6 Engaging

 

Can you relate?

While getting good grades is important, there are other ways to think about academic success besides your grade point average.

You might think about academic success as the acquisition of knowledge and skills in your discipline or it could be satisfaction with your tests and assignments. You may also find academic success in the connections you make between your interests and your schoolwork or by forming meaningful relationships with your instructors and with other students.[1][2]

To achieve academic success, it is important to become an engaged learner – to be active and motivated in your learning. In this chapter, you can explore becoming an engaged learner by:

  • Paying attention to dimensions of academic success
  • Building motivation to learn effectively
  • Gaining confidence as a multilingual student

Dimensions of academic success

What is learning?

In the last chapter, we explored what learning is like in colleges and universities. We used Bloom’s Taxonomy to think about more advanced thinking tasks. To explore becoming an engaged learner, let’s start with an exploration of learning more generally.

Learning is an active process that results in a change in our knowledge, skills, or behaviour. This process takes place when we perceive, read, experience, or hear a new piece of information, which integrates with or changes what we already know. Learning is what happens in the space between what you know and what you don’t know.[3]

Metacognition

Many students believe that in order to do well in their studies they have to work harder. Effort is of course essential to academic success. However, because learning happens at the edge of what you know, approaching academic work the same way you always have might not help you achieve success. Learning about metacognition and implementing effective strategies can help you do well.

Metacognition is our ability to examine our own thoughts and feelings. It is the ability to:

  • Think about your own thinking
  • Become self-aware as a problem-solver
  • Monitor, plan, and control your thinking

Metacognition can help you accurately judge how deeply you have learned something – to figure out whether you are understanding the material or just memorizing it.[4]

Schedule time throughout the semester to reflect on your learning and ask yourself:[5]

  • What was the easiest concept or idea I learned this week? Why?
  • What was the most challenging concept or idea I learned this week? Why?
  • What strategies worked well as I prepared for my last test or exam?
  • What strategies didn’t work as well as I prepared for my last test or exam?

Four dimensions of academic success

Consider four key dimensions of academic success. Building your proficiency in each of these areas can help you become an engaged learner:

  1. Effective study and learning practices
  2. Time management, routine, and habits
  3. Mindset and self-awareness
  4. Connecting with community

1: Effective study practices

Students usually believe that spending many hours studying is the best way to do well. However, research suggests that highly successful students don’t necessarily spend more time studying but instead engage in effective study practices. In the table below is a comparison between some common and effective study practices:[6]

Table 5.1: Common versus effective study practices
Common study practices Effective study practices
Cramming: Many students mass all their studying in a short amount of time – e.g., cramming their review of course material right before a test or exam. Spaced practice: The science of learning tells us that spacing our studying practice over longer periods of time throughout the semester helps us learn better. You can do this by reviewing any new information you learn a few days after you learn it and then about a week or so after that.
Passive reading: Many students read their textbooks and lecture notes passively – taking occasional notes or highlighting important passages. Active retrieval: We learn best when we retrieve information from our memory. You can engage in active retrieval by putting away class materials, writing or sketching everything you know, and then checking your notes for accuracy.
Restudying: Many students restudy or look over material from their courses when preparing for tests and exams. Self-testing: Using past tests or chapter questions and testing yourself helps us learn better. We can find out where there are gaps in our knowledge and where we have strengths.

2. Time management, routine, and habits

We explore building an effective routine and the Study Cycle in the “Adjusting” chapter. It’s important to spend time planning your work. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:

  • Do I use a tool – a calendar, a to-do list, or an app – to identify how much time I have available each week to do my work?
  • Do I have enough time for my learning?
  • Is my routine working for me to balance my academic and personal needs?
Ishita's map represents her journey from India to Canada. The map includes images that represent Ishita studying online on Zoom, and her previous work experiences in engineering.
Image 5.1: Growing up in a small town in India influenced Ishita’s desire to study sustainable energy solutions, as she witnessed the changes and challenges brought on by climate change; after working in the industry, Ishita decided to pursue graduate study. She arrived in Canada at just the right time, between pandemic-related border lockdowns and restrictions, even though it meant she was worried about her family back home in India. Ishita says making friends and connections is challenging during remote learning, so she values the resources provided by the university to support her transition.

