Module 1Diversity and Inclusion

Kathleen Burnett, FSU

Linda Smith, UIUC

Harry Bruce, UW

Outline

• Introduction to Project Athena

- Overview of Syllabus

- Course Requirements

- Course Evaluation Forms

- Issues / Concerns

Outline

• Diversity

- Teacher Issues / Attitudes

- Learning Styles

• Inclusion

- Inclusive Teaching Strategies

- Guidelines

Diversity Issues for the Teacher

• Personal identity (e.g., race, religion, socio-economic background, & learning style)

• Reaction of students to comportment, approach to teaching, etc.

• Establishment of a "safe" environment

Diversity Issues for the Teacher

• Invisible diversity (e.g. political opinion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, etc. personal identity)

• Surfacing hidden assumptions

• Avoiding “a classroom slant” that can be harmful and/or strains relations with students

Identifying Your Own Attitudes

1) Recall the incident in which you first became aware of differences. What was your reaction? Were you the focus of attention or were others? How did that affect how you reacted to the situation?

Identifying Your Own Attitudes

2) What are the "messages" that you learned about various "minorities" or "majorities" when you were a child? At home? In school? Have your views changed considerably since then? Why or why not?

Identifying Your Own Attitudes

3) Recall an experience in which your own difference put you in an uncomfortable position vis--vis the people directly around you. What was that difference? How did it affect you?

Identifying Your Own Attitudes

4) How do your memories of differences affect you today? How do they (or might they) affect your teaching?

Diversity Issues Impacting the Student/Teacher Relationship

• Differences in age

• Political affiliations

• Discrepancies in learning styles

• Academic culture

• (Re)acculturation

Diversity and The College Curriculum

• More and more colleges and universities across the nation are transforming their curricula to accommodate diversity

• Professors are utilizing new texts and teaching techniques designed to prepare students for increasingly complex and diverse communities and workplaces

Diversity and The College Curriculum

• Diversity courses challenge students to think in more complex ways about identity, history… avoiding cultural stereotyping

• Leading to positive effects on openness to racial understanding

Determining Learning Style 1) What type of information does the

student preferentially perceive: sensory sights, sounds, physical sensations, or intuitive memories, ideas, insights?

2) Through which modality is sensory information most effectively perceived: pictures, diagrams, graphs… or verbal sounds, written/spoken words, etc.

Determining Learning Style3) With which organization of information is

the student most comfortable:

a) inductive facts and observations are given, underlying principles are inferred, or

b) deductive principles are given, consequences and applications are deduced?

Determining Learning Style4) How does the student prefer to process

information: actively through engage- ment in physical activity or discussion, or reflectively through introspection?

5) How does the student progress toward understanding: sequentially in a logical progression of small incremental steps, or globally in large jumps, holistically?

Teaching Techniques to Address All Learning Styles

• Motivate Learning

• Provide a balance of concrete information

• Use explicit illustrations of both intuitive patterns and sensing patterns

• Follow the scientific method in presenting theoretical material

Teaching Techniques to Address All Learning Styles

• Use pictures, schematics, graphs and simple sketches liberally before, during and after the presentation of verbal material (sensing/visual)

• Use computer-assisted instruction when possible

Teaching Techniques to Address All Learning Styles

• Do not fill every minute of class time lecturing and writing on the board

• Provide opportunities for students to do something active

• Assign drills, open-ended exercises…

• Allow students to cooperate on assignments

Teaching Techniques to Address All Learning Styles

• Applaud creative solutions, even incorrect ones

• Lastly, talk to students about learning styles, both in advising and in classes

Inclusive Teaching Strategies

• Teaching to the Individual

- Add new techniques or strategies

incrementally

- Get to know your students -- the first

day and beyond

Inclusive Teaching Strategies

- Seen and unseen diversity: the

problem of assumptions

- Getting to know your students -- the first day and beyond

- The minority vs. the majority

Inclusive Teaching Strategies

• The Classroom as Community

- Setting Ground Rules

- Establishing a safe "Zone“

- Ignoring or Singling Out

- Calling on Students / Taking Volunteers

Inclusive Teaching Strategies

- Monitoring Student Comments

- Anticipating Problems Before the

Lesson

- Depersonalizing Controversial Topics

Guidelines For Classroom Discussion

• Everyone in class has both a right and an obligation to participate in discussions, and, if called upon, should try to respond

• Always listen carefully, with an open mind, to the contributions of others

• Ask for clarification when you don't understand a point someone has made

Guidelines For Classroom Discussion

• If you challenge others' ideas, do so with factual evidence and appropriate logic

• If others challenge your ideas, be willing to change your mind if they demonstrate errors in your logic or use of the facts

• Don't introduce irrelevant issues into the discussion

Guidelines For Classroom Discussion

• If others have made a point with which you agree, don't bother repeating it (unless you have something important to add)

• Be efficient in your discourse; make your points and then yield to others

• Avoid ridicule and try to respect the beliefs of others, even if they differ from yours

Teaching Resources• Use of:

- Anecdotes

- Humor

- Role Plays

- Assigning Groups

- Sharing the Load

- Encouraging Debate

Syllabus

• You Teach What You Are

• Broadening Your Perspective

• Teaching the Conflicts

• "Lowbrow” traditions

• Tokenism vs. Integration

Class Assignments

• Formats and Evaluation of Students

• Testing and Writing Formats

• Participation

• Flexible Grading Scales

• Grading Criteria

• Nonstandard English / Writing Center

• Outside the Classroom

Guidelines for Inclusive Teaching

• Get to know your students as individuals rather than as representatives of particular groups

• Never ask a student to speak for a whole group (e.g., for women, for Hispanics, for Muslims)

Guidelines for Inclusive Teaching

• Accommodate different learning styles and promote collaboration between students

• Do not let injurious statements pass without comment

• Allow students to disagree with you or others, but within guidelines that promote a safe learning atmosphere

Guidelines for Inclusive Teaching

• Reflect diverse backgrounds on your syllabus, in your readings, and in other materials such as visual aids

• Depersonalize controversial topics and structure assignments to let students choose topics with which they are comfortable

Guidelines for Inclusive Teaching

• Understand why you have designed your syllabus in the way that you have

• Make your course goals clear to all students and give continual feedback on how students are meeting them

Class Discussion