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Group Projects
The UTM Working Group on Threshold Knowledge in University Pedagogy is establishing a hub of reflection and research that reimagines undergraduate students’ learning experiences through the lens of threshold concepts. Research interests that guide the group are the identification of threshold concepts within and across disciplines; curricular design based on threshold concepts; and the direct teaching and learning of threshold concepts to students.
Jayne Baker, Alysia deMelo, and Tyler Evans-Tokaryk are conducting research on recruiting student participants for Scholarship of Teaching of Learning (SoTL) research. They look at the differences between the students who consent and those who refuse to participate in SoTL research, as well as what informs their decision-making process. Findings were presented at the 2025 International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning conference.
Sarah Seeley, David Gerstle (UTM Library), and Marc Laflamme (Chemical and Physical Sciences) are researching the challenges facing scientists who are training science writers. Their paper, which will be submitting to the International Journal of Science Education, is based on qualitative interviews with science faculty in CPS. In it they identify a series of challenges to fostering deeper connections between science and written communication.
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Individual Projects
Jordana Garbati created The Symbolic Communication Research Lab, which includes several current and past projects including:
- Citizen Emoji: documents the non-digital use of emoji through publica collection of artifacts from around the world.
- Birding Emojis in Digital Writing Related to Ornithology: explores birding communities’ and associations’ use of emoji in their digital communications.
- Emoji Use in Teaching and Learning: a systematic literature review on emoji and teaching and learning.
- Emoji Use in Brand Communications: A Case Study of Luxury Companies: explored emoji use by luxury fashion brands on Instagram and the alignment of emoji use by brands and their followers.
- The Use of Emoji on X During the 2024 Super Bowl: explored the use of emoji (type, frequency, sentiment, function) on X during the 2024 Super Bowl.
Sheliza Ibrahim is a member of the Canada Caribbean Institute and co-investigator of the STEM Professional Development Series for Jamaican Faculty: International Education Initiatives. The international research project is in partnership with Brock University and the University of Technology, Jamaica, and the team is investigating how professors and lecturers in STEM and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) disciplines develop their pedagogical practices and engage research in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).
Tyler Evans-Tokaryk is co-principal investigator on a mixed-methods study at the University of Dar es Salaam. As the first longitudinal study of writing transfer in East Africa, it seeks to understand the degree to which students who speak English as an additional language transfer skills and knowledge learned in a first-year communication skills course to other contexts. This research will also help them understand how these students develop their writing skills throughout their undergraduate degree.