Beyond Good Intentions: Strategies for Measuring Inclusive Teaching and Creating Equitable Learning Environments

Join us as we welcome Jaclyn Stewart to deliver a session on strategies for measuring inclusive teaching and creating equitable learning environments. This event is available for you to attend in person or online, with lunch provided afterwards for those joining us on campus. Book your place now.

About this event

Inclusive educators strive to create learning environments that enable everyone to learn. However, a significant challenge in post-secondary teaching is in supporting the needs of diverse groups of learners who vary in their prior knowledge, beliefs, and learning strategies, all of which can be influenced by social identities and life experiences. Despite the importance of inclusive teaching, we often do not know if our actions are addressing learning barriers and contributing to equity and inclusion. Measuring educational equity provides a concrete indicator of whether we are opening, rather than closing, doors to future learning and careers for our students. In this workshop, I will discuss the rationale for measuring educational equity and outline our approach, which includes exploring quantitative sociodemographic differences in course outcomes, perceptions of the classroom climate, and sense of belonging, as well as qualitative studies of students' experiences. Examples will draw from the work of the Canadian Consortium of Science Equity Scholars, a group of educators and researchers dedicated to enhancing equity in post-secondary science at the course level. Attendees will share and reflect on their experiences and consider practical strategies to evaluate equity in their own teaching contexts.

About Jaclyn J. Stewart

Jaclyn is a Professor of Teaching in the Department of Chemistry and the Associate Dean Academic in the Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. She specializes in teaching general chemistry, organic chemistry, and science communication. From 2010-2017, she was the Director of the Department of Chemistry’s involvement in the UBC Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative, which transformed over 180 courses in the Faculty of Science to include active learning. Her current passion is leading a Canada-wide community of science educators and researchers who are investigating course-level equity to explore and develop inclusive educational practices. Jackie was recently honoured with the 2022 Award for Chemistry Education from the Chemical Institute of Canada.