Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Equity in the Classroom

1. Strategies to promote student engagement and classroom equity Joshua villalobos

2. “What” vs “how” • Higher education communities often focus on issues of “what” students need to learn and less on “how” students learn. Structure Matters: Twenty-one Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity- Tanner, K.D. Life Science Education Vol. 12, 322-331 Fall 2013 “everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb, it will live its whole life believing it’s stupid” - Albert Einstein

3. Wait time • Wait time between questions and instructor response is on average ~1.5 sec. • If wait time is increased to 5 secs: • The length of and correctness of their response increases • The number of “I don’t know” or no answer responses decreases • The number of volunteered and appropriate answers by a large number of students increases • Test scores increase

4. Time to write • Minute Paper- Allow students to capture their thoughts on the days lesson and give you an assessment on how effective you were • Students write at the end of the class period for 1-3 minutes on a concepts they learned or a questions they have on the topic discussed in class. • Allows some students the confidence to participate in class without having to speak • Often these are difficult at first but students begin to learn how to answer questions more effectively in the long run

5. Think-pair-share • The simplest way to give all your students in a classroom opportunities to share information and to participate • Step 1: Pose a question “how are the three branches of government related?” • Step 2: Give one minute for self reflection • Step 3: Have students pair with a neighbor (left or right) and discuss their answers together for 2-3 minutes • Step 4: Paired discussion may or may not be followed by whole group discussion

6. Hand raising • “No one is raising their hands?!” • Avoid making the classroom an open forum for discussion • Establish early on a class culture where any one can be called on • Don’t make being calling on feel like a penalty • Make the process of asking question to a random student transparent • Popsicle sticks • student index cards

7. Multiple hands, multiple voices • Ask for hands and multiple voices to respond to class questions • “I’m going to pose a questions and I’d like to see at least three hands who would like to share their ideas. I won’t call on anyone until I get three volunteers.” • Establish early on a class culture where any one can be called on • Don’t make being calling on feel like a penalty • Make the process of asking question to a random student transparent • Popsicle sticks • student index cards

8. Ask open ended questions • Questions should be phrased to encourage meaningful answers and not single-answers • Open ended questions typically begin with “How”, “ Why” or “Explain”

9. Establish classroom norms • Its critical to establish your expectations on learning, education, and behavior om day one. • What an instructors chooses to do on day-one of class sends a strong message to students on you (an them) on your teaching style. • Norm statement can be: • “Everyone in this room has something to learn” • “All ideas and answers will be treated with respect” • “Everyone is expected to support their fellow classmates when challenges arise in class”