7 Inclusive Classroom Practices

What are inclusive classroom practices?

Inclusive classroom practices enable all of your students to access course materials and provides them the resources they need to succeed in your class. We have students from all over the world that bring their unique backgrounds, perspectives, and talents into our classes. By creating truly inclusive classes we can ensure that every student has a richer experience while here at IUB.

When designing inclusive classes, there are many aspects to consider, including how to:

• get to know your students, their background knowledge, experiences, and perspectives on issues related to the course
• create a respectful class environment where everyone can contribute
• bring multiple perspectives into the class through diverse content that represent different ways of thinking through and solving problems in the field
• set students up for success in your class

How do you incorporate inclusive classroom practices in your own class?

• Develop awareness of diversity in your class
  • use Canvas and other tools that give you access to the student demographic data for your course. Use the Canvas Student Profile Report to view aggregated demographic data for your students. See the IU Fact Book for demographic data for IUB. Keep in mind that not all populations are represented in these sources, so we recommend you anonymously survey your students to get a more accurate picture of your class. Using Universal Design for Learning principles you can develop a course that is accessible to your students, including those with invisible disabilities.
  • survey your students about their experiences, expectations, and the resources available to them, including familiarity with tools used for the course
• Be aware of your biases, the biases of your students, and highlight biases within your course content. Consider taking and assigning some of the Harvard Implicit Association Tests (IAT)
• Create an inclusive classroom climate
  • Use technologies such as NameCoach to get to know your students and learn how to pronounce their preferred names
  • Provide course content in different, accessible formats
  • Have some flexibility in terms of office hours and when students can schedule appointments. Consider using Zoom to hold office hours online. Let students know why they should visit office hours and what they might expect to do during office hours.
• Build a learning community
  • Piazza is an online problem-solving platform that allows students to post questions (including anonymously), answer questions posted by others, see instructor notes about answers, and see which answers have been endorsed by instructors.
  • Collect immediate feedback from students. With TopHat, students can use their own devices (phones, laptops, tablets) to respond to questions, and instructors can display the results for the class. This can make for richer discussions that represent everyone’s thoughts and experiences.
  • Collect ongoing feedback from students to find out which aspects of the course are enhancing student learning, and what suggestions for improvement they have.
  • Help students develop an understanding of how learning works, and how they can develop effective study methods. Consider discussing topics such as growth mindset, time management, note-taking strategies etc. The Student Academic Center has short videos on many of these topics.

For an updated list of technologies for teaching, review IU’s Technology Tool Finder website.

In-class strategies from FLC members

• When calling on students to answer questions, give them time to think through their answer first. Consider using a Classroom Assessment Technique (CAT) such as think-pair-share, minute papers, chain notes etc. to help students develop answers to questions. Students are more likely to feel confident in sharing their answer with the group if you have given them to to think about it and/or work on answers in small groups.
• When asking a question of the class, wait 3-7 seconds before calling on students to answer. This gives everyone a moment to think about their answer and more students are likely to raise their hand if given time to reflect on the question.
• Pay attention to who is answering questions. Is it a small number of students who tend to answer? Are some students dominating the conversation? Do other students seem engaged and ready to answer?
• Rename office hours to student hours. Explain what happens during student hours, whether students need to prepare for student hours and, if so, how.
• Give practice exams in a proctored class environment. This can be followed by a review session where students can ask questions based on the practice exam.
• Provide short videos of you working through example problems, cases etc. This shows students how you approach and solve problems in your field.