Use this guide to aid you in developing your courses to achieve more welcoming and effective learning environments.
- Require Structured, Scaffolded Learning Create explicit learning paths aligned with learning objectives so that all of your students receive feedback on what they are being asked to learn and how well they are learning it. Don't leave it to chance that students will participate in these learning paths because that simply reinforces differences in preparation that already exist among students. Rather, require participation in assignments and activities that you know will benefit struggling students. This also allows you to spread the grade among more assignments, reducing the impact of any single exam or assignment; this integrates assessment across more information and reduces the stress of a single high leverage moment.
- Anthony Jack calls on faculty to uncover the "hidden curriculum" of college, which are assumptions about how college works. He cites "office hours" as being misunderstood by disadvantaged poor students. Define the role of office hours for your students as well as other opportunities for learning so that they serve all students and not just those students privileged with inside information on how to navigate college.
- Images and Examples: Include diverse people in lecture images and stories. For example, intentionally include women and people of color. Consider utilizing "Scientist Spotlights" by including a research paragraph and a biography paragraph. This can highlight less visible diversity, such as first-generation, single parent, etc. While historical examples may be limited, make full utilization of diverse modern scientists. When there is a historically important female or person of color, be sure to highlight them. Examples include:
- Chemistry: Rachel Lloyd, Marie Curie, Maud Menten, Lise Meitner
- Biology: Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, Rachel Carson, Barbara McClintock, Lynn Margulis
- Physics: Mileva Einstein-Marić
- Language Implications: The words we use in society generally and in science disciplines specifically can have unstated implications which send signals about who belongs in science and how society operates. Aim to co-opt those implications in order to be as inclusive as possible.
- Use gender-inclusive language. Additionally, review the examples used in lectures and exams, including standard language in the discipline. Julia McQuillan in UNL's Department of Sociology found that textbook examples typically depicted girls as needing help.
- In Genetics, it is standard to refer to alleles as wild-type and mutants. That can send the message that there is a Platonic ideal of a single best genetic composition and that anything that differs is inferior. Any student with a genetic disease might directly feel excluded, and it can also be used to further racist ideologies of superior genetics. However, framing alleles from the evolutionary perspective of variation normalizes genetic diversity.
- Culturally Vary Analogies: Be aware of the use of cultural references used in the course or in analogies, which is a common way to learn scientific concepts. Vary the cultural references over the course so as to be inclusive of multiple reference points.
- Historical Diversity Conflicts: Highlight diversity conflict moments in the history of your science, which typically involve a moral or ethical failure which we now recognize as such. Acknowledging them in the context of science both honors the sacrifices that might have been made, but also demonstrates the sometimes underbelly of the process of science. At the same time, it establishes a narrative for unacceptable practices.
- Henretta Lacks, Tuskegee Institute, Nazi science, Eugenics.
- Call-out the racism of Carl Linnaeus, Ronald Fischer, or other racist scientists still in textbooks.
- Diversity Science: Capitalize on opportunities in which the course content overlaps with topics related to diversity. Bring a science perspective to "misconceptions" about diversity. Choosing not to address a topic can communicate as much as addressing a topic, so don't avoid controversial topics.
- The biological relationship between skin color, race, and subspecies, including the multiple origins of skin color.
- Lactose tolerance arose twice, once in Asia moving into Europe, and once in Central Africa. This intentionally counters the use of milk as a white supremacy symbol.
- Sex determination, with clear instruction on the variability that occurs.
- The contribution of environment and environment by genotype interactions on phenotype.
- The ubiquitous variation in gender and mating roles in animals, like female-female mounting in Whiptail lizards, sex-changing in Blue Wrasse, or sneaker males in Sunfish.
- The importance of female choice in sexual selection.
- Cross-disciplinary context: When needed, provide academic thought from areas outside the natural sciences to offset misinterpretation of "science facts" in a non-inclusive manner. For example, the philosophical fallacy of naturalism should be discussed to provide context to the topic of forced copulation among animals.
- Reduce Textbook Costs: In some cases, open education resources (OER) can be used to offer texts at no cost to students. In some paid text may still be the best educational resource but consider other strategies to reduce costs. This directly affects students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, but that can covary with many of the other categories in which we aim to close equity gaps.
- Do previous versions of the text provide the same information as the newest versions; can you communicate that to students and facilitate their use of prior versions?
- Inclusive Access is a new approach in which students all students in a course are automatically provided access to an electronic text, typically at a lower price, and are then automatically billed unless they opt-out. There are a number of considerations with Inclusive Access, but at its best, it results in more students having access to the text at a lower price per student. To explore your options, contact the publisher or Brad Severa at UNL.
Pedagogy