Inclusive Teaching Practices

 

1. Use low-stakes testing.
2. Do not grade on a curve.
3. Allow for flexibility in student assignments.
4. Promote multiculturalism in your classes.
5. Upload syllabi on a departmental website before registration begins so that students can do “syllabus shopping”.
6. Use closed captioning.
7. Increase social belonging by making sure students know each other and informing them that social difficulties are common and transient.
8. Learn your students’ names.
9. Establish a social norm of inclusion.
10. Include pictures of researchers when presenting empirical results.
11. Make sure to make salient the utility value of the material that you are covering.
12. Allow students to express what they value and why these values are important for them.
13. Foster a “growth mindset” by presenting intelligence as malleable and improvable through work and effort.
14. When doing group work in class, assign students to groups instead of letting students form their own groups.
15. Make sure that students are mutually dependent on one another for success when working in groups.
16. Don’t necessarily call on the first student who raises their hand.
17. Never ask a student to speak as the representative of their social group.
18. Abstain from using tests where speed is critical for success.
19. Make sure to use unbiased exam questions and let students know that the exam questions they will encounter are unbiased.
20. Provide motivating feedback.

Source: Moreu, G. & Brauer, M. (2022). Inclusive teaching practices in post-secondary education: What instructors can do to reduce the achievement gap at U.S. colleges. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 34(1), 170-182.