Mohawk College names Dr. Daniel Schmidtke as the inaugural CSSIC Research Fellow

Daniel Schmitdke

The College Student Success Innovation Centre (CSSIC) at Mohawk College announced today that Dr. Daniel Schmidtke has been selected as the college’s inaugural CSSIC Research Fellow.

Dr. Schmidtke, a Research Associate (Academic) for the McMaster English Language Development (MELD) program and an affiliated researcher in The Centre for Advanced Research in Experimental and Applied Linguistics (ARiEAL) at McMaster University, will lead a project geared toward enhancing student success in Mohawk College’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program through a reading intervention.

“We are pleased to award Dr. Schmidtke with this first-of-its-kind fellowship as Mohawk College and CSSIC continue to advance research around student success in post-secondary education,” said Mohawk College VP, Academic, Dr. Cebert Adamson.  “The work that will be done through the CSSIC Research Fellowship will support applied research in student success while developing tangible best practices in the field. As is the case with all CSSIC research, we are confident this project will benefit students, practitioners, and researchers at post-secondary institutions across the country.”

In collaboration with the CSSIC team, Dr. Schmidtke will conduct research on phonological decoding (the process of mapping printed letters to spoken sounds), an especially important sub-skill of reading for learners acquiring English as an additional language. The goal is to provide crucial support to these learners, including international students, who face the challenge of acquiring English reading proficiency in order to study effectively.

Students who use English as an additional language but lack the required English proficiency credentials can enroll in EAP programs in preparation for Canadian post-secondary education. Students who successfully complete the EAP program are granted admission to their prospective post-secondary education program of study.

The intervention study being led by Dr. Schmidtke will provide training opportunities for student co-researchers at Mohawk College, and undergraduate and graduate students at McMaster University. Findings from the research will be shared locally and internationally through workshops, presentations, peer-reviewed publications, and technical reports.

The Fellowship began on May 1, 2024, and will run for three years, into 2027.

Established in May 2023, the CSSIC Research Fellowship provides up to $100,000 in funding to support the direct costs of one or more research projects that identify and validate innovative student services and/or teaching approaches, methods, and practices, to be implemented with Mohawk College students in collaboration with the CSSIC and Mohawk College students, staff, and faculty.

About CSSIC

The College Student Success Innovation Centre (CSSIC) at Mohawk College is Canada’s first research centre on a college campus uniquely focused on community college student success. Since 2018, CSSIC has been designing, implementing, and evaluating innovative interventions throughout the student lifecycle to determine what works in supporting student success. CSSIC has implemented and supported over $5 million in funded research projects in partnership with over 20 post-secondary, community, and industry collaborators. The introduction of the CSSIC Research Fellowship allows the centre to build on past strengths and explore new partnerships.