Transcript Teaching inclusively for LSES and all students: A workshop

Effective teaching and support for students
from low socioeconomic status backgrounds:
Resources for Australian higher education.
www.lowses.edu.au
Teaching inclusively
for LSES and all students:
A workshop
Overview
• Focusing on 3 aspects of LSES students:
• The student experience
• Transparency
• Academic standards
National research project
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Professor Marcia Devlin
Professor Sally Kift
Professor Karen Nelson
Ms Liz Smith
Dr Jade McKay
Method
– Literature review
– Interviews with 89 successful students
from low socioeconomic backgrounds (3
universities)
– Interviews with 26 staff (6 universities)
– A national environmental scan of effective
practice
Ensuring inclusivity for LSES
students
1.
2.
3.
The student experience: Know and respect
your students
Be transparent: Make expectations clear,
using accessible language
Offer them flexibility, variety and choice,
without compromising standards
1. The student experience
(Know and respect your students)
• Understand their context
• Understand what they bring to tertiary
studies
1. The student experience
(Know and respect your students)
Understand their context
They have to undertake paid work; they often
have carer responsibilities and multiple roles;
they are time poor
1. The student experience
(Know and respect your students)
Understand what they bring to tertiary study
…stats have shown in our course that generally
speaking our low SES students tend to do better.
They’re slightly better motivated and probably
more capable students…[COL_014]
1. The student experience
(Know and respect your students)
Understand what they bring to tertiary study
So students who came from public high schools
tended to do better and last longer and succeed
faster, …have fewer fails … progress faster at
university, than [other] students … simply
because they never had the resources handed to
them and they always had to fight for
everything and they were much more
independent learners. [COL_013]
1. The student experience (know
and respect your students):
Workshop questions
For inclusivity:
• Why would it be important to know your
students?
• How might knowing your students be
achieved in class, online and in large groups?
• Why respect them? How would you
demonstrate respect?
2. Be transparent
(Make expectations clear,
using accessible language)
• Speak English, not ‘academese’
• Show them examples
• Make assessment criteria available and
understandable
2. Be transparent
(Make expectations clear,
using accessible language)
Speak English, not ‘academese’
…a couple of times I might have listened to
lecturers that probably used too many big words
so sometimes I didn’t understand where they
were coming from. So maybe if they can speak
in layperson’s terms a little bit, that makes it a
lot easier. (STU_026)
2. Be transparent
(Make expectations clear,
using accessible language)
Show them examples
…they’re told to write these essays, and they
want to see what an essay looks like. It’s like
trying to teach them how to ride a bicycle
without the bicycle… But if you’re teaching
something, and if you can show an example of it,
the students can see the expectation, they can
see the level of what is expected of them.
[COL_012]
2. Be transparent
(Make expectations clear,
using accessible language)
Make assessment criteria available and
understandable
… for continuous clarification, as to what is
required…there are typically hundreds of
questions that are then filtered back to the
course convenors, and the way that those are
then answered, such that everyone can see all of
the responses is critical in demystifying what’s
being asked of us a lot of the time…[STU_056]
2. Be transparent
(Make expectations clear,
using accessible language)
Make assessment criteria available and
understandable
I think the other thing with assessment is the
students need to understand the criteria sheet,
or the rubric, if you like, of what the lecturer, or
what the tutor is looking for. I think it’s very
difficult for them to do a piece of assessment if
they’re not clear on the guidelines of what
they’re supposed to be doing. [COL_001].
2. Be transparent
(Make expectations clear,
using accessible language)
Workshop questions
For inclusivity:
• Why is it important to be transparent?
• How would you know clarity and
transparency had been achieved?
3. Offer students flexibility,
variety and choice
• Maintain high standards
• Use a range of teaching strategies
• Be flexible with assessment (mode)
3. Offer students flexibility,
variety and choice
Ensure high academic standards
I had someone who got High Distinctions, who
came to see me to be better. [COL_001]
…stats have shown in our course that generally
speaking our low SES students tend to do better.
They’re slightly better motivated and probably
more capable students…[COL_014]
3. Offer students flexibility,
variety and choice
Use a range of teaching strategies
Well how I’d like to design it if I have power over
the design is to make sure that it does actually
come from where the students are from, so it’s
flexible enough that they can actually bring in
their world but then it actually challenges them
to go beyond that so, it’s always starting from
where they are. [COL_008]
3. Offer students flexibility,
variety and choice
Be flexible with assessment (mode)
…assessment should offer a range of ways, I
think, in which the students can present their
work. So many of the assessments, they have
been able to do it on-line, as a report, as an
essay, I suppose as a collection of interview
information. [COL_001]
3. Offer students flexibility,
variety and choice:
Workshop questions
For inclusivity:
• Why would flexibility be important?
• What about variety?
• What about choice?
• How might these be achieved, without
compromising standards?
Overview
• Focusing on 3 aspects of LSES students:
• The student experience
• Transparency
• Academic standards
Summary: Inclusivity
1. Draw on students’ existing knowledge and
make them feel they belong
2. Use plain language, everywhere
3. Give them choices, where feasible and fair
Take home messages/questions
• What is ‘doable’ in your context?
• What are the obstacles?
• How might the obstacles be (partly)
overcome?
• What support do you need?
Effective teaching and support for students
from low socioeconomic status backgrounds:
Resources for Australian higher education.
www.lowses.edu.au
www.lowses.edu.au