The 2012-2013 UC Campus Climate survey noted a generally positive working environment for many Berkeley students, faculty, and staff, and indicated various opportunities for improvement. Below are potential strategies to best support the learning and well-being of all students.
How can I help students to see themselves in their learning experiences?
Research suggests that students from underrepresented backgrounds regularly face barriers to their learning, including, but not limited to, racial stereotyping, imposter syndrome and stereotype threat. Such barriers can negatively impact students’ academic performance and mental health. Below are strategies and resources for helping students foster a sense of belonging in the classroom and in their learning.
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Get to know our campus by reviewing snapshots provided by the Office of Planning & Analysis.
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CalAnswers is a tool that you can use yourself to ask more specific questions about students in your college and department.
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Listen to the Teaching in Troubled Times program panel on Inviting Students to Bring Themselves to Class: Connecting Learning and Lived Experiences.
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Recognize that impostor syndrome is experienced commonly by undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals, especially in underrepresented groups, including first-generation students.
- Explore values affirmation and social belonging interventions to incorporate in your course.
- Consider how you might enhance the diversity in your classroom, including, but not limited to, spotlighting diverse experiences, disciplinary thinking, and backgrounds represented in the learning space. Research shows that diversity experiences foster critical thinking and complex modes of thought.
How can I support all students to participate in small/large group discussions?
Studies of STEM courses have shown that women students are less likely to volunteer responses in a whole-class discussion. This environment can lead to a perceived gender gap in performance: outspokenness in the classroom has been shown to influence men’s perception and underestimation of the academic performance of women in the course. To help mitigate inequitable discussion spaces, consider the following strategies for building structured learning activities.
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Assign individual roles to group members. Explore these 21 teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity.
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Establish community norms. Consider these tips and strategies for creating guidelines for classroom interactions collaboratively with your students.
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Have students set goals for their own professional development during group work.
How can I explore and adjust the biases I bring to my academic spaces?
Instructor biases can affect many facets of a student’s learning experience, including assessment, academic performance, and student motivation. The impact of these biases can extend beyond the classroom, as one study suggests that faculty will rate a student more highly, based on their resume, if the name on the resume sounds male. These inequalities tend to be perpetuated by faculty who think that the evaluative process unbiased. Below lists strategies for instructors to explore their own biases and respond in ways that create opportunities for all.
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Become more aware of your own implicit biases and learn how privilege impacts instructors and students.
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Leverage blind evaluation strategies to minimize bias.
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Examine your letters of recommendation for patterns that reinforce gender stereotypes, including seemingly inconsequential language that can disadvantage women.
How can I foster a growth mindset in the classroom?
Students’ mindsets, referring to how students perceive their abilities, play a key role in their motivation and academic achievement. For example, one study finds that women’s reported interest and academic performance was, in part, mediated by messaging about math being a fixed trait. Recently, research finds that instructors’ mindsets may also impact student performance in STEM courses, leading to gaps in achievement and motivation for students from underrepresented backgrounds. Explore the following resources to learn more about the importance of a growth mindset and how you can foster this mindset in your academic space.
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Examine how you and your colleagues speak about what it takes to be a successful scholar in your field. A discipline that focuses on intangibles like “brilliance” rather than hard work or patterns of accomplishment gives freer rein to implicit biases and hires fewer women and African American faculty.
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Help students identify gaps in their own learning and strategize ways to improve in future work through assignments like exam wrappers.
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Leverage a combination of assurance and high standards when giving feedback. This strategy, commonly referred to as wise feedback, can help foster trust between instructors and students, including students from underrepresented racial backgrounds.
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Incorporate growth mindset interventions into your course by asking students to read about a growth mindset framework and reflect on their own learning.
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Model a growth mindset for students by using positive self-talk and emphasizing productive failure (We don’t know this yet, but here’s how we will learn it…).
How can I learn more about inclusive teaching strategies for my remote course?
Remote instruction can feel like an isolating endeavour for students and instructors. Consider how you can create a more inclusive learning environment with the following resources.
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Listen to Berkeley students share their experiences navigating COVID-19 to learn more about the challenges students may face when learning amidst a global pandemic.
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The Division of Equity & Inclusion has created a toolkit to aid faculty in establishing virtual classroom culture.
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Explore these campus resources for continued support during the transition to remote teaching and learning.
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Examine your course design for opportunities to incorporate, relate to, or adjust for students' diverse range of cultural and language backgrounds.
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Leverage the Community of Inquiry framework to create engaging collaborative learning experiences that foster community between students and instructors. This online learning strategy can also facilitate deeper learning for in-person classes.
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Explore these ideas for building community in your (virtual) classroom.
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Reflect on the non-content language you use during instruction and how this might influence student learning experiences.
For further exploration, UC Berkeley’s Multicultural Education Program maintains a list of tools and resources for diverse and inclusive classroom practices.