Education (July 2026)

Applied Linguistics for Teachers

An introduction to additional language learning and teaching, from the perspective of applied linguistics, this course will assist teachers of English as an additional language in making linguistically informed decisions about their practice. The course design is grounded in the understanding that today’s language classrooms are diverse multilingual and multicultural places, presenting students and teachers with unique challenges. Therefore, successful language teachers need to understand more than just the structure and nature of the language(s) they teach: they also need to develop an understanding of the social, cultural, and ideological implications of language and language education.

Introduction to Teaching and Learning English

By focusing on the practice of English language teaching, this course aims to provide participants with a comprehensive view of fundamentals that guide instructional practices in a variety of contexts. This course design is grounded in the understanding that to be an effective language teacher, one needs to familiarize with a range of instructional models, teaching techniques, assessment strategies, and sociocultural concerns, as they pertain to teaching English in the globalized world. Specifically, this course gives participants an insight into innovative ways to promote communicative competence though integration of language skills and will prepare them for lesson and unit planning. Topics to be discussed include: overview of teaching methods, curriculum and planning for instruction, initiating and sustaining interaction in the classroom, classroom management, among others.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Minors (students aged under 19 at the start of the program): Not Accepted

Supporting Responsive Young Child Growth in Early Childhood Settings

This course explores responsive ways to support the growth and learning of young children in early childhood settings. The focus is on positive relationships and responsive approaches that support learning and growth in young children. Elements and approaches that can transform early learning settings into highly effective programs that facilitate student success. Students will learn about, discuss, and clarify some of the theories, programs, and approaches central to culturally responsive approaches to early education, including child development theory, developmental neurosciences, strength- based approaches and the holistic and relational nature of learning in the early years. This course focuses on current issues around young children’s rights, socio-emotional development, preparing for school, second language acquisition, learn in nature, and engagement with caregivers. It highlights the idea that young children’s innate capacity to learn and educators’ responses to children’s inquiries provide the foundation for the growth and high-quality early learning experiences for young children.

Creating Positive Environments to Support Learning in Early Childhood Settings

In this course the students are introduced to the significant role that designing stimulating and nurturing early childhood learning environments plays in children’s learning and in supporting all aspects of their development and growth. Recognizing that early childhood education is constructed within historical, sociocultural, political, and theoretical contexts, in this course the ways in which high-quality learning environments engage with all of these contexts are explored. Additionally, it discusses the considerations that socio-cultural contexts and socio-emotional relationships have on creating learning spaces by taking into account philosophies of childhood, play, and learning through in-class experiences and visits to programs in the field.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Minors (students aged under 19 at the start of the program): Not Accepted

Basic Interviewing Skills

This basic counselling interviewing skills course is designed to introduce and offer the opportunity to practice basic help-intended communication skills in order to increase competence in empathic listening and responding for facilitating student/client self-awareness and self-exploration.

This course will introduce communication theories and common practices in the counselling profession, including Hill’s (2020) three-stage integrative model of interpersonal helping. Social and cultural issues will also be explored to increase student sensitivity to contextual factors that impact the counselling process. Additionally, common counselling issues—including confidentiality, power differentials, counsellor bias, dual relationships and teacher/counsellor self-development—will be discussed.

Career Counselling

Career counselling is a collaborative process that helps students/clients to clarify, specify, implement, and adjust to work-related decisions with the aim of assisting individuals in locating a career that is meaningful, productive, and fulfilling. This course will critically survey career development theories, issues, and practices that have specific applications to career counselling within and beyond school settings. This course will review: (a) established and emergent theories of career development across the life span; (b) issues and techniques of particular relevance to career assessment and career counselling in schools, communities, and business practices; (c) career counselling with special populations; and (d) developmental issues, transition points and counselling strategies associated with the theories and career counselling. In order to facilitate practical understanding and integrate theory and practice, this course emphasizes experiential exercises in addition to class discussions and readings.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Minors (students aged under 19 at the start of the program): Not Accepted

Introduction to Outdoor Place-based Learning

Incorporating the stunning natural setting of the University of British Columbia, this experiential course will serve as an introduction to the foundations of Place-Based Learning. With most of the learning occurring in community locations around UBC and the Metro Vancouver region, students will: (a) discover why Place-Based Learning matters and how it can make education more meaningful and engaging; (b) learn to see and understand how place—forests, rivers, parks, and community spaces—can be framed as living classrooms, and try out hands-on teaching approaches that bring learning outside of the classroom; (c) explore First Peoples’ Principles of Learning within the BC curriculum and how BC’s Indigenous knowledge and traditions connect to learning in place and on the land; (d) gain practice in designing engaging learning programs that draw on community resources; and (e) develop strategies to build connections with people, communities, and organizations in support of these experiences.

