Educational inequities often exist in the classroom, particularly minoritized students in STEM who may not have had the opportunity to see someone like themselves succeed in the field. In the K-12 setting, studies have shown that a lower proportion of students from low-income backgrounds, meet or exceed standards compared to students from non-low-income backgrounds. Elli Theobald, an assistant teaching professor of biology at the University of Washington, presented her findings on these inequities between students in higher ed STEM classrooms in a talk on April 1, 2021.
On February 24, 2021, the Teaching + Learning Lab hosted this talk on strategies for promoting a culture of student well-being, involving a case-study from the University of Washington. The session includes a sample of practices and teaching strategies drawn from the guidebook, considerations for developing a community of practice around this work, and reflections on leveraging well-being practices and resilience coping skills to teach in a more equitable and inclusive way.
On January 14, 2021, the Teaching + Learning Lab and Open Learning cohosted an IAP panel discussion for faculty and instructors on innovative assessments and assignments for remote subjects. Panelists discussed a spectrum of assessment and assignment options and shared their unique approaches and decision-making processes.
On Thursday, November 19, 2020, Open Learning and TLL cohosted this xTalk panel discussion, where MIT instructors shared their experience of building and maintaining community while teaching in a remote learning environment.
On Tuesday, October 27, 2020, this presentation described the reasons for the pilot and the accompanying study of the first-year advising experience from the perspectives of the faculty, OFY staff, and first-year students, and the findings and recommendations for future implementation.
This session explored applications of writing-to-learn pedagogy used in a variety of STEM classrooms. Dr. Ginger Shultz led a discussion of strategies that make writing feasible, even in large introductory courses. Writing engages students in solidifying tacit and unformed ideas, connecting them, and translating them for particular audiences.
In January 2020, MIT piloted a new subject, 3.008 Humanistic Co-design of Assistive Technology Around the Globe, bringing 8 MIT undergraduates to India and Saudi Arabia. Students worked with international students, engineers, designers, NGO’s, and persons with disabilities to create low-fidelity prototypes and project plans of assistive technologies.
On Monday, January 13, 2020, we hosted Dr. Christine Pfund who presented how to use the science of effective mentorship to optimize your mentoring practice.
In this interactive session on Tuesday, October 29, 2020, participants explored research-based, practical strategies to improve your day-to-day mentoring.
On Wednesday, Sep 11, 2019, Dr. Cissy Ballen addressed how certain features of the introductory science classroom create barriers for historically underserved students, supported by large-scale experimental and observational efforts across institution types and geographic regions.