 

3. Mindset and self-awareness

“I was calling Good2Talk, which is a mental health hotline, one day, and then I was talking to her about my international experience in Canada and I told her I moved here basically like when I was 16 and then she said, “You know, some people don’t even know how to do laundry or they don’t know how to cook eggs and then you moved to another country, you should take more credit for that.” I feel like everyone should remember that – that we are allowed to take more credit and be proud of ourselves.” – Heejin

Every now and then, pay attention to your own attitude about things. It’s important to focus on your tasks and the work you need to do, but it’s also important to attend to your overall perspective about being a student, your confidence, purpose, support network, etc. Ask yourself things like:

  • Do I believe in my ability to be successful?
  • Can I surround myself with support – like friends, family, mentors – to encourage me when things might be difficult?
  • Am I kind to myself when I experience difficulty?

Pause and reflect with a Self-compassion exercise: How would you treat a friend? (by Dr. Kristin Neff)[7]

When experiencing academic difficulty, reflect on the following questions:

  1. Think about the times when a close friend has felt bad about themselves and struggled in some way. How would you respond to your friend in this situation? Write down what you would typically do and say and note the tone in which you typically talk to your friends when they are struggling.
  2. Now think about the times when you feel bad about yourself or are struggling. How do you typically respond to yourself in these situations? Write down what you typically do and what you say and note the tone in which you talk to yourself.
  3. Did you notice a difference? If so, ask yourself why you treat yourself and others so differently?
  4. Write down how you think things might change if you responded to yourself in the same way you typically respond to a close friend when you are experiencing difficulty.

4. Connecting with community

In this e-book we have talked a lot about the importance of community and connecting with helpful people. It’s important to make meaningful connections with our peers, instructors, and helpful staff to support our learning. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:

  • How can I find ways to study with my classmates?
  • When and where can I connect with my instructors and teaching assistants?
  • How can I connect to a peer mentor, or a learning skills professional on campus?
  • What group-based programming exists at the library, the writing centre, etc.?
  • How can I connect what I’m learning at school to my own home community?

For more on getting involved in community, review the Orienting chapter. 

Michelle describes work-study campus jobs as especially fulfilling engagement opportunities 


In the audio clip above, Michelle and Vurjeet talk about why work-study opportunities – jobs on campus – can be great ways to engage. Listen and/or read the conversation below:

Vurjeet: So our next chapter that we’re kind of touching on, Michelle, is talking about how you engaged with your new life in Toronto. So that goes beyond just adjusting. But after settling, um, how did you engage in your student life at your university and in Toronto? And were there any opportunities that you went for here?

Michelle: Yeah, I think the opportunities – you can find opportunities everywhere around Canada, outside of campus. But I think in the beginning, it’s really important. So even orienting or when you’re trying to adjust, it’s important that you seek these opportunities and know what you can engage in later, even if you don’t engage in the beginning. So I am still engaging in school because I am still, I’m still studying. But I think one of the biggest or two of the biggest things that helped me to stay focused on my current international life in Canada is one) my student club with my own Malaysian Singaporean community and second) is my work study. So I personally seek out work study,

Vurjeet: Yeah!

Michelle: Because, yes, you had, like, if you had a chance, I think everyone should at least engage in one work study term, just so that you get the sense of working, plus studying at the same time. But work study has personally been really fulfilling for me, because I think, I, this is my first time that I get to study, engage academically and engage something non-academically while learning new things and meeting new people. So that, yeah, and that’s a way to stay engaged.

Building Motivation to Learn Effectively

We hope that you enjoy your coursework at your college or university, but there might be times you feel unmotivated to do it.

