tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77270876764315553932024-03-13T05:33:34.927-04:00The IBL BlogThe IBL Blog focuses on promoting the use of inquiry-based learning methods in college mathematics classrooms. Learn more about IBL at <strong><a href="http://www.inquirybasedlearning.org"> The Academy of Inquiry Based Learning </a></strong>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comBlogger255125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-61555950857996606132024-02-15T23:20:00.001-05:002024-02-15T23:20:55.920-05:00IBL and Large Classes (an example)<p>Large classes come with more logistical challenges, but using IBL in these contexts is still doable and rewarding. It's not the same as small classes, but many good things can happen in large classes. Check out the podcast episode below!</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="397" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iuh5Gpvz3sQ" width="478" youtube-src-id="iuh5Gpvz3sQ"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-9762026021111009422024-01-06T09:26:00.000-05:002024-01-06T09:26:54.808-05:00Robin Wilson Interview on the IBL Podcast<p>It's my great pleasure to have the opportunity to talk to <a href="https://cse.lmu.edu/department/math/faculty/?expert=robin.wilson" target="_blank">Robin Wilson, Loyola Marymount University</a>. This is episode we talked about the Algebra Project and its impact on students, and the connection to math literacy as a civil right. </p><p>Robin shared his insights about working with students, teachers, and how Bob Moses saw the need to plant seeds for a larger effort to help all students have a quality education.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="376" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NinOPONlk8A" width="453" youtube-src-id="NinOPONlk8A"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Bob Moses brief bio at the Algebra Project <a href="https://algebra.org/wp/bob-moses/" target="_blank">Link</a></div><p>More information about the Algebra Project is available via their website: <a href="http://www.algebra.org">www.algebra.org</a>. Want to get involved? Email <a href="mailto:ben@algebra.org">ben@algebra.org</a> </p><p>Bob Moses' wrote a book with Charles E. Cob, <i>Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project.</i> 2002. ISBN 9780807031278, Penguin Random House. </p><p>Liu, G. (2006). Education, Equality, and National Citizenship. The Yale Law Journal, 116(2), 330–411. https://doi.org/10.2307/20455723 </p><p><br /></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-15899037642315518682023-10-17T20:44:00.006-04:002023-10-17T20:44:51.366-04:00Podcast: A conversation with Carol Schumacher, Kenyon College<p>It was great catching up with Carol Schumacher, Kenyon College. Carol and I have worked together off and on for over a decade. It's been wonderful to learn from Carol and work with her on moving education at the college level forward. </p><p>Huge congrats to Carol for receiving the Haimo Award in 2023. See the info <a href="https://maa.org/member-communities/maa-awards/teaching-awards/section-award" target="_blank">HERE</a>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="385" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qf7PvG07tOM" width="463" youtube-src-id="qf7PvG07tOM"></iframe></div><br /><p>Link mentioned in the video: IDEAL Center <a href="https://new.smm.org/ideal-center">https://new.smm.org/ideal-center</a></p><p>IDEAL Center Teamwork Norms</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Everyone has something to learn.</li><li>No one person is good at everything or has all the skills to complete a team-worthy task</li><li>Everyone has expertise to offer.</li><li>Every person has relevant strengths to bring to each team-worthy task.</li><li>You have the right to ask for help, and the duty to assist. • We need each other.</li><li>Help others do things for themselves.</li><li>Explain by telling how.</li><li>Everybody helps.</li><li>Pay attention to what other team members need.</li></ul><p></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-72237321028069872862023-09-09T20:48:00.001-04:002023-09-09T20:50:24.452-04:00IBL Teaching Podcast on YouTube<p>I'm launching a new podcast on YouTube to share stories and useful tips about IBL Teaching. The podcast will focus on a range of topics from interviewing faculty about IBL to specific skills or practices in IBL. We talk about math in higher education, but will expand beyond. The plan is to drop an episode about once a month, hopefully more frequently if my role as undergrad chair doesn't take up too much time.</p><p>The first three episodes are linked below. We start "at home" with two great people who have been working with me for more than a decade, and a short video about the IBL handout approach. </p><p>Have a question or suggestion for a topic? Let me know at stan at math dot toronto dot edu. </p><p><b>Matt Jones, CSU Dominguez Hills</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="333" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qiw5QBvU53g" width="505" youtube-src-id="Qiw5QBvU53g"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>Dana Ernst, Northern Arizona University</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="295" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zwY5hIRFEwI" width="494" youtube-src-id="zwY5hIRFEwI"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p><b>IBL Handout Approach</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_IaOVEEdEHg" width="526" youtube-src-id="_IaOVEEdEHg"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-58075338895270274512023-02-21T13:40:00.001-05:002023-02-21T14:48:08.855-05:00Email mentoring after a professional development workshop (for professional developers)<span id="docs-internal-guid-129187d2-7fff-c9f7-e785-629a4c5a16d0"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This primarily audience for this post is professional developers in higher education. