Inclusive Teaching Module

<div class="xblock xblock-public_view xblock-public_view-vertical" data-block-type="vertical" data-graded="False" data-init="VerticalStudentView" data-runtime-version="1" data-has-score="False" data-usage-id="block-v1:MITx+7.InT+2021_Fall+type@vertical+block@dd8176375a504c0cb12d99c6bc9abd5b" data-course-id="course-v1:MITx+7.InT+2021_Fall" data-request-token="e633852805d211f095120e84ffb47eb3" data-runtime-class="LmsRuntime"> <h2 class="hd hd-2 unit-title">Glossary</h2> <div class="vert-mod"> <div class="vert vert-0" data-id="block-v1:MITx+7.InT+2021_Fall+type@html+block@6c5fc197b9f04330b73295e8170cc088"> <div class="xblock xblock-public_view xblock-public_view-html xmodule_display xmodule_HtmlBlock" data-block-type="html" data-graded="False" data-init="XBlockToXModuleShim" data-runtime-version="1" data-has-score="False" data-usage-id="block-v1:MITx+7.InT+2021_Fall+type@html+block@6c5fc197b9f04330b73295e8170cc088" data-course-id="course-v1:MITx+7.InT+2021_Fall" data-request-token="e633852805d211f095120e84ffb47eb3" data-runtime-class="LmsRuntime"> <script type="json/xblock-args" class="xblock-json-init-args"> {"xmodule-type": "HTMLModule"} </script> <h3>Inclusive Teaching Module Glossary </h3> Throughout this online module, you will encounter a range of terms related to inclusive teaching. Some of these words have other definitions distinct from the educational context of this module. To clarify how we use these words, we provide an alphabetical glossary of terms that may be helpful to review. Accessible: Describes the property of course materials and infrastructure that facilitate full participation from all students through their ability to accurately perceive and understand the material. Issues of accessibility often arise with physical barriers, visual representations, language used, or specific cultural references that can prevent some students from fully engaging. Accommodation: Involves changing an instructional practice to meet the needs of students. Some students may need accommodations in the form of more time on exams, dedicated note-takers, or extensions on assignments. Active learning: Engages students in their own process of knowledge construction. Many pedagogical techniques promote active learning. Broadly, any technique that involves students doing something to learn could be considered active learning. Active learning is often contrasted with the most common passive teaching technique, lecture. Alignment: Ensures cohesion between learning goals, activities, and assessments. Alignment is a foundational pedagogical practice that helps set expectations. Anti-racist: Describes quality of someone who is actively involved in dismantling policies and cultural norms that enable white supremacy and oppression of other racial groups. Not being racist is not the same as being anti-racist. For more ideas and resources, see our references on <a href="/courses/course-v1:MITx+7.InT+2021_Fall/jump_to_id/c035bb7e1a6b45b6a4f677ce7f625e52" target="_blank">Racial Justice in Education.</a> Autonomy: Describes the ability to make informed decisions based within a person’s own values and interests. Promoting autonomy in the classroom may help students have a sense of ownership over their learning experiences and thus become more invested. Belongingness: Describes the feeling of being included within a group. In education, we must consider how students may or may not feel belonging to a discipline or to an institution in general, as a strong sense of belonging is associated with retention and persistence in STEM. Classroom climate: Refers to the collection of attitudes and interactions that shape the learning environment and outcomes. Both students and instructors contribute to the classroom climate. Diversity: Refers to the variation in human traits that distinguish individuals and groups from each other. Some examples of the types of traits (referred to as categories of identity) that people can display variation across are given in the <a href="/courses/course-v1:MITx+7.InT+2021_Fall/jump_to_id/486c27d078094f69b17a65d0a21663cc " target="_blank">Identity Table</a>. Diversity is often described demographically in terms of the numerical representation of different groups of people. Empathy: Describes the ability to understand the feelings of another person from their perspective. Empathy is a critical skill that helps educators understand the complex lives of students and their individual needs. Modeling empathy can encourage a positive classroom climate and foster connection between you and among your students. Engagement: Describes the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral efforts involved in a learning activity. Importantly, high engagement is not just active participation, but implies a deeper involvement in and commitment to learning. Equity: Refers to the provided support based on the needs of individual students to achieve class-wide learning outcomes. There are shared goals for learning for all students, but the resources needed to achieve those goals may vary by student in an equitable environment. Flipped classroom: Uses class meeting times for active learning, and preparatory work (often pre-recorded lecture or reading materials) are completed before class time. Flipped classrooms are often blended, which means some of the learning activities are done online (often asynchronously) while some are done in real time in person. Growth mindset: Refers to the idea that academic skills and abilities are developed over time with effort. This belief emphasizes that improvement and achievement are possible, in contrast to a fixed mindset where some believe that certain academic talents are inherent and unable to change. Historically and currently excluded student populations: Describes students that belong to groups that have systematically been kept out of higher education. You may be more familiar with language such as “minority” or “underrepresented,” but we feel that this language does not acknowledge the historical and present systems of education that deliberately exclude folks of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, women, people with disabilities, and others that belong to marginalized