So how can you build your motivation to learn?

Motivation is the driving force that initiates, directs, and maintains our behaviour. You can find the motivation to engage in learning from within – e.g., by satisfying your curiosity, interests, or passions – and you can find motivation to engage in learning from external incentives – e.g., praise from your instructors, meeting your family’s expectations, or with your grades.

If you find your motivation waning, it is important to remember that motivation is both personal and dynamic:

  • What motivates someone else might not work for you
  • What motivates you to complete one task might not work for another
  • You don’t have to wait for motivation to strike – it can be activated

You can think about your motivation as being comprised of a lot of factors. It’s a little like a recipe with different ingredients – and there isn’t just one way to cook it. Here are three factors or ingredients that you can use to support and build your motivation: Interest and purpose; belief in yourself; support and accountability.

Interest and purpose

If a task piques your curiosity or challenges you in a good or productive way, it can give you the internal drive to do it. You can build your interest and purpose in your coursework by:

  • Observing others who gain satisfaction in the topic. You can do this by joining a study group or speaking with your instructors and teaching assistants about the content.
  • Recognizing the value of the hard work you are engaged in and connecting it with your goals.

Belief in yourself

Your confidence in your capacity to do academic work – or your self-efficacy – can help you stay motivated when things are difficult. You can build your belief in yourself by:

  • Recognizing your strengths and applying them to challenging situations.
  • Going to an expert – like your instructor, teaching assistant, or an Aid Centre – and building your skills.

Support and accountability

You can’t always rely on your internal drive to do work – you will need other people and support to help you stay motivated. You can build support and accountability by:

  • Working with an Aid Centre, Writing Centre, or your teaching assistants to set milestones or submit drafts when completing an assignment.
  • Joining a study group and making use of your environment to support your effort.
Reflect: Think about your life right now. What ingredients can you add to your motivational recipe?

Gaining confidence as a multilingual student

Most Ontario colleges and universities have programs, resources, and supports for students who use English as an Additional Language (EAL). You can gain confidence in using English at a university level by exploring:

Tip! Remember that writing in an academic register is challenging for all students, even for those who use English as their first language. Don’t be hard on yourself as you adjust to the expectations of your course instructors and of the academic disciplines you’re engaging with! One great way to familiarize yourself with the writing styles of your subject areas is to review models and exemplars (ie examples of past student work) for guidance and inspiration.

  • Writing and Communication Centres – teaching-based centres designed to assist students with writing, reading, speaking, and listening skills. Writing Centres can help you develop your writing skills through workshops, resources, or individual consultation with Writing Instructors.
  • Communication or Conversation Cafes – informal and welcoming discussion groups for students who are at various levels of English-speaking ability. You can gain courage to speak in your classes and learn how to communicate more effectively with your peers and instructors.

Connect early with your campus’s international student support services and ask about the English-Language resources available.

Ask your course instructor if they can provide you with writing samples of – or excerpts from – well-written papers by students from their previous classes. You can also request assessment rubrics and scales to have a sense of what your instructors and teaching assistants will be looking for while grading and giving feedback on your written work.

 

Michelle’s story of culture shock: Getting used to “small talk”

In this audio clip, Michelle tells Vurjeet about how engaging in conversations with strangers in “small talk” is an example of culture shock she continues to navigate. Listen and/or read the conversation below:

Michelle: There is something that came to my mind directly, because I think it is also a cultural difference – is that people in Canada – not in Canada, I think people in more European countries or American countries – are more likely to have “small talk”.

Vurjeet: [laughs] Really?

Michelle: Yeah, you don’t do that in Asia. You don’t, you don’t go say “How are you?” to people on the street.

Vurjeet: Oh!