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After a workshop in the early part of the summer, attendees go back home... and then the calendar unceremoniously flips to August. Fall semester is approaching, and summer is ending. All of the ideas learned at the summer workshop have to intersect with reality. Real students are coming, the syllabus needs to be written, choices need to be made, and the LMS needs to be set up. During this phase instructors new or newish to IBL can benefit from the community they worked with at the workshop.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email mentoring doesn't sound exciting. It sounds like "having to mow the lawn after a long week." I apologize for the unexciting, descriptive title. But in reality email mentoring is important for participants and truly rewarding and fun. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is email mentoring? </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email mentoring is follow-up support after workshops, and</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is organized by workshop facilitators. Facilitators email the whole group every two or three weeks to check-in on the group, asking participants to share how planning or teaching is going. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Participants have questions before the start of the term, and issues or questions might come up during the term, or they may have a success story to share with the group. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">A typical pattern is the facilitators send out a few emails to see how people are doing, and a few responses trickle in. But then eventually there are times when you get large threads. Someone has a question. Another participant chimes in. And then another chime. A facilitator thanks the people who chimed in, and asks for more thoughts. More people chime in, and it's a flurry of helpful, insightful, and supportive messages.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Activity ebbs and flows within a semester. Email mentoring starts a few weeks before the term and is heavily used during the parts of the first half of the term. Activity tends to pick up again towards the end of the term, when facilitators encourage participants to share and reflect on the semester. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email mentoring is a type of follow-up support.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Follow-up support is a broad category of continuing professional development after the main workshop. Follow-up is the booster to the summer prime doses, and strengthens and enhances what was accomplished in the summer. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One common example of follow-up support is having monthly meetings, which is more common for professional development programs that take place in a specific region, such as a single campus or in the K-12 setting of a school or school district. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meeting regularly during the school year makes sense in cases where all the instructors are in the same geographic area. You can continue to support workshop participants as they are implementing their courses, get together over boxed lunches, and get folks outside of their environments. Video conference call is another option to do this for groups that are more spread out.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email mentoring especially makes sense for undergraduate math instructors, because of the asynchronous nature of email. Everyone uses email, and access to the conversation fits into faculty work life. Scheduling faculty meetings is also a big challenge, because finding a common time across multiple time zones with 20-30 faculty is nearly impossible. Hence, asynchronous email exchanges make sense in this context.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email mentoring also does not require prep like the summer workshops. The main thing is being effective with timing and being kindly persistent and supportive. Thinking about this work as building community rather than "getting lots of chimes" is a more useful mindset. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why is follow-up support important?</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> As mentioned above, learning about IBL, active learning, or any other topic during the summer is great for getting over the "activation energy" needed to start the change. But implementation in the real world requires steady work, and having a community of collaborators doing the same thing can make a difference in how much and how well someone implements new teaching changes (to them). </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In some instances, follow-up support can make or break an implementation attempt. I think of follow-up support as an important part of the workshop. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some people are teaching in departments where they are the only one doing active learning. They feel isolated, and going to a workshop for a week is a refreshing change. Having their community still with them during the term via email mentoring gives folks working alone much needed support and camaraderie. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do you ping the groups?</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We use low-entry, high-ceiling prompts. