Bryan Dewsbury and Cynthia Brame were on Online with LSE on May 7th, 2021. Brame began by talking about the LSE Inclusive Teaching guide and instructor checklist. These are wonderful! There are five guides: group work, inclusive teaching, peer instruction, modeling, and metacognition. Dewsbury mentioned that the Inclusive Teaching guide is longer than others and draws heavily from the K-12 literature. Dewsbury was asked why we should be thinking about inclusive teaching and explained that we should go beyond slides and center people and humanity in the process of education. Brame mentioned that there is “no cookbook… it is a mindset.” We should be proactive about building structures like building in weight time, having structures for student interactions, having different mechanisms for students to share questions and ideas. Brame also mentioned that we need the forethought to be inclusive and responsive to students. In response to a question posed in the chat, Dewsbury stressed that we should all think about this and acknowledged that some people want to see “the graph” while others need to get suggestions or see it in action. Dewsbury talked about the dilemma of content and spending time to build community. Brame explained why she includes structure and community in every session with think-pair-share and tells them who talks first and second. Dewsbury mentioned a paper they have written that is under review and will hopefully be available this summer. Brame mentioned not starting with the guide and starting instead with where they are and thinking about reducing barriers. Brame said: learn your students’ names and recognize them. “Students don’t come as blank slates” and questioning “why do you want to put students in groups” were mentioned by Dewsbury. Brame and Dewsbury talked about including the why behind what you are doing in the classroom (and beyond). A thought-provoking question that an audience member asked was how to include and respect hidden diversity. Dewsbury said:
Good teaching is inclusive. It’s not a type of teacher.
Bryan Dewsbury, Online with LSE May 7, 2021
Dewsbury stressed centering humanity and engaging students as humans to learn from and include all students. I’ve heard Brian mention this before: he uses a “This I Believe” essay at the beginning of the semester to get to know students in Dewsbury’s courses. Becca Price, the moderator, mentioned the Anatomy of an Article articles we can use to dissect and learn from LSE CBE articles. Brame suggested going to SABER. As usual, with Brame and Dewsbury, it was a wonderful session!
