The Western Conference on Science Education

Impact of global and local community involvement on curricular learning experience in university education

P&A 148

We investigated the impact of various curricular opportunities on the learning experience of university students. We believe that determining the most valuable part of each opportunity as identified by students will help align out-of-classroom and in-class learning experiences. Students in Fundamentals of Human Anatomy and Physiology (BIO210) at University of Toronto Mississauga were offered four different curricular assessment options in September of 2016, including: 1. six term tests; 2. five term tests and a reflection based on science for public assessment; 3. five term tests and a reflection based on an international learning experience pilot to Peru; and, 4. five term tests and a reflection based on a community-engaged learning experience pilot. We used a validated post-survey to investigate the impact of the various curricular experiences in BIO210. Of the sampled students (N=73) in the international learning experience pilot, 28% strongly believed that they learned enough to have ideas that can address healthcare issues as compared to 7% in the local learning experience pilot (option 2 and 4) and 6% in option 1. Of the students participating in option 1, 85% of the students felt that they utilized their critical thinking skills as compared to 86% in groups that participated in local experiences (options 2 and 3) and 100% in option 4. Our preliminary findings suggest that students perceive international experiences as beneficial to their development outside the classroom. Specifically, embedding diverse out-of-classroom experiences were important for improving student utilization of evaluation and analysis skills as well as widening the scope of global perspectives among students.