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 60pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Hi everyone,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 60pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hope your week is off to a good start. Please let us know how things are going with your teaching. Even if you don't have a lot of time, please feel free to click 'reply-all' and send us just a sentence or two. We want to know how you are doing.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 60pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cheers!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 60pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SY"</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The idea is to make participating easy and it can be a short update or something more involved. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometimes the facilitators send out informational emails, and they usually don't get many replies, although they can spark a thread on a topic usually not directly related to the original information being shared. Perhaps there is a good article worth sharing or a conference or workshop coming up. Those kinds of messages keep the community informed and in people's minds.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Repeatedly checking in the with group is necessary. Sometimes it takes a multiple tries to get a thread going. This is normal and fine. Not every email needs or should have a lengthy response from a large number of participants. The strategy is to gently check in regularly, because eventually someone will want or need to run something by the group, and you'll have primed people that chiming in is okay and welcome.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Emotional content is a key component of successful email mentoring. What does emotional content mean in this context? Examples are thanking people for sharing, validating the struggle, and celebrating successes. Here's an example.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 60pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Hi ABC - thank you for sharing that story. I have been in that situation before several times, and you handled it better than I did the first time. Here's what I learned along the way... Does anyone else have anything to share? Please chime in - it'd be great if we had more perspectives. - SY"</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Emotional content is often short and sweet.</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Participant) "Hi everyone! Just had a great day in class..."</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Another participant) "That's wonderful!..."</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Facilitator) "Thank you so much for sharing that story. Congrats!"</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(More compliments...)</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One thing to keep in mind is timing. You want other participants to chime in, so facilitators need to carefully time their messages so they are not pouncing on all of the questions right away or letting big gaps of time go by. Perhaps they can let a day or two go by and encourage someone to chime in. Facilitators can chime in with, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"That's a great question. Does someone have something they'd like to share?"</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to amplify the question without answering. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why email and not slack/discord/teams? </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I personally would prefer to use something like Discord or a discussion board. But the reality is that you lose people from the group post workshop if you use slack/discord/teams/etc. Only a subset will take the extra step to login and check another platform that is not email. This has been an consistent barrier for all the years I have run workshops. Email is the one consistent way to reach everyone.There are definitely pros and cons to email, but in the end, the kicker is that email is the one universal platform out there that everyone already uses.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email mentoring is fun and rewarding!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Email mentoring is great, because you get to learn about what people are doing, help people with their questions, be part of a supportive community, learn new ideas, and celebrate successes. It's many of the good parts of being an educator rolled into one activity.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email mentoring is a helpful and fun strategy to implement follow-up mentoring post workshop, especially when working with busy faculty schedules. One way to think about it is that you already spent all that effort planning and running your workshop, and you want it to stick. One way to help ensure students experience the benefits of high-impact practices like IBL is to help your attendees when they are implementing your workshop ideas.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Want to learn more?</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Read Chuck and Sandra's paper super-detailed analysis of what we did to create a supportive community using feedback loops, which helped us achieve high response rates. </span><a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-018-0120-9" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-018-0120-9</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 60pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"This workshop for 35 college mathematics instructors used online and in-person communities to provide support to participants during the post-workshop period of “refreezing.” Almost all workshop attendees participated in “e-mentoring” (94%), primarily through a productive, engaging group email listserv. By combining qualitative coding of message content with the techniques of social network analysis, we reveal how facilitators and participants on the group listserv provided intellectual and emotional support, as well as positive reinforcement through feedback loops. The analysis also shows how the facilitators made this a helpful group and maintained participant engagement through frequent encouragement, deliberate community building, and thoughtfully timed responses."