Teaching inclusively for LSES and all students:

A workshop

Effective teaching and support for students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds: Resources for Australian higher education.

www.lowses.edu.au

Overview

• Focusing on 3 aspects of LSES students:• The student experience• Transparency• Academic standards

National research project

• Professor Marcia Devlin• Professor Sally Kift• Professor Karen Nelson• Ms Liz Smith• Dr Jade McKay

Method

– Literature review– Interviews with 89 successful students

from low socioeconomic backgrounds (3 universities)– Interviews with 26 staff (6 universities)–A national environmental scan of effective

practice

Ensuring inclusivity for LSES students

1. The student experience: Know and respect your students

2. Be transparent: Make expectations clear, using accessible language

3. Offer them flexibility, variety and choice, without compromising standards

1. The student experience(Know and respect your students)

• Understand their context• Understand what they bring to tertiary

studies

1. The student experience(Know and respect your students)

Understand their context They have to undertake paid work; they often have carer responsibilities and multiple roles; they are time poor

1. The student experience(Know and respect your students)

Understand what they bring to tertiary study…stats have shown in our course that generally speaking our low SES students tend to do better. They’re slightly better motivated and probably more capable students…[COL_014]

1. The student experience(Know and respect your students)

Understand what they bring to tertiary studySo students who came from public high schools tended to do better and last longer and succeed faster, …have fewer fails … progress faster at university, than [other] students … simply because they never had the resources handed to them and they always had to fight for everything and they were much more independent learners. [COL_013]

1. The student experience (know and respect your students):

Workshop questionsFor inclusivity:• Why would it be important to know your

students?• How might knowing your students be

achieved in class, online and in large groups?• Why respect them? How would you

demonstrate respect?

2. Be transparent(Make expectations clear,

using accessible language)• Speak English, not ‘academese’• Show them examples• Make assessment criteria available and

understandable

2. Be transparent(Make expectations clear,

using accessible language)Speak English, not ‘academese’…a couple of times I might have listened to lecturers that probably used too many big words so sometimes I didn’t understand where they were coming from. So maybe if they can speak in layperson’s terms a little bit, that makes it a lot easier. (STU_026)

2. Be transparent(Make expectations clear,

using accessible language)Show them examples…they’re told to write these essays, and they want to see what an essay looks like. It’s like trying to teach them how to ride a bicycle without the bicycle… But if you’re teaching something, and if you can show an example of it, the students can see the expectation, they can see the level of what is expected of them. [COL_012]

2. Be transparent(Make expectations clear,

using accessible language)Make assessment criteria available and understandable… for continuous clarification, as to what is required…there are typically hundreds of questions that are then filtered back to the course convenors, and the way that those are then answered, such that everyone can see all of the responses is critical in demystifying what’s being asked of us a lot of the time…[STU_056]

2. Be transparent(Make expectations clear,

using accessible language)Make assessment criteria available and understandableI think the other thing with assessment is the students need to understand the criteria sheet, or the rubric, if you like, of what the lecturer, or what the tutor is looking for. I think it’s very difficult for them to do a piece of assessment if they’re not clear on the guidelines of what they’re supposed to be doing. [COL_001].

2. Be transparent(Make expectations clear,

using accessible language)Workshop questions

For inclusivity:• Why is it important to be transparent?• How would you know clarity and

transparency had been achieved?

3. Offer students flexibility, variety and choice

• Maintain high standards• Use a range of teaching strategies• Be flexible with assessment (mode)

3. Offer students flexibility, variety and choice

Ensure high academic standardsI had someone who got High Distinctions, who came to see me to be better. [COL_001]

…stats have shown in our course that generally speaking our low SES students tend to do better. They’re slightly better motivated and probably more capable students…[COL_014]

3. Offer students flexibility, variety and choice

Use a range of teaching strategiesWell how I’d like to design it if I have power over the design is to make sure that it does actually come from where the students are from, so it’s flexible enough that they can actually bring in their world but then it actually challenges them to go beyond that so, it’s always starting from where they are. [COL_008]

3. Offer students flexibility, variety and choice

Be flexible with assessment (mode)…assessment should offer a range of ways, I think, in which the students can present their work. So many of the assessments, they have been able to do it on-line, as a report, as an essay, I suppose as a collection of interview information. [COL_001]

3. Offer students flexibility, variety and choice:

Workshop questionsFor inclusivity:• Why would flexibility be important?• What about variety?• What about choice?• How might these be achieved, without

compromising standards?

Overview

• Focusing on 3 aspects of LSES students:• The student experience• Transparency• Academic standards

Summary: Inclusivity

1. Draw on students’ existing knowledge and make them feel they belong

2. Use plain language, everywhere 3. Give them choices, where feasible and fair

Take home messages/questions

• What is ‘doable’ in your context?• What are the obstacles?• How might the obstacles be (partly)

overcome?• What support do you need?

www.lowses.edu.au

Effective teaching and support for students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds: Resources for Australian higher education.

www.lowses.edu.au