Know Your Students

Administer a pre-course survey to gain insight about the diversity your students bring to your classroom. Your survey questions can focus on students’ backgrounds, academic experiences, learning preferences, professional goals, and more. Consider using the Google Form Template with the following questions, and choose or adapt them for your needs.

• What other courses have you taken in this department?
• What topics in this course are you most interested in or excited about?
• Is there any content or topics that you would like a trigger/content warning for?
• What are your career goals and how might they relate to the topics in this course?
• How do you plan to study for this course?
• Are you interested in making friends to study with?
• What do you wish your past instructors had known about you?

Making diversity matter in your classroom means helping students consider multiple perspectives, contribute their own ideas and experiences, and create mutually respectful learning communities. It depends on a number of factors including your teaching style, course size, course content, learning outcomes, etc. Adapt your pre-course survey and course materials to maximize students’ contributions and connections to the course.

• Use language and concepts that are appropriate for students’ level of experience in the field.
• Give students (a limited set of) choices to provide space for them to use their agency in learning (e.g. of readings, role-plays, assignments).
• Add examples for trigger/content warning.
• Use examples that relate to students’ experiences, interests and career goals. Infuse people, history, and social context as well as opportunities for students to identify with course content to increase engagement.
• Provide opportunities for students to contribute their experiences and ideas related to the content.
• Explicitly explain how concepts and skills relate to students’ personal and professional goals.
• Make assessments (exams, homework, projects) authentic, meaningful, and applicable outside of the classroom.
• Use section or lecture time to workshop best practices for studying for the exams and completing assignments.
• Maximize student-student interaction (e.g. Use small group discussions, group projects with meaningful collaborations, group backchannels and forums, etc.)

Use powerful strategies that empirical research shows supports all students in their learning – and particularly minoritized students. Many of these techniques are easily adaptable to different disciplines and course styles. 

• Make an effort to learn your students' names using “name tents” or other mechanisms. Studies show that students’ perform better in their courses if they perceive that their instructors know their names. 
• Go beyond explaining content;  infuse “Instructor Talk” to build instructor/student relationships, establish classroom culture, explain pedagogical choices, share personal experiences, and unmask science.
• Adopt a hybrid or highly blended course format by replacing some class time with online, asynchronous highly structured, student-centered assignments.
• Carefully explain and reiterate the expectations laid out in the syllabus as well as “hidden rules” for success in the university (e.g. email etiquette, campus resources).
• Use Canvas email or comments in Speedgrader to send your students “light touch feedback”. Studies show that students’ grades improve after receiving quasi-personalized feedback that applauds a job well-done or provides assistance for students who underperformed.
• Support students’ wellbeing by considering a “trauma informed pedagogy” as well as meeting common students’ recommendations such as being approachable, offering more feedback, and being aware of student services that are helpful for their success in your class.
• Combat microaggressions that hinder students’ sense of belonging with affirming cues and acts that respect the importance of difference in spaces of learning.
• Design courses using a mixed methods of assessment. Studies have shown that giving lower-stakes exams and assignments as well as counting participation and group-work can reduce performance gaps.

Consult additional research-informed pedagogy from the Center of Innovative Teaching and Research at UCSB to help your students.