how diverse is your course

by Tate Bergnaum 3 min read

Why incorporate diversity into a course?

Incorporating diversity into a course allows you to: Create an inclusive course climate. Connect with and reach out to a wider range of students. Motivate students (Ginsberg & Wlodkowski, 2009).

How do you incorporate diversity into your curriculum?

Incorporating diversity into your curriculum may involve including topics of diversity as a learning goal, and critiquing and redesigning your curriculum to accommodate the diverse learners in your course. The techniques below are just a few strategies that instructors have used to incorporate diversity into their courses.

What are the benefits of a diverse college campus?

Diverse college campuses offer more worldviews for students to consider and engage with. College students can learn from peers with different perspectives shaped by a variety of experiences. The interaction between students with different worldviews can help change minds or shape ideas.

How can you tell if a college is diverse?

Wood says this can indicate commitment to a diverse population of students and uncover other factors such as the climate and infrastructure to support the minority population on campus. Flores says students should also look to the faculty and staff ranks to gauge a college's diversity.

What does diversity class mean?

What is diversity in the classroom? Diversity is everything that makes people different from each other. This includes many different factors: race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, ability, age, religious belief, or political conviction.

What are examples of diversity in education?

Diversity in K-12 Classrooms. Diversity recognizes the differences between people and includes different factors, such as religion, political orientation, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, language, socio-economic status, and family structure.

How do you include diversity in education?

How do you Manage Diversity in the Classroom?Get to Know Your Students. ... Maintain Consistent Communication. ... Acknowledge and Respect Every Student. ... Practice Cultural Sensitivity. ... Incorporate Diversity in the Lesson Plan. ... Give Students Freedom and Flexibility.

What are the 4 types of diversity in the classroom?

What kinds of cultural diversity are common in classrooms?Race. It's important to recognize the impact skin color has had on the broader American culture and how it can affect students' perceptions of each other and themselves.Ethnicity. ... Religion. ... Language. ... Economic. ... LGBTQ.

What is diversity in curriculum?

The goals of the Diversity Curriculum are to help students. • articulate their own cultural perspectives and explain how their experiences have shaped their cultural. perspectives (Cultural Self-Awareness) • demonstrate understanding of the complexity of elements important to members of another culture in relation to.

What diversity means to you?

Diversity means having a range of people with various racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds and various lifestyles, experience, and interests. Diversity to me is the ability for differences to coexist together, with some type of mutual understanding or acceptance present.

What is diversity with example?

Diversity is defined as the condition of having many different elements. An example of diversity is a classroom full of children of different backgrounds. noun.

What is diversity and why is it important?

1) Diversity drives creativity and innovation Every culture, every nationality, every single person sees the world in a different way. Similarly, every culture, nationality, and person has different knowledge, perspectives, and points of view. When all of these different views are shared together, miracles can happen.

What is diverse method?

You will probably be using a range of assessment methods in order to assess a range of learning outcomes. Utilising a range of assessment methods also allows students with a range of learning preferences to perform to the best of their ability and allows all students to develop a range of skills.

What are the types of learner diversity?

But generally speaking, these are the most common types of learners:Visual learners. ... Auditory learners. ... Kinesthetic learners. ... Reading/writing learners.

What are the 3 types of diversity?

In a study of 180 Spanish corporate managers, we explored perceptions of diversity and found that depending on who is answering, diversity usually means one of three things: demographic diversity (our gender, race, sexual orientation, and so on), experiential diversity (our affinities, hobbies, and abilities), and ...

How can teachers and administrators help students with cultural diversity?

There are several ways teachers and administrators, such as principals and coaches, can ensure that both the classroom environment and curriculum are responsive to the increasing cultural diversity of our society. These strategies will encourage all students’ cultural awareness, enhancing each student’s sense of identity, ...

Why do students learn about different cultures during their education?

Students who learn about different cultures during their education feel more comfortable and safe with these differences later in life. This allows them to interact in a wider range of social groups and feel more confident in themselves as well as in their interactions with others.

