Assessing Student Learning
At Northwestern, we seek to ensure that all students, regardless of social identity, have equal opportunities to perform at their personal best. Assessments of student learning must therefore be designed to be inclusive. Suggestions include:
- Involve students in developing the course learning objectives.
- Help students reflect on their learning experiences.
- Allow for variation in how learning is demonstrated.
- Be mindful of personal biases when assessing student work and making use of assessment results.
To learn more about assessment and course evaluation, visit the Assessment of Student Learning section of our website.
Course Content and Materials
Creating an inclusive learning environment begins with a careful consideration of course themes, materials and contents, and how those support overall learning objectives. Instructors should consider questions like:
- Who and what am I including? Who and what am I excluding?
- Who are the authors/editors of the assigned texts? Am I drawing on a range of voices, perspectives, and scholarly approaches? Can students see themselves in these authors?
- Why these texts specifically? (Consider even “standard texts”...why are they standard? Whose voice, vision, and perspective do they support? Why are certain presses and journals privileged over others?)
- What kinds of images, quotes, and examples am I using when I teach? Do these images reinforce or confirm stereotypical ideas?
- What ways of thinking and methodological approaches am I privileging?
- Am I teaching the way I learned, or am I open to new approaches and new ideas?
Instructors may also wish to get anonymous or informal feedback from students about course content. They may also solicit suggestions or recommendations from students about content that “speaks” to them more directly as well.
Configuring the Classroom
How a classroom is configured can help set a tone for an inclusive and welcoming learning environment. It signals to students whether the environment will promote active involvement in the learning environment, collaboration with peers, and a sense of proximity to the instructor, or whether it will promote passive participation and a sense of distance, even disengagement, to the instructor and peers. Flexible classroom environments, where chairs can be arranged in circles or students can be grouped at tables, tend to promote engagement, collaboration, and a sense of belonging. Active learning classrooms or technology-enhanced classrooms, which usually include flexible room arrangements and multiple points of focus (through multiple screens and whiteboards), also tend to promote team and small-group learning, and can enhance problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration skills.
Even in classrooms with fixed and/or tiered seating, an instructor can still create a welcoming and inclusive environment by:
- Greeting students as they come in the room and engaging in “chit-chat” before class starts (making a point of engaging with different students).
- Avoiding the lectern and walking around the front of the room and up and down aisles (using a device to advance slides can help with this).
- Asking students to sit in only the front half of the classroom or to avoid last several rows (if space allows).
- Requiring students to work in pairs or small groups (perhaps turning to people in the row behind or in front of them).
- Employing active learning strategies, including gallery walks (see handout).
Culturally-responsive Teaching
What is culturally-relevant (or -responsive) teaching?
Culturally-relevant teaching, culturally-responsive teaching, and culturally-responsive pedagogy refer collectively to the idea that culture is critical for learning. This pedagogical approach takes into account — and values — students’ cultural references and recognizes that culture helps shape how groups and individuals think and make sense of the world. Culturally-relevant teaching will help students examine and critique underlying inequities and power structures, often drawing on their lived experiences and/or experiential learning opportunities.
Culturally-Responsive Teaching — one definition:
“Culturally-responsive teaching can be defined as using cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant and effective for them. It teaches to and through the strengths of these students. Culturally-responsive teaching is the behavioral expression of knowledge, beliefs, and values that recognize the importance of racial and cultural diversity in learning” (Gay, 2010).
Competencies associated with culturally-relevant (or -responsive) teaching
- Seeing cultural differences as assets.
- Creating caring learning communities where different cultures and heritages are valued.
- Using cultural knowledge of ethnically diverse cultures, families, and communities to guide curriculum development, classroom climates, instructional strategies, and relationships with students.
- Challenging racial and cultural stereotypes, prejudices, racism, and other forms of intolerance, injustice, and oppression.
- Being change agents for social justice and academic equity.
- Mediating power imbalances in classrooms based on social identities.
- Accepting cultural responsiveness as endemic to educational effectiveness in all areas of learning for students from all ethnic groups (Teel & Obidah, 2008).
DEI Statements for Syllabi
Instructors may opt to include statements of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their syllabi. Such statements can help establish a welcoming tone and demonstrate what an instructor values in the learning environment. The Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University recommends that you consider the following questions when you develop a diversity statement:
- What are your discipline's conventions and assumptions? How might students with varying backgrounds respond to them?
- What role does your respect for and engagement with diversity in the classroom play in your personal teaching philosophy?
- What positive learning outcomes can come from respecting difference in the classroom? How can you highlight these?
- What do you want your students to know about your expectations regarding creating and maintaining a classroom space where differences are respected and valued?
