Maggie Myers

MAGGIE MYERS, Lecturer, Computer Science 

What does inclusivity mean to you?

Inclusivity to me means involve each student in his/her learning.  I believe I’m still working on this and find it is more difficult for me now than it was ten years ago since my class sizes have more than doubled.  I try to use technology to support my efforts, but I find I am not meeting the needs of 100%.  I strive for 100%. 

Please give an example of what thinking inclusively looks like to you in your teaching or your work around campus. 

I find students learn differently and come in at many levels of experience.  Some take the course because it is required.  So to begin, I tell them what I expect: UCARE.  I want them all to:

• Understand concepts,
• Compute fluently, 
• Apply learning to solve problems and extend,
• Reason and justify their thinking, and
• Enjoy or engage in experiencing the value of probability and statistics is wise decision making.   

To start each lecture even before I get to the content, I address 

"When are we ever going to use this?" 

"Why are we learning this?” 

I start with a “launch” which is typically an application of the material we will learn and we return to answer this at the end of class.  Then I let them know “What we will cover?”, “Why should we care?”, as well as learning outcomes.   

In class, I try to mix it so students are actively involved.  I do presentations (where students respond periodically with thumbs-up, sideways, down for me to keep track of their understanding) but mixed with problem-solving activities where students work together as my TA and I roam the room.  Here is when I can personalize.  Before class, I think about what I should be hearing and seeing as students solve problems and also about questions I might be asking to understand more of what a student is thinking.  I find students think differently than I do on many occasions.  I like to figure out where they are and build on their strengths as individuals.  Unfortunately, with large class sizes it is hard to individualize as much as 1-1 tutoring might but our roaming does keep some students who want to “deal themselves out” keep involved.  To make certain that students attend and participate, they upload pictures of their classwork to canvas each class. 

After class, I provide some choices for students, but I also have requirements.  I try to encourage multiple paths to learning.  Students can but are not required to watch videos that I made covering similar to class presentation, read from a suggested text, look at supplemental materials, and work extra practice problems, should they have difficulty following what we did in class.  I show multiple approaches to solutions so that students can solve problems geometrically (visually) or algebraically through equations.  Sometimes I also post enrichment challenges.  This way, students with a variety of interests and learning styles can choose what works best for them. 

I use Canvas to provide solutions to homework assigned with each class before students submit to provide JIT feedback.  We also use Piazza to ask questions.   I also give online quizzes every few weeks to make sure every student is keeping up.  I also use Canvas to send out messages to students who have done a particularly nice job on an assignment.  It helps personalize.  

The “Guided Questioning” that I am currently putting together for my TAs and myself that helps us help the students and understand more the individual’s thinking is what I feel is important to reaching a diverse group of students.  It is far from perfected but it should help give us a better glimpse of the diversity and learn the problem-solving methods used and pitfalls encountered by our students. These guides promise to support the class as a whole as well as individuals.