Project Investigator(s): Katherine Lyon, Instructor, Vantage College / Sociology, Kerry Greer, Senior Instructor, Sociology. Simon Lilliot, Instructor, Psychology / Vantage, Daniel Riccardi, Lecturer, Academic English Program / Vantage, Jennifer Lightfoot, Lecturer, Academic English Program / Vantage
Project Description
Anecdotal evidence from a pilot-year investigation suggests that course-embedded community engaged learning (CEL) opportunities provide unique benefits for first-year international students. Positive outcomes include new international students’ social integration with host city and culture, ability to navigate socio-historically-specific institutional cultures of learning, and—for international students who have English as an additional language (EAL)—increased confidence speaking English. This project documents ways CEL facilitates international students’ first-year transitions within select 100-level Sociology, Psychology and Academic English courses, and forms of support these students require in engaging with CEL pedagogy.
Research Questions
How does course-embedded CEL inform first-year international students’ academic, social, and linguistic transitions? What challenges do first-year international students face in engaging with CEL, and what forms of support do these students value in addressing these challenges?
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
This project supports instructors in offering CEL opportunities that meet the needs of UBC’s increasingly diverse student body, consistent with the emphasis on experiential, transformative learning and local and international engagement in the 2018 UBC Strategic Plan. Lyon’s pilot investigation indicates first-year international students may experience unique—and largely undocumented—CEL benefits and challenges. The proposed study will clarify these benefits as well as the forms of support international students value.