Why is culturally responsive teaching important?

With these culturally responsive teaching strategies in mind, it’s important to remind ourselves why diversity and cultural awareness is so crucial in the classroom and the benefits it can have on students now and in the long-term.

How to promote cultural awareness in the classroom?

Ensuring that cultural awareness is promoted in the classroom starts with the teacher understanding each individual student. Take the time to learn about each student’s cultural background, hobbies, learning styles, and what makes them unique.

Why do teachers do group assignments?

Group assignments are also a great way to expose students to diverse perspectives, allowing them to work together to explore and solve a problem.

Is cultural diversity in the classroom on the rise?

Cultural diversity in the classroom is on the rise. In 2014, U.S. public schools hit a minority majority milestone with Latino, African-American, and Asian students having surpassed the number of white students. In 2044, the U.S. Census predicts that over half of the nation’s population will be people of color, so this trend will likely continue.

Be Reflective

Consider your discipline’s ideologies and established conventions. How might students from different backgrounds think or view knowledge in different ways than you might expect?

Diversity as a Learning Outcome

Include diversity as a learning outcome and make it explicit in the syllabus.

Course Materials, Activities, & Assignments

Plan your curriculum with universal design principles. For example, present course content both orally and visually.

What does diversity mean in college?

Luke Wood, chief diversity officer and professor of education at San Diego State University. Diversity often means race, ethnicity or tribal affiliation, but also extends well beyond those factors to sexual identity ...

Why do colleges value diversity?

One reason colleges value diversity is different perspectives allow students to learn from one another. (Getty Images) The term diversity can be as multifaceted as the individuals to whom that label is applied. Colleges often highlight the broad-ranging term as part of their mission or a selling point to applicants.

What does Flores encourage minority students to think of?

Flores encourages minority students to think of their diversity "as an asset that they are offering to the institution to enrich the educational experience for all students" when they are applying to a college. [.

What do colleges look for in a student?

Colleges look for classes that will round out a range of majors, activities and experiences. Race and ethnicity may be considered in applications, but that is alongside many other facets of student identity.

Why is learning elevated to a different level?

"Their learning is elevated to a different level because they can appreciate and understand and hear from someone from a different background, which may change their thinking," Inzer says.

What does Wood encourage in college?

Wood also encourages applicants to consider what values or programs at the college attract them. "They should talk about (diversity) as something that's important to them in terms of their identity, and link it to the different things that are taking place at the institution that draw them to that institution," Wood says.

What is student identity?

Student identity extends beyond racial and ethnic considerations to the many facets that make them who they are. When applying to a college, prospective students should think about the layers that comprise them. Wood also encourages applicants to consider what values or programs at the college attract them.

When is the deadline for diversity courses 2022?

To submit new courses for the diversity requirement for inclusion in the 2022 catalog, the final deadline for new course submissions is September 24, 2021.

What is the Division for Equity and Inclusion?

The Division for Equity and Inclusion posits that inclusive excellence requires a healthy and inclusive campus climate and refer s to the processes by which the University leverages diversity as its’ strength to enhance an understanding and connection with diverse communities, ensure the success of all UNM students, and advance the academic enterprise. For more information: diverse.unm.edu.

Planning your course

Create a student-centered course. The first step in designing or redesigning a course to be inclusive, equitable and accessible is to approach the course through the eyes of your students.

Syllabus, course policies and materials

Create an inclusive syllabus. A syllabus isn’t just an outline of your course and class policies. It’s an invitation to engage in a learning community you will be creating in the class.

Conducting the class

Use discussion guidelines. Many faculty start off their first class session with a set of discussion guidelines that will be used throughout the course, then reinforce these guidelines at the start of subsequent class meetings.

Evaluating inclusive practices

Learning Innovation consultants run Small Group Instructional Feedback (SGIF) sessions for instructors during the mid-point of the semester. Small Group Instructional Feedback is a formative, mid-course check-in used for gathering information from students on their learning experience.

Learn more

There are many resources available to instructors at Duke related to topics of inclusivity, equity and accessibility.