- Is your statement inclusive of different types of diversity, including, but not limited to: race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, religion, and disability?
- Which campus resources would you like to direct your students to for further support?
- What kind of classroom environment would your students like to see? How might you include them in the conversation about standards for classroom civility?
Establishing Ground Rules and Expectations
From day one, it is essential that instructors lay out clear expectations for students around civility, discourse, respect, and participation (which should be laid out in the syllabus). Before large or small group discussions, it is often helpful to have students generate explicit “ground rules” or expectations to avoid miscommunications, disrespectful language, hurt or angry feelings and to ensure that activities and discussions are productive, meaningful, and allow for a constructive exchange of perspective, opinions, approaches and viewpoints.
There are several ways to generate ground rules among students (which may be readily adapted to online courses):
- Ask students what ground rules should be. (Even a simple question like, "What should our ‘ground rules’ be for discussion?") Write the list on the board as it is generated, asking only clarifying questions. Keep the list visible during the activity or conversation.
- Provide students with a list of common ground rules. Ask students in small groups or pairs to identify which ones are most important to them and/or if there are additional ones to consider. Agree as a class.
- Remind students about previously agreed-upon ground rules. Check to see if there is anything to add or modify.
Common ground rules might include:
- Be respectful of the words and opinions of others, even if they differ from your own.
- Be open to new ideas.
- Don’t dominate the conversation, even if you have a lot to say or know a lot about the topic.
- Remember the “oops” and “ouch” rule. (“Oops” means “I said something that came out differently than I intended,” or “I realize I have said something hurtful. I’m sorry.” “Ouch” means, “You said something hurtful.”)
- Listen to what others are saying and try to understand their perspective.
- Be constructive when critiquing an idea or perspective.
- Respect silence — give each other time to think and respond before jumping in.
Inclusive Pedagogy
Positionality
Teachers enter classrooms with experiences and worldviews that inform their perceptions of students, their conceptions of student learning, and their understanding of their roles and positions as teachers (Knight, 2011). According to Rehm and Allison (2006) a teacher’s positionality is defined as “the goals, knowledge, beliefs, strategies, and other normative frames of reference” and “is a significant factor in the learning experience of students” (p. 261). Teachers should be aware of ways their positionality may impact their perceptions of students and the implications linked to those perceptions. Teachers may hold assumptions of their students based on stereotypes linked to particular identities (e.g., race) and not account for within-group/individual differences of cultural groups which may impede a teacher’s development of multicultural skills that impact the learning of students. For example, an instructor “positioned to believe that ‘culturally different’ means ‘culturally deficient’ is likely to set goals and use strategies that assume students are problems to ‘fix’” (Rehm & Allison, 2006, p. 262). On the other hand, “teachers who are positioned with openness, interest, and flexibility regarding cultural differences are likely to respond to individual students and continually grow in their ability to create dynamic learning situations” (Rehm & Allison, 2006, p. 263).
Rehm and Allison (2006) provide the following strategies for instructors who have the positionality to practice multicultural education:
- Teachers can make extensive use of content, examples, teaching materials, guest speakers, role models, and visuals to reflect student cultures.
- Teachers can also attend to the different learning styles of individuals by peer teaching, student questioning, critical thinking, small group discussions, small group projects, role-playing, demonstrations, brainstorming, and the use of learning centers.
Safe Spaces and Trigger Warnings
“Safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” were both designed with the intention of protecting, or at least mitigating, harm to students when presented with (potentially) sensitive or traumatizing material, words, or experiences. An instructor may indicate, for example, that a video or novel about domestic abuse might be upsetting to anyone who has experienced such abuse personally, and as such might “trigger” feelings of anxiety, stress, or anger. However, “it is not possible to predict every trigger that a traumatized student will respond to, and it is not possible to guarantee that material deemed to be triggering will actually trigger traumatized students” (Byron, 119). Therefore, it may be more productive to simply let students know ahead of time when approaching difficult material, and to provide ways for them to process and reflect on that material (e.g. quick written reflections, quiet paired activities, group debrief, etc.).
As Byron (2017) explains, “safe spaces” are characterized both by the physical location and by the community that gathers there. They require more coordination and their meaning is contingent on the individuals who use the space” (Byron, 2017, p. 119). It is worth noting, however, that while instructors may speak of their classrooms and offices as ‘safe spaces,’ they may not truly feel safe to all students who occupy them. See President Shapiro’s message about safe spaces, which appeared in the Chicago Tribune.
Universal Design
The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework offers a set of principles for designing curricula, course materials, and assessments to create equal opportunities for all individuals to learn. According to the AccessibleNU website, “Implementing UDL makes your class accessible to all students, including those with disabilities as well as other students who experience other challenges in courses (for example, students who get the flu, sustain an injury, report terrible test anxiety, speak English as a second language, or have a weaker academic background).
