The importance of diversity sensitive
teaching…
From the perspective of students, it is primarily teaching staff who act as representatives of the university. Through their actions and behavior, they essentially influence the students' well-being, willingness to perform, and chances of academic success, as well as their interest in a later academic career, and thus bear a great deal of responsibility.
In the following, teachers will find some tips on how they can make their courses more inclusive with regard to the diversity dimension of social origin in order to particularly support first-generation students.
First-generation teaching 101 – Tips for teachers
- Ensure appreciative communication at eye level
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Make sure to communicate in an appreciative manner at eye level, which adapts to the knowledge of your students. Pay attention to the technical terms you use and what you assume as given prior knowledge. Avoid formulations such as "As we all know...", as often not all of your students are familiar with this knowledge (yet).
- Establish a positive culture of errors
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Mistakes are part of the learning process and should be considered a learning opportunity, not a setback. If you adopt this attitude in your courses, not only will students with non-academic backgrounds benefit, but so will all of your students. Moreover, by doing so, you actively ensure an anxiety-free learning atmosphere.
- Encourage students to ask questions
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Confusion is part of the learning process and is part of the everyday process of imparting knowledge. Therefore, you should encourage students to ask questions if something is unclear to them. Especially students with a non-academic background often shy away from asking questions in courses in order not to stand out from the crowd as 'less intelligent'. For this reason, answers such as "That's trivial!" or "But you should already know that" should be avoided. These are neither conducive to learning nor do they contribute to the well-being of your students.
- Transparently communicate expectations and learning objectives
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Transparency is of great importance in day-to-day teaching and learning, especially with regard to examination-related matters. At the beginning of your course or at the beginning of the semester, you should provide answers to questions such as: "Is attendance at office hours compulsory or optional?", "Which theories or contents do all students need to be familiar with at the end of the semester/study program?" or "What criteria are used to assess examination results?" In addition, refer to existing materials, e.g. the guidelines for scientific work of your institute, and indicate where these can be found and accessed.
- Encourage students to pursue their own scholarly interests
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Encourage students to pursue their own academic interests and support them in doing so. This can be done, for instance, by providing letters of recommendation for scholarship applications, publishing term papers, advertising extracurricular opportunities, or notifying students of current vacancies for student assistants.
- Integrate social origin and educational attainment as topics for teaching
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As diversity-relevant topics, social origin and educational attainment are of great importance. Therefore, integrate them as teaching topics into your seminars and lectures. This can be done in a variety of ways, for example in the social sciences by means of social structure analyses, or in literary studies through readings of educational attainment novels.
- Support students in building networks
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As part of university life, classes are also a way for students to get to know each other and build networks. Therefore, give students the opportunity to establish new contacts within the framework of your courses. Interactive formats such as group work, discussion groups, among others, are particularly suitable for this purpose. If possible, try to include students from higher semesters in your courses so that they can act as role models for younger students.
- Be sensitive to the different realities of your students' lives and their learning abilities
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First-generation students frequently come equipped with differing prior knowledge, receive less support from their families, have additional family obligations, or have to work a part-time job in order to be able to finance their studies. All of this has an impact on their performance. It is therefore important that you demonstrate an awareness and understanding of these life realities and consider them in the design and teaching of your courses.
- Draw attention to university services and programs
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Use your courses to draw attention to university services and programs that might be interesting or helpful to your students. These can be, for example, courses of the scientific writing or language center, panel discussions, or extracurricular workshops at your institute. In this context, you are also welcome to draw attention to registration deadlines for courses or examinations.
- Be the role-model your students need
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Were you a first-generation student yourself? Don't be afraid to communicate this openly and tell students about your experiences. This may give students a sense of belonging and may even motivate them to consider a career in academia as well.
- Offer students the opportunity to approach you with questions
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Offer students the opportunity to approach you with questions regarding their studies. If necessary, you can refer the students with their concerns to the appropriate advising center or the subject-specific student advisor. You are welcome to use all other contents of the POWERst Toolbox for this purpose.
Reflection prompts habitus-sensitive teaching
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For a structured reflection on your own habitus and how it shapes your teaching and ways of thinking or acting, use the following reflection prompts as a guide:
- Reflection prompts regarding your own educational biography
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- What were my own starting conditions for my studies?
- Did I have a role model (e.g. in my own family) to support my plans to study?
- Did I receive support from my parents concerning my decision to study? What hurdles did I have to overcome on my own?
- Have I myself experienced discrimination (e.g. due to my gender, nationality or social background) or preferential treatment during my studies/career/life? Of what kind?
- Have I been able to focus exclusively on my studies? Did I have family obligations or did I have to finance my studies by myself through a part-time job?
- Reflection prompts regarding your self-conception as a teacher
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- How does my nationality, my gender, my age, or my personal lifestyle affect my role as a teacher?
- What significance do these characteristics of my personality have for the students and their behavior?
- To what extent do I see diversity as an enriching element for the learning process?
- Is my expectation regarding the performance of individual students independent of gender, nationality, age, social background, etc.?
- What stereotypical perceptions do I have toward my students or diverse groups and how did these come about?
- Do I reproduce stereotypes in my teaching through my own behavior?
- Reflection prompts regarding the diversity of students
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- How diverse is my student group? To what extent is their diversity visible or invisible?
- What value do I place on the heterogeneity of the students in my course?
- Does the diversity of my students influence the design of my course?
- Which impact does the diversity of the students have on my course/on the learning process?
- What are possible hurdles for individual student groups arising from certain diversity factors?
Further readings
- Mixed Classroom Model of the VU Amsterdam
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With its Mixed Classroom Model, VU Amsterdam offers a well-founded, field-tested, university didactic concept with which you can draw added value for your courses and the learning success of your students from the diversity of your students. In addition to a variety of concrete tips for lesson design, the model supports you with a wide range of practical methods.
- Diversity Guidelines of the University of Stuttgart
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With the Diversity Guidelines of the University of Stuttgart, the Working Group Diversity provides ideas for diversity-sensitive teaching, links to further documents, to individual topics as well as to contact persons, which you can use to deal with individual aspects in more detail or if the course groups you supervise have corresponding needs.