In the Media: Fostering an Inclusive Classroom
Tracie Addy, associate dean of teaching and learning, and Khadijah Mitchell, Peter C. S. d’Aubermont, M.D., Scholar of Health and Life Sciences and assistant professor of biology, contributed to a story in which they shared insights on building equity and inclusivity in learning environments.
Tracie Addy
Khadijah Mitchell
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Addy, who is also director of the College’s Center for the Integration of Learning & Scholarship, Mitchell, and a Derek Dube, a biology professor from the University of Saint Joseph in Connecticut, collaborated to create a survey tool called Who’s in Class? They shared the form with students at the beginning of the spring semester. The form invited students to share information with their instructor that could help the instructor better understand students’ individual needs and provide input on how to make them feel included in class.
Students’ feedback enabled faculty to adjust their courses and tweak their teaching efforts to make the classes more equitable and welcoming.
“While designing inclusive courses is essential for effective teaching—whether we are teaching during a pandemic or in normal times; teaching online, hybrid or face-to-face courses; or teaching undergraduate or graduate-level courses—the uncertainty of this coming fall makes it more important than ever to address inclusion concerns,” they write in the piece. “In preparing for the fall semester, we encourage instructors to craft their own anonymous and voluntary forms, as well as to seek feedback from their institution’s center for teaching and learning and their colleagues to design more inclusive courses.”