Facilitating Student Learning in the Informal Curriculum

Abstract

This chapter seeks to evaluate student-led programmes as part of the informal curriculum within a residential college in Singapore. At this College, “community engagement” or CE is an educational ethos that has been pedagogically developed and incorporated into the informal curriculum through three specific intended learning outcomes (ILOs): awareness, empathy and understanding. Separately, a sense of belonging was also explored as a desired social outcome of the informal curriculum. The study specifically examined a unique yearly College flagship event that spans across two days where students are invited to participate in different community trails through an engagement with various individuals and organisations across Singapore. These trails are typically planned and facilitated by student leaders under the supervision of the faculty advisors. To evaluate the impact of this event as a learning intervention, pre- and post-surveys were administered to student participants. Results from the surveys suggest a statistically significant increase in scores for “understanding”, which was one of the ILOs. Separately, the study also demonstrated that a “sense of belonging” to the College community is a significant outcome of this event. These findings help refine the implications of student-led events as part of the informal curriculum in the context of a living-learning programme. More specifically, they reveal the importance of identifying organisational processes of CE programmes that need to be retained or re-configured so that learning outcomes continue to be achieved even amidst new contexts including the COVID-19 pandemic.