groups from entering and advancing in academia. This terminology is also imperfect, as it does not distinguish the different dynamics that different groups navigate, the different contexts in which they are situated, or the intersectional nature of student identity. In the context of this module, we are deliberately broad, but we encourage you to be more specific in thinking about which student groups are excluded in your own contexts while keeping in mind that identities are complex and cannot be reduced to one dimension. Humility: Describes the acknowledgement of our own limitations. This is especially important when considering cultures and viewpoints outside of our own experience in the classroom. Staying humble allows us to remain open to growth in our instructional practices. Identity: Refers to the way we understand ourselves. One way that we conceptualize identity is through belonging to groups. Our memberships to diverse groups are often defined in relation to others, are more or less dynamic, and are multidimensional. Some examples of these dimensions are given in the <a href="/courses/course-v1:MITx+7.InT+2021_Fall/jump_to_id/486c27d078094f69b17a65d0a21663cc " target="_blank">Identity Table</a>. An inclusive and equitable classroom respects and celebrates student identities. Inclusion: Describes an approach that both invites and enables people that embody diverse identities to successfully learn together. Inclusion often involves designing instructional activities to center and actively consider folks that are often excluded in many traditional learning environments. Intersectionality: A theory developed by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, which formalized an understanding that many folks share. This theory was first used to describe the experiences of Black women, as the racialized and gendered experiences of a Black woman are different from those of a white woman or a Black man. Intersectionality theory explains that since identities interact and do not operate independently, there are interconnected systems of oppression (e.g., racism and misogyny) and privilege, which are impossible to disentangle. Justice: Refers broadly to the equitable distribution of resources, and the creation and support of equitable processes. In education, justice manifests on multiple scales, such as in creating departmental budgets, and setting individual course policies. Microaggression: Describes discriminatory or insulting comments and questions that are often encountered on a daily basis from folks that belong to marginalized groups. Microaggressions are transgressions that are typically unintentional, but nevertheless harmful and can generate stereotype threat and feelings of alienation. Although the intentions behind certain comments may be innocuous, the impact of the resulting microaggressions accumulate. Missteps: Describes a type of minor transgression when a decision is executed imprecisely despite having accurate information. You will make many missteps throughout your teaching experience. Missteps can provide important feedback that can help you to refine and practice your teaching techniques upon reflection. Mistakes: Describes another transgression when decisions made from operating off of incorrect information or assumptions. In a teaching role, you will also undoubtedly make mistakes as your teaching practice evolves. These mistakes are opportunities to learn if you do not get discouraged. Oppression: The systematic disadvantaging of people belonging to a less powerful group for the benefit of a more powerful group. Oppression is often said to be the result of power combined with prejudice. Oppression in education works to keep power consolidated, and prevents equitable access and opportunities from historically and currently excluded student populations. Othering language: The words we use and how we use them matter. Othering language describes when someone's word choice is exclusionary, dehumanizing, or promotes an "us" versus "them" mentality. This kind of language implies that some people belong and others are outsiders. In educational settings, this type of language can create an environment where not everyone feels like they can show up as their authentic selves and that only certain people are valued. Privilege: The unearned relative power based on membership in a dominant group (e.g., white, male, cisgender, etc.). This power exists even if you also belong to other non-dominant groups in other aspects of your identity. Privilege often gives certain students an advantage in education. This can be manifested in many ways, for example by who is able to navigate the informal and unspoken rules in higher education, hired for research fellowships, and listened to in class. Reflective teaching: The process of examining your own teaching practice and its impact on students with a lens towards improvement. Reflective teaching is an ongoing process that uses thoughtful self-reflection to iterate through solutions to potential classroom challenges. We outline questions to ask yourself as part of this module in the <a href="/courses/course-v1:MITx+7.InT+2021_Fall/jump_to_id/229724e4cfd740e69f3b89d1672e772c" target="_blank">Reflective Teaching section</a>. Self-awareness: Describes the ability to understand both your own internal thoughts and feelings, as well as how you are perceived by others. This skill is important to build in educational contexts as it facilitates critical reflection of your teaching practice. Self-efficacy: Describes the belief that students have of their own ability to succeed. Ideally, a strong sense of self-efficacy is promoted through inclusive teaching. Stigma: The unfair and negative beliefs held about belonging to a specific group. Stigmatization can prevent people from developing positive associations with certain identities, and can be the basis for treating those that are stigmatized poorly. Transparency: Describes the property of course materials, policies, and procedures that are communicated to convey explicit expectations and motivations. Transparent policies are not only easy to understand what they are, but they are easy to understand why they are. </div> </div> </div> </div>