By Rosella Ingriselli, Educational Development Support, EDC
As I sat at my desk planning for the upcoming EDC Summer Institute (yes, I just name dropped), which focuses on creating an inclusive classroom, I started doing some research on appropriate materials to include as part of the participants’ “homework.” My quest led me to a TedTalk by Todd Rose – a director at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The premise of his talk was this: if you design for the average person [student], you’re actually designing for nobody. It sounded a little confusing at first, but the more I listened, the more it made sense.
For example, if the students in your class took the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and you created a plot graph to show how they ranked on each subset, you would see that each profile is not linear.
If every student has a jagged profile and doesn’t linearly fall in the average category, how do we reach all students if we are designing for the “average” student?
So what’s the magic solution you ask? One option is giving students options or choices as to how they can demonstrate their knowledge. For example, can the outcome be equally measured if they were to do a PowerPoint, essay or podcast? Multiple options allow students to choose the format that fits them best. There will be times where giving students choices isn’t possible, and that’s okay. There might be other outcomes (within the same course) where you have the flexibility to do this.
Another option is getting to know your students’ strengths through a series of questions using an audience response system such as Poll Everywhere. Ask students what they feel their strengths are (i.e., writing, oral presentations, researching, etc.). Before the course officially begins, put the link to your poll on your course website/cuLearn page and, based on the results, you can then redesign or adapt your assignments so it tailors to your students.
Getting to know your students and providing them with multiple ways to demonstrate their knowledge are just some of the conversations related to inclusivity that we will have at this year’s Summer Institute. If you are interested in attending, please register here.