In designing the course:
- Make a detailed course syllabus available prior to registration, with clearly-stated requirements. Reading selections should be finalized early to allow time for any necessary conversion to alternate formats.
- Select texts that are available in a digital format so that all students can access them in their preferred format (print, digital, audio, etc.)
- Set a welcoming tone for your class with a personal statement about your respect for diversity of all types [link to diversity statements].
- Tag course documents and readings for accessibility.
- Provide students with options (essay, presentation, video, etc.) for turning in assignments. This will allow students to use their strengths to best demonstrate learning.
During the course:
- Ask students to share what might impact their participation in the course via survey.
- Write down important announcements or changes to the syllabus. Post to Canvas.
- Face the class while speaking. Wear a microphone even if you think it isn't needed.
- Repeat questions or comments made by students before responding to them.
- Teach in a multi-modal format. Combine thoroughly-explained visual elements and captioned auditory materials when presenting lecture material, and then create experiential learning through group work and hands-on application of the material.
- Provide study guides or review sheets for exams at the beginning of the quarter and regular opportunities for questions and answers including review sessions.
- Query students via anonymous survey or other means at midterm to request feedback and identify lingering misunderstandings. Use this information to inform how and what material you cover in the second half of your course.
References and Additional Resources
Assessment of Student Learning
National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) in 2017, “Equity and Assessment: Moving Towards Culturally Responsive Assessment.”
Course Content and Materials
Adams, M., & Bell, L. A. (Eds.). (2016). Teaching for diversity and social justice.
Routledge; Ambrose, Susan A, Bridges, Michael W, DiPietro, Michele, Lovett, Marsha C, & Norman, Marie K. (2010). “Why Do Student Development and Course Climate Matter for Student Learning?.” In How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching (pp 1–22). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; Estill, A. (2018).
“Feeling our way to knowing; Decolonizing the American Studies Classroom,” in Ahad-Legardy, B., & Poon, O. A. (Eds.). (2018). Difficult Subjects: Insights and Strategies for Teaching about Race, Sexuality, and Gender. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Configuring the Classroom
Ambrose, Susan A, Bridges, Michael W, DiPietro, Michele, Lovett, Marsha C, & Norman, Marie K. (2010). “Why Do Student Development and Course Climate Matter for Student Learning?.”
In How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching (pp 1–22). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; Johnson-Bailey, Juanita, & Lee, Ming-Yeh. (2005)
“Developing a Pedagogy That Supports Intercultural Competence.” ASHE Higher Education Report, 38(2), 45–63.
Culturally-responsive Teaching
Gay, G. (2010). Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice. 2nd ed. Multicultural Education Series (New York, N.Y.). New York: Teachers College
Teel, K.M., & Obidah, J.E. (2008). Building Racial and Cultural Competence in the Classroom : Strategies from Urban Educators. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
DEI Statements for Syllabi
More examples can be found at The Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University.
Establishing Ground Rules and Expectations
Ambrose, Susan A, Bridges, Michael W, DiPietro, Michele, Lovett, Marsha C, & Norman, Marie K. (2010). “Why Do Student Development and Course Climate Matter for Student Learning?.” In How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching (pp 1–22). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Inclusive Pedagogy
Ambrose, Susan A, Bridges, Michael W, DiPietro, Michele, Lovett, Marsha C, & Norman, Marie K. (2010). “Why Do Student Development and Course Climate Matter for Student Learning?.” In How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching (pp 1–22). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Johnson-Bailey, Juanita, & Lee, Ming-Yeh. (2005); Johnson-Bailey, Juanita, & Lee, Ming-Yeh. (2005). “Women of Color in the Academy: Where's Our Authority in the Classroom?” Feminist Teacher, 15(2), 111–22. “Developing a Pedagogy That Supports Intercultural Competence.” ASHE Higher Education Report, 38(2), 45–63.
Positionality
Fear-Fenn, M. (1993). Bringing multiculturalism to vocational education (Monograph, Vol. 8, No. 1). Columbus: Ohio State University, Center for Sex Equity. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 355406)
Knight, S. D. (2011). Using narrative to examine positionality: Powerful pedagogy in English education. English teaching: Practice and critique, 10(2), 49-64.
Rehm, M. L., & Allison, B. (2006). Positionality in teaching culturally diverse students: Implications for family and consumer sciences teacher education programs. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 34(3), 260-275.
Safe Spaces and Trigger Warnings
Byron, K. (2017). From Infantilizing to World Making: Safe Spaces and Trigger Warnings on Campus. Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Science. 66, 1. 116-125.
