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Diversity Education: Inclusive Teaching Practices

"Diversity education is a challenging task that requires specific knowledge and training...that all faculty and staff should develop to support student development within a safe, affirming environment." D. Scott Thorp (DePaul University)

The Inclusive Classroom

"If equality means giving everyone the same resources, equity means giving each student access to the resources they need to learn and thrive." Edutopia - "Equity vs. Equality: 6 Steps Toward Equity"

 As instructors there are meaningful approaches we can utilize in our classrooms to create an inclusive environment so that all students feel welcome, comfortable, and valued. You can adapt the general practices listed below to establish a purposefully  inclusive teaching and learning conditions.

Inclusive Teaching

Research for Inclusive Teaching

Research Basis

The evidence basis for inclusive teaching in this sense includes research on:

  1. The relation between classroom climate and student learning

  2. stereotype threat as a barrier to academic success

  3. social belonging as key to student learning and persistence

  4. contributors to student persistence and retention in STEM fields

  5. best practices for utilizing student groups and teams

  6. the benefits of cooperative learning

  7. the negative consequences of identity-based microaggressions for learning

  8. mindsets about intelligence and their relation to student persistence

  9. student development, including development of reflective judgment and intercultural maturity

  10. best practices for difficult dialogues

  11. Universal Design principles

  12. the importance for learning of instructor transparency about course learning objectives and assessment criteria

For links to the relevant scholarship go to The Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Michigan

Creating an Inclusive Classroom

    Effective Inclusions Strategies

 

  1. Concentrate on individual students, not syndromes.
  2. Think about possible accommodations and modifications that might be needed.
  3. Emphasize the importance of respecting everyone's perspectives.
  4. Use inclusive language.
  5. Learn each others names, including preferred nicknames and pronunciations.
  6. Establish prior knowledge
  7. Relate learning to students' lives using interest inventories.
  8. Pre-plan lessons with structured objectives, but also allow for inter/post planning.
  9. Vary types of instruction and assessment, with multiple intelligences and cooperative learning.
  10. Proceed from the simple to the complex by using discrete task analysis, which breaks up the learning into its parts.
  11. Reinforce abstract concepts with concrete examples.
  12. Provide opportunities for success to build self-esteem.
  13. Give positives before negatives.
  14. Use modeling with both teachers and peers
  15. Establish classroom environment that encourages students to ask questions and become actively involved in their learning.
  16. Keep learning more about your students’ abilities and the many ways you can reach, teach, and include.

Sources: 

Inclusive Teaching Strategies

Classroom Climate