Inclusive Teaching & Universal Design for Learning

It is essential to make sure that all students in my classes experience a learning environment that gives them the opportunity to succeed. I implement inclusive teaching practices and Universal Design for Learning to work toward this goal.

Ways I implement these practices in my teaching and course design:

Course Design

Within each the activities and assessments for each course learning outcome, I have work to implement a mix of activities that give students different options to learn and to demonstrate their learning. This is done to avoid privileging certain types of communication and to use a format suited to the LO.
I chose course materials with students’ financial resources in mind. I do not want cost to be a barrier to students, and I want to support low cost or open source options for course materials. I use open source or low cost materials whenever possible and am intentional about what materials I ask students to purchase.

Teaching

At the start of the semester, I work with students to construct inclusive class norms.
I spend time in class discussing how students learn and helpful strategies.
I include examples from locations around the world. I want to be sure that the examples I use don’t promote stereotypes.
I give students opportunities to learn from each other and share their perspectives. In doing this, I hope to show each student that their input is valuable and to encourage them to value each other’s perspectives. This connects to the larger goal of showing students that there are multiple ways to approach a problem or question, that each has value, and that approaching a question from more than one of these perspectives often produces the most effective and creative solutions.
I offer a variety of formats of participation including techniques that allow students to participate in smaller groups before speaking to the class, opportunities for anonymous participation (clickers, notecards, discussion boards) and written participation (reflections, Google forms for class activities).

I know that creating an inclusive learning environment is an ongoing process. I am continually seeking opportunities to increase my knowledge of these practices and working to implement them in my classes.