Extending Place-based Learning: Health, Well-Being, and Connection to Place

Building on the principles covered in the Introduction to Place-based Learning, this course will specifically focus on the ways in which outdoor learning supports health, well-being, and connection to place. Students will: (a) learn about the physical, mental health, and social-emotional benefits of Place-Based Learning, supported by research and field-based experience; (b) explore cross-cultural and international perspectives on the role of outdoor learning in supporting well-being and connection to place; (c) build strategies for fostering inclusive, welcoming outdoor learning environments that support belonging, connection and community well-being; (d) gain hands-on skills to design meaningful, health-focused outdoor learning activities; and (e) recognize how appreciation of place can inspire environmental stewardship and foster community connectedness.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Minors (students aged under 19 at the start of the program): Not Accepted

Educational Innovation through Generative AI

This course will allow you to learn innovative ways AI tools can be used to create impactful educational content. You will explore how AI can support the development of classroom activities, personalized learning experiences and teaching materials. You will engage in hands-on workshops where you will generate quizzes, problem sets, flashcards, multimedia lessons, and interactive games using AI. You will learn how to create content that is customized to a range of learner needs and explore ways to incorporate AI-generated materials into your own teaching strategies. Throughout the course, you will examine case studies of AI used successfully in classrooms around the world and consider ethical issues such as privacy and bias. By the end of the course, you will have gained practical skills and confidence in harnessing AI to innovate educational content and be prepared to incorporate these technologies into your future teaching practice.

Designing Digital Games to Support Teaching and Learning

Are you interested in making your teaching both educationally sound and fun for your students? This course explores the role of digital games in educational contexts, focusing on their capacity to support learning through interactive, high-engagement experiences. Focusing on what constitutes a good learning game, you will examine a range of games from serious games to entertainment games, asking what and how learning might be activated through play. You will also examine how games can be employed to facilitate motivation and sociality and enhance knowledge acquisition and retention in a variety of learning environments. You will then have the opportunity to apply these game-based learning concepts by designing your own educational games, aligning game mechanics with educational objectives, enabling you to create learning resources that support diverse teaching needs. Supported by AI coding tools, you will develop a prototype for a game that aligns with your own instructional objectives or personal learning goals.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Minors (students aged under 19 at the start of the program): Not Accepted

Understanding the Social-Emotional Learning Needs of Diverse Learners in School, Family, and Community Contexts

School, family, and community systems have a particularly strong impact on overall development including social-emotional health and wellness as well as learning. In this course, the notion that children and youth live, learn, and play in multiple systems is addressed. All of these environments impact social and emotional health and wellness, and in turn learning. The students taking this course will be exposed to school, family, and community factors that impact social-emotional health/wellness and learning. The ways in which social-emotional health and wellness impact learning both directly and indirectly is critically examined. Given students in the course are learners from diverse international contexts, cross-cultural perspectives on these considerations are also explored.

Culturally Responsive Approaches to Creating Positive Learning Environments to Support Social-Emotional Health/Wellness

Addressing the social-emotional health and wellness of children and youth in society today is critical to academic learning. Knowing effective ways to address the social and emotional health and well-being of learners in the early through young adult years is a focus of this course. Students in the course will be exposed to a wide variety of programs to support the social and emotional health and well-being of students along with approaches that promote student learning. Programs that explore learner support in school, family, and community settings will be explored and critically reviewed by the students in the course. This will include the ways these programs are (or are not) culturally responsive to learner strengths and needs and why a culturally responsive approach is important is examined through project-based learning throughout the course.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Minors (students aged under 19 at the start of the program): Not Accepted