Embedding Equity in Participation

Embedding Equity in Participation

You may encourage students to participate in your course, particularly since active engagement in course content leads to increased learning for students. However, strategies for encouraging student participation can perpetuate inequity. Research has demonstrated that students who are most comfortable in our classroom environments participate the most, and students from historically underrepresented groups are less likely to participate in class due to implicit bias from students and instructors, stereotype threat, and many other reasons. This instructional guide will help you think strategically about how you structure participation in your course so that you can encourage participation from all students, regardless of your course context.

Before you begin

• Read the following article
• • Tanner, K. D. (2013). Structure matters: Twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity . CBE Life Sciences Education, 12(3), 322-331.
• You may also find it helpful to watch the Inclusive Teaching Strategies webinar.

What to do

Consider the participation strategies that you typically use in your courses.

• Fill out the Strategies for Participation Table according to how often you use each strategy.
• • For strategies you never use, mark "N" in the third column.
  • For strategies you occasionally use, mark "O".
  • For strategies you use regularly, mark "R".
  • For strategies you would like to try, mark "W".

Think about how you need to adjust strategies you typically use for your teaching context.

• For strategies that you’ve marked with “R” or “W,” think about the following questions.
• • How do you plan on modifying the strategies you regularly use for your course context to fit your new teaching contexts?
  • How could students still be limited in their ability to participate even with using these strategies?
  • What challenges do you anticipate when implementing these strategies and how do you plan to address those challenges?

Self-assess your revised strategies

Implement your revised strategies and think about the following questions.

• Overall, do you feel the strategy worked well? Why or why not?
• Were the students fully engaged?
• Did you have broad participation from many students, not just a few?
• What were the students’ impression of the strategies? Did they feel it was valuable and meaningful for their learning?
• If you have group work, did the students have a positive dynamic (e.g., allow each person to speak, value everyone’s contributions, etc.)?