survey at any time.
Students could not refer to their post-program assessments as they reported their retrospective pre-program assessments in order to ensure that the retrospective assessments were not influenced or biased by their post-test assessments.
Statistical Analysis
Data were assessed for normality using the Shapiro–Wilk test on IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 23). Significance level was set at 0.05. A paired samples t-test was used to test for a significant effect for time, with effect sizes calculated using Cohen’s d. Cohen’s d was interpreted as 0.2 (small effect), 0.5 (medium effect), and 0.8 (large effect).
Results
A paired samples t-test determined that there was a significant positive main effect of the program on interrelatedness (t(178)=3.024, p=.001), self awareness (t(180)=3.61, p=<.001), agency/growth initiative (t(40)=1.82, p=.038), and wellbeing and happiness (t(90)=1.07, p=.026 and t(180)=6.96, p=<.001 respectively). While not primary outcomes of interest, analyses also indicate a positive effect on Close Social Relationships (t(180)=3.80, p=<.001) and self actualization (t(139)=4.32, p=<.001).
The paired samples t-test determined there was a significant negative main effect of the program on global citizenship (t(178)=-2.182, p=.015).
Changes in empathy, agency/personal initiative, and other measures of global perspective-taking did not reach statistical significance, indicating no program effect on these outcomes. Table 2 presents the results.
TABLE 2
Given evolving theories regarding response shift bias in relation to some of these primary outcomes of interest, and the expectation that the virtual Foundations course shifts students’ understanding and awareness of who they were before the program began, we also administered a limited retrospective assessment with students from the most recent cohort (Aug24 TALSA Term) of the program.
A paired samples t-test determined that there was a significant positive main effect of the program on empathy, on each of the measures of global perspective taking, and on each of the agency/initiative measures, when measuring the difference between the retrospective baseline assessment and an end-of-program assessment. Table 3 presents these results.
TABLE 3
Limitations & Future Research
Notably, this study is limited by the lack of a control group. It is also limited by a lack of complete data from the students who were removed from the program (n=8), and a complete set of retrospective data from all students participating in the study.
Future research should continue to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention, and similar experiential learning opportunities, on various other indicators of import. The field would further benefit from long-term impact studies to assess whether the change is sustained beyond program involvement and how change manifests in students’ daily and professional lives once they complete the program.
Further exploration on the potential of a response shift bias on the outcomes associated with this intervention, and the aligned need for retrospective assessments, would benefit other experiential learning programs that are attempting to estimate program effect.
Discussion
Young adults must develop skills and attitudes related to cross-cultural competence to effectively address complex global challenges such as human rights violations and environmental sustainability. These skills include the ability to understand, respect, and work effectively with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, which is essential in an increasingly interconnected world. As global issues span multiple nations and cultures, effective collaboration across cultural boundaries is critical to creating inclusive and sustainable solutions (Deardorff, 2006).
Experiential education programs that integrate and prioritize the development of these skills into curricula have the potential to equip learners with the attitudes, knowledge, and skills needed to navigate and influence a diverse and rapidly changing world (OECD, 2018).
The program studied, Take Action Lab, is an example of an experiential education program that is effective in building these future-ready skills in students.
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