We found 553 results that contain "classroom engagement"

Title: Incorporating equitable pedagogy into your classroomPresenter: Valerie Hedges (Physiology); Casey Henley (Neuroscience & Physiology)

Description: Increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in higher education aim to cultivate learning spaces where all students have the ability to thrive and succeed. Our learning community, Equitable Pedagogy: Removing Barriers to Learning, has spent the year reviewing methods for making the classroom more inclusive. In this workshop, we want to share those practices with our participants. Many components of our course design can affect our students’ perceptions of belonging. This workshop will explore how we as instructors can choose to be more equitable in our classrooms towards the creation of more inclusive learning environments. Our focus will be on the course syllabus as a framework to discuss the many ways in which we as instructors can better address issues of equity. Topics will include language and tone of the syllabus, flexible course structure options, fair attendance and late work policies, providing opportunities for collaboration and social connectedness, instructor presence, and equitable grading policies. Participants should bring their course syllabus to the workshop to annotate as we openly discuss practical ways to increase equity and inclusion within our courses. The workshop is relevant to in-person, online, and hybrid courses.

Note that student participation and engagement may be different in a remote teaching instance than in a face-to-face classroom. For example, in a Zoom meeting some students may not speak due to the mode of communication and/or the technology they are using to connect. We encourage you to be aware of differences in participation and engagement and to be flexible in opportunities for ways that students can participate in the course. Consider using the D2L discussion forums as a means to facilitate asynchronous engagement.
 

The Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology supported a new Online Engagement & Community Building workshop on March 12, 2021. This workshop was led by Dr. Ellie Louson (Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology and Lyman Briggs College) and Dr. Melissa Usiak (College of Education). During the workshop, participants had the opportunity to learn more about engaging their students in the online environment and creating a community online. Facilitators answered questions and shared resources. You’ll walk away with at least one strategy to try in your course. For anyone who previously completed SOIREE, this workshop will go more in-depth and build on the strategies covered in SOIREE. 
 
If you have questions related to the SOIREE workshops, please reach out to Ashley Braman (behanash@msu.edu) for additional support.Do you have tools, tactics, or approaches that have worked for you in building community online? Please share them in the comments below!

Increasingly, students are looking for and benefiting from learning experiences connecting them with the community beyond textbooks and tests. Engaging students with communities outside the classroom can provide students with opportunities to learn more about what is immediately around them, help them understand why particular problems exist, and teach them how they can be active participants in communities. Depending on intent of the course, the community of focus can range in scale and scope from students’ own communities on campus to local and international communities that they may have never been engaged with before. Added benefits to students who participate in community-engaged courses include better performance on assessments, increased student retention, and increased political awareness and civic engagement (Reed, Rosenberg, Statham, & Rosing, 2015; Simons & Cleary, 2006; Strage, 2000). Representatives of community partner organizations have also indicated that under ideal conditions, engagement between students and communities can support client outcomes, organizational and community enrichment, and foster the growth of social justice (Sandy & Holland, 2006).
The Spectrum of Engagement
We visualize the types of community engagement on a spectrum, ranging from the least resource-intensive to the most resource-intensive activities (see image below). These resources include instructor, student, and community partner contribution. Course topic and learning objectives help determine the level of engagement and community settings appropriate for your class. As an instructor, you can even immerse students in community issues without leaving the classroom through articles and videos, or by bringing in a guest speaker who is a part of the topic being presented. More resource-intensive activities include asking students to do observations in their communities, interviewing community members, participating in aphotovoice project, or working with a community partner on a service learning project.  Full immersion of students in a new community might include participating in a study abroad program.

Four Ways to Determine How Community Engagement Fits Into Your Course
The prospect of engaging students outside of traditional textbooks and classroom instruction can be exciting. But incorporating community engagement into a course can feel daunting and like a lot of extra work. But it doesn’t have to be.The following can help you through the process:

Ask yourself why you want to engage students with  the community. Reflecting on your own reasons for the importance of community engagement can help you prioritize and decide the amount of time and effort you are willing to put into incorporating community engagement.


Decide on the amount of added time and resources you want to put into community engagement. Using the spectrum of community engagement, you may decide that for your first course you have minimal time and resources to commit to engaging students with the community, but can find meaningful articles and videos, enhanced by a knowledgeable speaker to engage students on a specific topic covered in the class.


Assess the community’s ability & interest to be engaged. Connect with community members about the activities you would like to do and determine their willingness and ability to engage with students. Be prepared to modify your original plan in order to meet your community partners’ needs.


Incorporate student and community feedback into the engagement activity. Consider doing a brief evaluation with students after the activity to find out the extent to which it was helpful to them. If your students are engaging directly with community members or organizations, seek feedback from individuals in those settings as well. You can close the feedback loop by reporting out to students and community members about what you learn and the aspects of the experience you plan to approach differently in the future.

Now that community engagement has your attention… stay tuned for the next two blog posts where we will  describe the activities we’ve used in our own classrooms and how you can implement them too! In the meantime, tell us what you think: What factors do you take into account when incorporating community engagement into your course? For those of you considering community engagement, what are the challenges you foresee? Seasoned community engagers, what are your rock star success stories? Post in the comments below!
 

