Introducing The Inclusive Teaching Visualization Project!

As I’ve partnered with instructors on their efforts to make their learning experiences more equitable and welcoming, I’ve observed a clear need—more resources that visualize inclusive teaching practices and facilitate reflection on instruction. After a few years of deliberation, generous feedback from and the involvement of student consultants, instructors, staff, trained actors, student extras, and a videographer, at the end of the spring 2022 semester, I birthed the Inclusive Teaching Visualization Project. I am appreciative to everyone involved in the launch of this resource.

Is there more to this backstory? Absolutely. For years, I’ve wanted to integrate actors into educational development after witnessing the mutual benefits in education. In a prior role I managed over 20 part-time actors who played the roles of patients to support the learning of medical students. The standardized patients (actors) were trained on specific scripts, and participated in sessions involving early medical students practicing their interview and physical exam skills. There were no grades attached to these experiences—the focus was trying them out before using the same skills with actual patients while receiving feedback from a faculty member. Many of the actors felt as if they were serving valuable roles by investing in the next generation of medical doctors. Isn’t this a nice example of what learning activities can look like?

Such experiences stuck with me, and as a director of a center for teaching and learning, I have been eager to consider formative ways to integrate actors into educational development focused on the teaching efforts of instructors. The Inclusive Teaching Visualization Project aims to do just that. This project also builds off of my personal experiences with writing and publishing case studies as educational materials.

I envision many creative usages of the Inclusive Teaching Visualization Project, including as a resource for:

• Instructors considering implementing various inclusive teaching approaches to have examples of what they can look like,
• Educational development sessions to inspire discussions around inclusive teaching practices,
• The visualization of a diversity of practices that also respect teaching within disciplines, and
• Peer observers and student pedagogical partners conducting formative classroom observations of teaching.

Readers might come up with additional usages of this resource, and I encourage such brainstorming. Please share it widely, whether on your center for teaching and learning website, or with your reading group or teaching circles, the colleagues in your department, or in other venues.

Reference

The Inclusive Teaching Visualization Project. inclusiveteachingvisualization.com