Project Investigator(s): Simon Lolliot, Instructor, Psychology, Steven Barnes, Senior Instructor, Psychology, Trish Varao-Sousa, PhD student, Psychology
Project Description
The present project aims to identify patterns of segregation in university classrooms, and implement a learning tool to ameliorate this segregation. Based on prior research on micro-segregation (segregation that occurs in every-day living spaces, including classrooms), we plan to identify antecedents and consequences of seating preferences in first year classrooms. Moreover, we will pilot an intervention aimed at helping students develop intercultural competencies to see if learning about the benefits of integration (and pitfalls of segregation) translate into changes in seating patterns.
Research Questions
What are the antecedents and consequences of segregated seating patterns? Can an interactive online module on intercultural competencies: increase student willingness to engage with someone from a different social group? Or affect seating choices? No pedagogical research, to our knowledge, has looked at these questions and tested an intervention aimed to disrupt this tendency to self-segregate. We propose that Tapestry can build better classroom integration by allowing students to interact with content related to intercultural competencies at their own pace in consideration of their own experiences.
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
If the Tapestry tool is successful in minimizing seating segregation, it could be implemented in classrooms across UBC. This tool can easily be integrated into courses in any faculty, as it is not tied to course content, and can easily be modified by faculty to include modules of specific interest related to intercultural understanding. By examining the consequences and antecedents of segregation and an intervention designed to disrupt it in a single study, this project would have wide implications given the cultural diversity at UBC by helping foster a culture of inclusion across the campus.