The new incoming majority student population in US higher education is increasingly diverse, multi-generational and non-traditional, and faculty must provide equitable educational opportunities for a broad variety of learners in each college course. Data from an AAC&U study of students' learning at seven Minority-Serving Institutions identifies transparent instruction (involving faculty/student discussion about the relevant knowledge, skills to be practiced, required tasks, expected criteria and examples before students begin working) as a replicable teaching intervention that significantly enhances students' success, with greater gains for historically underserved students [Winkelmes et al, Peer Review, Spring 2016]. Students' retention also benefits from transparent instruction [Gianoutsos and Winkelmes 2016; Winkelmes et al. 2019]. Transparent instruction shows great promise for increasing students’ academic confidence, sense of belonging, persistence and success in an equitable way that benefits students to a statistically significant degree, with even larger benefits for systemically underserved students (including ethnically underrepresented, first-generation and low-income students).
A diversity statement is a paragraph or section in institutional, department, or course language that welcomes the range of human representations including race, class, gender, religion, accessibility, and socioeconomic status. Instructors can use the diversity statement to set expectations for civil discourse, encouragement for varying opinions, and standards of behavior both within a course or discipline and during controversial campus events. At root, the diversity statement signals belief that all students have value and bring unique perspectives worthy of consideration. Source: Yale
[TUFTS] Diversity
[TUFTS] Accessibility
[TUFTS] Indigenous Land Acknowledgment