 
Originally posted at “Inside Teaching MSU” (site no longer live): Lawlor, J. and Gregory K. Building Community Engagement into Your Course: Preparation. inside teaching.grad.msu.edu

If you're looking for ways to engage your students, consider partnering with a librarian to design an assignment!
 
These cards talk about ways to incorporate library sources in ways you may not have considered before, particularly by asking them critically engage with and evaluate information.
 
One assignment is designed to help students start with one source as a way to locate other sources of interest, and to ask questions about a source's place within the broader information context. 
 
The other assignment is designed to help more advanced students work with sources to create a critical digital edition, which will require them to curate content and practice their close reading skills.

The "Welcome to My Classroom" series functions like a pedagogy and practice show and tell where educators from throughout MSU's ecosystem share something from their teaching and learning practice. Today, Casey shared the ways he has adapted two of his XA courses to be designed with generative AI integrated from day one!

Here are some key take-aways from Dr. McArdle:


Be open and honest with students, don't run and hide. Being open for students to bring up their concerns so they can be addressed together is critical.
Intentionality is key. Work with your units and/or curriculum committee to develop policies that work for program learning outcomes and goals. (Every decision should connect intentionally back to your learning outcomes and goals)
Inputs matter.  If users aren't exact with inputs, generative AI will pull data and make a guess. "“Generative AI enables users to quickly generate new content based on a variety of inputs. Inputs and outputs to these models can include text, images, sounds, animation, 3D models, or other types of data.” - NVIDIA
Know your limits. When it comes to using these types of systems, understand their limitations. Even ChatGPT acknowledges it "may occasionally generate incorrect information", "may occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content", and "has limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021"
MSU has LOTS of resources! Chech out MSU's generative AI resources on iteach.msu.edu! You may be intersted in Michigan State University on Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) [playlist], Generative AI Use Codes [article], Generative AI Syllabus Guide [playlist], and ChatGPT FAQ for MSU Educators [article]. 

Resources for Continued Growth:
To support your ongoing professional development please consider these resources:

Slide Deck: Access Casey’s Welcome to My Classroom slide deck which has an overview of MSU’s guidance on generative AI, examples of how Casey acknowledged AI in his conversations with learners, and examples of AI-integrated activities from two courses, by logging into Google with your MSU netID.
Online Discussion: Based on the content of Casey’s presentation, you may be interested in joining the asynchronous online discussion happening in the “AI & Education” group on iteach.msu.edu. Login with your MSU netID to connect with fellow educators, exchange ideas, and seek further guidance.
Recording: In case you missed the session or would like to revisit it, you can view the full recording on MediaSpace (also embedded below).

Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation’s (CTLI) Welcome to My Classroom with Dr. Casey McArdle session on 09/14/23.

Cornell University's "Getting Started with Managing Classroom Conflict" guide is a rich resource detailing how to navigate contentious situations in a classroom. One tip on that guide is to practice SOAR: Stop, Observe, Assess, and React. That guide does not elaborate on what implementing the SOAR technique look like in a classroom; here are my thoughts on what an educator might to do practice SOAR during a contentious classroom moment at MSU.Stop - Before speaking, pause to consider your physical, emotional, and intellectual position in the classroom. Consider the diversity of viewpoints among the students. Rarely will any classroom situation require immediate action. Taking even a brief moment to slow down helps to convey a sense of calm and purpose in any actions you do take.Observe - Take in the entirety of the classroom environment, including the posture and attentiveness of all the students. Make a mental note of the physical environment, should you need to usher students aside or guide students out of the space. Quickly determine where the agitation is in the room; sometimes students not directly involved in a conflict might react in unexpected ways. Use this moment of observation to evaluate what students you need to address directly.Assess - Determine if a response is merited in the immediate classroom setting. If possible diffuse the situation and address it with individuals outside of the classroom at a later time. Your goal in moments of conflict should not be to win an argument. Seek to understand and to be calm, modeling for students what civil discourse looks like. React - If immediate action is needed, state clearly that threats, violence, and harmful actions will not be tolerated.

Contact MSU DPPS if there are signs of imminent harm, violent threats, or weapons, or ask a responsible bystander to do so:

Emergencies: Call or Text 9-1-1
Non-Emergencies: Call 517-355-2221


If students are in a physical altercation with each other, use a strong, loud voice to say STOP. Often that verbal cue can be enough to cause beligerents to realise they need to redirect their emotions. Do not enter into an altercation yourself. Work to keep the situation from escalating. Calm heated emotions with a respectful tone.
Consider these sentence starters from "The Art of Coaching Teams: Building Resilient Communities that Transform Schools." 
Ideally you will reach a point of control and calm when you can indicate that opinions around contentious topics matter, but that the class also must go on.
Consider giving students an opportunity to write about their opinions or feelings about a conflict. If you are comforatble doing so, provide students a platform to share with the class the contents of that writing, encouraging them to seek to understand each other without expecting that everyone will agree.
Also if you are comfortable doing so, offer your office hours as a time where civil conversation about the matter can continue later on. 