Michelle: So I think something that I have had to learn is responding to “small talks”. Well, at first, I remember being so uncomfortable, because I don’t know how much I should tell you or how much I should say? Because like in Asia, or in my, in the places I grew up, if some random people come and say, “How are you?” to you, people are gonna be so weirded out! And people seem so you know, so um, they seem so used to like the fact that people ask about each other. So that’s something I learned over time. But it’s interesting to see how I replicate the same way, same behaviours as well, right now. Yes.

Vurjeet: So interesting! I, yeah, I mean, like when I visited India, and I didn’t grow up there, but I, I know not to, like, have small talk there. But I think it just clicked and I never realized that the other way around. Like when people come move here as students, and they’re having to figure out how to like, make small talk on their own and it must be a culture shock. That’s really interesting.

Translanguaging: The Strengths of Multilingual Students

As an international student, you might use a first or dominant language that differs from English – and perhaps more than one. The students we meet with often express concern around conversing with (or being understood by) their instructors and classmates while using an additional language, especially during their first few months of adjustment. It is understandable to feel some nervousness about communicating in both academic and informal English during your studies.

We encourage you to consider your multilingual identity as a key strength in your academic and personal journey. To study at an Ontario post-secondary institution in English or French, remind yourself that you have met or exceeded the competitive and high language proficiency requirements for study!

When you arrive in Ontario, although you will notice the two official languages (English and French) widely represented, it is likely that you will observe – or hear – Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Italian, Punjabi, Hindi, Arabic, Tagalog, Urdu, Portuguese, and many other languages in action as well.[8]

In fact, in Ontario many residents use English as an additional language (EAL) like you; for example, they might work or study in English and then use a different language while communicating with friends and family members.

This practice of “switching” between languages for different audiences is very common and can be referred to as translanguaging.[9] Although some English language schools historically have discouraged EAL students from drawing upon their other languages, translanguaging can be an effective tool for academic learning and does not indicate a “weakness” in their language abilities.[10]

Here are some examples of how you might use translanguaging in your studies:

  • If you cannot think of a word in English while explaining an idea or concept, using a synonym from another language you speak can be an effective way to integrate your language strengths and maintain your confidence.
  • When you encounter an unfamiliar term on a test, think about parts of the word that might appear in your language as well (e.g. the prefix, root, or suffix). As English borrows vocabulary from many other languages, you might find your guess is correct!
  • Prior to reading a dense academic article, brainstorm everything you know about the topic in your first language. Do a “knowledge dump” on a separate piece of paper with key words or facts to prepare for the content of the text.
  • Keeping a vocabulary journal of new words you’re learning in English is a helpful strategy to retain them. To reinforce this terminology, try writing a definition in your first language so that you have another way to recall the word in both your speaking and writing.

There are also many examples of languages that integrate or mix English to create new hybrids, such as Hinglish, Spanglish, Singlish, and others. These are not examples of “broken English”, but valid and widely-used languages that are useful resources for EAL students to draw upon or be inspired by.

Michelle talks about how to heal homesickness

In this clip, Michelle talks to Vurjeet about how international students experience homesickness and how to work through it. Listen and/or read the conversation below:

Vurjeet: You were talking about family?

Michelle: Yes, I think it’s gonna, it is going to be a hard transition for a lot of people that are coming without their families, and if you’re traveling for the first time alone across countries, that is going to be extremely, extremely difficult. And I think homesickness is really real. And if you’re, if you come to a point where you get, you got [homesick] at one time, and you don’t have immediate family around you, I think that’s going to hit you really hard. And I’ve talked to a lot of friends about this as well, about how to keep connected to their, stay connected with their family, and everyone has different ways. But when someone is homesick it’s really, really, it’s very obvious when someone really misses their family.

Vurjeet: Yeah.

Michelle: So that’s the challenging part. Well, you know, if you stay engaged in school, you know, you keep yourself busy – also acknowledge your emotions!
Vurjeet: Of course, yeah!

