Conference

Creating Inclusive Classrooms: From Good Intentions to Research-Based Best Practices

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Abstract

In January 2014, Iowa State’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) offered a well-attended workshop on Creating Inclusive Classrooms. After attending this workshop, Javier Vela and Joe Burnett started incorporating multicultural names and characters into problems and exams as part of their large (700+ students) general chemistry course. In this ISCORE presentation, Vela and Burnett will share some of the motivations, examples and anecdotes gathered as part of this experience. During a more recent LAS search for a new faculty member in chemical education chaired by Tom Holme, we identified new ideas that could potentially enhance the effectiveness of inclusive classroom efforts. One example is differential item functioning (DIF) research, which shows that the ability of certain demographics (different gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or language ability) to correctly answer certain items (individual questions) is affected by the way these items are presented. The Holme group will share some of their insights and expertise into this and other relevant areas, and help us brainstorm on how these could be used to more specifically target inclusive classroom efforts in the future.