Inclusive Teaching – Teaching Hub

Teaching how to do college: do grades help students learn? Part 2 of 2.

February 27, 2023

A masculine-presenting person of color showing a big smile while sitting on a green lawn holding papers in both hands and a laptop on their lap.The person’s expression of glee is what I hope students in my courses feel about learning!

by Lisa Beck, Psychology Another option, especially after having the above “let’s get curious” conversation with students part 1 of my post, may be to creatively remove the grading fixation altogether. This leads us to the spectrum of possibilities commonly referred to as “ungrading,” which has become quite the buzz word and hot topic in higher education over the past few years. According to Amy Kenyon, the Assistant Director for Teaching Innovation at Duke University’s Center for Instructional Technology: Ungrading […]

Teaching how to do college: do grades help students learn? Part 1 of 2.

February 27, 2023

sculpture of a hand holding up a massive tree branch.

by Lisa Beck, Psychology. Do grades help students learn? As a professor, I find myself frequently asking my students some variation of “what is your intention with their work… … this sentence, your research methodology, this intervention, fill-in-the-blank with other activities of the academy?” In mentoring conversations, this may be “what is your goal, and how is what you are doing now helping you to get there?” I also find myself asking similar questions of my own pedagogy: “why am […]

“Inclusive College Classrooms: Teaching Methods for Diverse Learners” offers 200 examples for your classrooms

December 13, 2022

Book cover of Inclusive College Classrooms: Teaching Methods for Diverse Learners.

UA English professor Lauren Cardon published a book co-authored with Dr. Anne-Marie Womack of Rice University. It will be published on on December 27, 2022. Here is what Dr. Cardon has to say about it: Our book emerged from a series of conversations Anne-Marie and I have had over the years about teaching––what has worked for us, what we wish we had known when we started teaching, and perhaps most importantly, how we have worked to make our teaching more […]

What Does a Syllabus Convey? Insights from the Student Experience Project

April 12, 2022

colorful sign saying "you belong" surrounded by plants

by Deborah Keene, Blount Scholars Program, and Luvada Harrison, Department of Theatre & Dance This past summer, we were able to participate in the pilot program for the Association of Public and Land Grant Institutions (APLU) Student Experience Project’s First Day Toolkit initiative. The workshop provided an opportunity for us to review our course syllabi and the tools to conduct a syllabus review. As the most powerful tool for planning and developing courses, conducting a syllabus review gave us a […]

Remote Teaching, Difficult Topics, and the Cultivation of Political Judgment: Lessons From the Israel/Palestine Conflict

January 7, 2021

a red and a blue zipper running across each other

by Daniel J. Levine, Political Science and Religious Studies This post outlines a set of group assignments developed while teaching The Israel/Palestine Conflict (PSC 344) remotely in Fall 2020. I start by outlining the challenges that typically attend teaching on this topic. I then take up the circumstances faced when planning for it late last summer: the transition to remote teaching and an increasingly partisan political climate. Finally, I describe a set of assignments intended to address those challenges, assessing […]

Confused About Accommodations? Streamline the Process in 5 Easy Steps!

January 13, 2020

by Brittany Gregg, Assistant Director, Office of Disability Services The beginning of the semester is always a busy time — we are inundated with emails, updates, meetings, and requests. This is also when students start to send their accommodation letters, adding to the communications you receive. The Office of Disability Services (ODS) offers the following five steps to streamline the accommodations process for faculty. 1. Don’t wait for an emailed accommodation letter. You can sign in to the portal to […]

Accessibility and Library Instruction

January 10, 2020

by Sara Maurice Whitver, University Libraries Anyone who teaches knows that disability is present in our classrooms. As you get to know your students throughout the semester, you collectively work on learning strategies and develop a relationship that supports a productive classroom environment that helps your students achieve their learning goals. This relationship building is critical to understanding the learning needs of your students and helps you gain insight into the possible alternative ways of achieving the learning that is […]

The Disappearing Student: How We Can Support Students Battling Depression and Anxiety

October 29, 2019

person sitting alone in a long, empty hallway

by Lauren S. Cardon, Department of English A familiar situation? Many of us have encountered students who follow a certain pattern: they begin the semester as full participants in the class, turning in assignments on time, and then all of a sudden disappear. They may trickle off — missing a class here and there first — or they may simply fall off the radar. Then, after missing most of the semester, they resurface, explain they’ve been struggling with something personal, […]

Talking About Gender? These Filmed Experiments Can Help

September 5, 2019

woman leaning back a male sailor to give him a kiss

by Alex Ates, Department of Theatre and Dance Gender topics are not just for the humanities. Interpreting gender is pivotal to deconstructing norms and methods in the sciences too. Could a new tool from the Verbatim Performance Lab at help you crack open conversations about gender in your classrooms? For example, The Serena Williams Project re-enacts the September 8, 2018, argument between Serena Williams and the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos. While arguing with Ramos and other officials, Williams stated that […]

How to Create an Inclusive Syllabus

August 23, 2019

by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies Our syllabi are among the first points of contact with our students. And if the scholarship showing that students’ first impressions of our courses typically last for the entire semester, then we should pay attention to how the syllabus is a crucial document. An ad-hoc group of 21 faculty and staff met at the Inclusive Campus Engagement Breakfast drafted a set of suggestions for inclusive syllabi. These suggestions were inspired by last year’s post […]

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