Michelle: But if you have, like enough things to do, you know, there’s so many things to do in Ontario, you go travel and have solo trips. I personally had solo trips myself, once only, but it was, it was such a healing moment. You need to find, I think, during difficult moments if you’re missing your family or during any other difficult moments, it’s important to find a way to heal yourself. So like, do healing activities. What makes you – what heals you? You know? What makes you comfortable? I think that is really important. And advice I would give is that – to people who are, you know, facing challenges because you’re an international student, I would say that, you know, the current you is not going to be the forever you.

Vurjeet: Of course, that’s a good one!

Michelle: Yeah, it’s okay. You know, like, if you’re struggling and everyone around you seems to be so happy. I’m telling you – that’s not true at all.

Vurjeet: Yeah, yeah.

Michelle: But yeah, I think there is – I’m not going to say there’s not going to be any difficult transitions or challenges. There are going to be challenges. But you have to find ways to overcome those challenges yourself and only trial – you have to do trials and errors to see what actually makes you feel better, and, like, those kind of mindset is really important.

Vurjeet: Right? It’s like a journey, you figure it out on the way. And I really like that point of like, knowing that you’re not gonna be the same you as you always are. And you’re saying that as a first year you know, you still have your, like, the rest of your college career, like, it’s literally just begun. So that’s a really good point.

Reflect and give it a try

It is difficult to be an engaged learner all the time. Sometimes you will find yourself feeling un-motivated, bored, frustrated, demoralized, disengaged. This is normal for ALL students. The key is to move through that and find ways to re-engage, whatever that might mean. So, since you’re reading this now, why not close the screen, and do one of the suggestions below, right now: 
  • Make an appointment with a Learning Strategist on campus to talk about motivation
  • Connect with a student group, or your departmental student union
  • Find out if there are any study groups available that you could join

 

The next chapter: Reflecting

In our final chapter, we encourage you to reflect on what you’ve learned so far and what you’re looking towards moving forward. Click here to turn to the Reflecting chapter.

 

  1. Goegan, L. D., and Daniels, L. M. (2019). Academic success for students in postsecondary education: The role of student characteristics and experiences. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 23(3), 659-685.  ↵
  2. Kuh, G. D. (2008). Why integration and engagement are essential to effective educational practice in the twenty-first century. Peer Review, 10(4), 27-29. ↵
  3. Ambrose, S. A. et al. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. John Wiley & Sons. ↵
  4. McGuire, 2018. ↵
  5. Price-Mitchell, M. (2015, April 7). “Metacognition: Nurturing Self-Awareness in the Classroom.” Edutopia. Retrieved December 9, 2021, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-metacognition-in-classroom-marilyn-price-mitchell ↵
  6. Smith, M. & Weinstein, Y. (2021). Six Strategies for Effective Learning. The Learning Scientists. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021, from https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/8/18-1 ↵
  7. Neff, K. (2021). Exercise 1: How would you treat a friend? Self-Compassion Practices. Retrieved December 9, 2021, from https://self-compassion.org/exercise-1-treat-friend/ ↵
  8. Statistics Canada. (2016). Census Profile, 2016 Census. Ontario [Province] and Canada [Country].https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=PR&Code1=35&Geo2=PR&Code2=01&Data=Count&SearchText=Ontario&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=Language&TABID=1 ↵
  9. Cummins, J. (2021). Translanguaging: A critical analysis of theoretical claims. In P. Juvonen & M. Källkvist (Eds.) Pedagogical Translanguaging: Theoretical, Methodological and Empirical Perspectives (pp. 7 –36). Multilingual Matters. ↵
  10. Freeman, Y. & Freeman, D. (2017, October 3). What is translanguaging in the classroom? HMH. https://www.hmhco.com/blog/translanguaging-making-strategic-use-of-emergent-bilinguals-complete-linguistic-repertoires ↵
definition

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

International Students: Stories and Strategies for Academic Success in Postsecondary Education Copyright © by Academic Success, Division of Student Life, University of Toronto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.