In continuing our conversation about inclusive classrooms, let’s consider linguistic inclusion. You might think linguistic diversity equates to different languages people speak. However, I urge you move toward a more nuanced understanding, one where our linguistic background involves both our variable linguistic repertoire (the resources of a language we use or have access to) and our sociolinguistic competence (our ability to interpret social uses of language and use language in socially meaningful ways). A linguistically inclusive classroom, then, would include nuanced understandings of linguistic diversity. To help you intentionally move toward linguistic inclusion, I provide seven tips below.
Seven Tips Toward Linguistic Inclusion
(1) Learn a little about language. 
Language is a resource we utilize for a variety of purposes (e.g. prestige, power, recognition, etc.). For instance, you might use language perceived as “more proper” to be identified as educated or professional, or use more colloquial language to fit in with peers. Thus, before you engage with language in the classroom, make sure you can differentiate the facts from the myths (to start, see Richard Nordquist’s post about Language Myths).
(2) Get to know your linguistic background. 
Have you thought about how you use language? If not, you might be surprised by how your own language varies (from how much -ing vs. -in you use to your speech in formal or informal situations). Taking some time to get to know yourself as a language producer and perceiver will help you come to terms with your linguistic identity.
(3) Get to know students’ linguistic backgrounds. 
No matter where you teach, you will surely come across language variation. Recognizing this will help you understand students and how they use language. Students come from different linguistic backgrounds and bring different language experiences (with different associated norms). I get to know students by having them talk about where they are from on the first day of class, but mostly this work requires listening for clues enabling you to differentiate between, for instance, dialectal features (e.g. “ain’t”) and mispronunciations.
(4) Become aware of linguistic assumptions. 
Though it is not always easy to talk about, we all have linguistic biases. These might surface as pet peeves (see Weird Al’s parody “Word Crimes” for some examples), stereotypes (e.g. that “southern”-sounding speakers are “lazy”), or assumptions (e.g. thinking there is an objectively “right” or “correct” way of talking). Acknowledging and addressing these biases will help you see language more objectively and address language in the classroom more dynamically.
(5) Know how linguistic assumptions affect the learning environment.
Regardless of whether you teach a course that discusses language or not, you are in a position to set rules and expectations about language. As such, it is important to consider what you tell students about language. Language assumptions can lead to linguistic profiling. They can make students linguistically insecure, or feel they are somehow linguistically inferior. Make sure you’re creating classrooms flexibly, accommodating multiple and diverse language uses.
(6) Be willing to accommodate. 
As a result of individual linguistic backgrounds, students’ language behaviors might not map to your expectations. Some students might not have experience writing essays, but might be profound bloggers, tweeters, or novelists. Some might speak different languages or come from backgrounds where there are different cultural norms surrounding language use (e.g. the use of silence, turn-taking, interruptions, etc.). Before jumping to conclusions, ask yourself if a student comes from a culture where language use is governed by different rules. Be flexible, willing to accommodate, and work together toward where you all hope to go. Start by defining culture- or dialect-specific terms in course content and assessments; vary assessment types to accommodate different communication  preferences; and grade based on content, not grammar (unless grammar is the focus of your class). Grammar-based grading privileges native-English speakers and students from certain educational backgrounds.
(7) Recognize linguistic diversity as a resource. 
Some assume classrooms should run under cultural norms expected by a given region, country, or community. However, as sociolinguist Carmen Fought (2006) points out, “…interactional patterns from different ethnic groups might enhance learning and ultimately provide all participants with a wide range of skills.” Seek to understand ways the inclusion of several different interactional norms and behaviors might benefit learning environments. Some communities, for instance, encourage a “collective orientation […] group harmony, and the avoidance of conflict” in classrooms. Though inclusion of this orientation can be viewed as problematic, it could also be used to teach concern for others, humility, and an ability to work cooperatively (pp. 193-4).
 
If we aim to make students feel seen and heard, we must question what we really listen to when students communicate. We have an opportunity to co-construct an inclusive curriculum, classroom, and community built out of diverse linguistic resources.
 
We’d like to know: How do you engage with linguistic diversity? How do you discuss academic language standards? Have you ever thought about your language-based biases and pet peeves or their relation to learning environments?
 
Additional Resources:
Baugh, J. (2000). Beyond ebonics: Linguistic pride and racial prejudice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 
Fought, C. (2006). Language and ethnicity: Key topics in sociolinguistics. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
 
Inman, M. (n.d.). How and why to use whom in a sentence. The Oatmeal. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/who_vs_whom.
 
Lippi-Green, R. (2004). Language ideology and language prejudice. In E. Finegan & J. R. Rickford (Eds.), Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-first century (pp. 289-304). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
 
Mallinson, C. and Charity Hudley, A. H. (2014). Partnering through science: Developing linguistic insight to address educational inequality for culturally and linguistically diverse students in U.S. STEM education. Language and Linguistics Compass, 8(1), 11-23.
 

 
Originally posted at “Inside Teaching MSU” (site no longer live): Shellgren, M. Cultivating Inclusive Classrooms: Toward Linguistic Inclusion. inside teaching.grad.msu.edu