</span></p><br /><br /><b>Edit</b>: One pitfall to avoid giving up too early. Sometimes you will send out an email and no one will respond. And then you try it again, and no one will respond. Don't give up. Keep on asking nicely, perhaps send out some info, or share something from your class, and end with open invitations. <br /><br /></span>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-45480251407820489572023-02-04T10:27:00.000-05:002023-02-04T10:27:01.277-05:00Simplicity<p style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much.“ - </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Joshua Reynold</span></i></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">One lesson I have learned from photography is the importance of simplicity. In photography, one point of view in composing a photo is the process of elimination. You eliminate objects in your frame until you feel like you have a compelling image. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHbv3SPSlvQTyd6bOk5qlsS5M2pUEirXc0AWLvgTFyRXBla0n2O9pJ0lGKSU1zMZcS9eXA2J9jsGoL3oVc9OgtvrUt21FnT_Chc8bi16MZNdYmUebnsIhqvrJZIwJEAcCAHLL6d3BRcWrBky8CLpUeh-1RAcM9DCUTmxCezCEzM5GqrNvTOCUfGb8C/s2048/simplicity.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHbv3SPSlvQTyd6bOk5qlsS5M2pUEirXc0AWLvgTFyRXBla0n2O9pJ0lGKSU1zMZcS9eXA2J9jsGoL3oVc9OgtvrUt21FnT_Chc8bi16MZNdYmUebnsIhqvrJZIwJEAcCAHLL6d3BRcWrBky8CLpUeh-1RAcM9DCUTmxCezCEzM5GqrNvTOCUfGb8C/s320/simplicity.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leaning Oak, Central Coast CA (copyright Stan Yoshinobu)</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>The next photo shows what the scene looks like. It was taken at a different time and day. An arrow is pointing to the tree in the first picture. </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFsBjE9y9x11IpJ0Bof87fUgix7VQDVp0J4JKBWIm1ujcs0-eOwxFjF3E4oTLzq-i66WrU16-kQvQZnwc4SqanPXXFhlgGsUvdwscgO_IZicx1qHN9OvCHGB7NM3gFpo6TS2KGom5V2nwPiHdxLlE20fxOC-EK1ogLWVT9XVJwfqR0LHif7moDfSQ7/s3787/IMG_1974.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="3787" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFsBjE9y9x11IpJ0Bof87fUgix7VQDVp0J4JKBWIm1ujcs0-eOwxFjF3E4oTLzq-i66WrU16-kQvQZnwc4SqanPXXFhlgGsUvdwscgO_IZicx1qHN9OvCHGB7NM3gFpo6TS2KGom5V2nwPiHdxLlE20fxOC-EK1ogLWVT9XVJwfqR0LHif7moDfSQ7/w509-h207/IMG_1974.JPG" width="509" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view of the larger scene</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Wide angle views take in nearly everything in the scene. Wide angle lenses are "greedy" lenses and they include so many things. This is useful in some cases, but in many cases including everything makes the scene less compelling. There is just too much in the scene, no story, a documentation of what is there in a literal sense. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The process of elimination is in many ways the opposite of teaching. Especially in courses like Calculus, we have included so many problems, so many techniques, and every class has to cover so much. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Teaching is complex. Intricate concepts, big ideas, lots of students, assignments, deadlines, planning ahead, grading, random stuff that messes up your plans. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">And then there is the pressure to innovate in your teaching. Trying new things, different things, adding technology, updating assessments.... Don’t get me wrong. This is all good and we need to innovate and continue to find ways to improve the human experience of education. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But there is a simple truth at the root of all this. It comes down to the students, their engagement with the ideas, and the instructor and the course structure supporting students. All the rest are mostly details, important details, but in the end those other things are either supports or requirements. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Does it matter that we use IBL/active learning and focus on the details and carefully execute our plans? Yes, of course! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">So what is the point? We can go to far by adding too many layers or we have too many assignments and things for students to do. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I’ve talked to instructors who out of enthusiasm and excitement have flipped classes, WebWork homework, Perusall assignments, recitation assignments, hours of videos to watch each week, practice problems, writing assignments, group assignments, midterms, practice midterms, and more. This overwhelms students and creates a course requiring double the work. The question I get asked is why are my students not buying into my class? You're asking them to do more than they can handle and the experience is more painful than enjoyable and fulfilling. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">There can be too much of a good thing, such as watching all your favorite movies in one sitting. At some point you aren’t enjoying it and neither are many of your students. In teaching, if you’re managing a wide range of course management tasks and students are running from one thing to another, then you may be including too many teaching element into your course.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>"To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose." - Marie Kondo</i></div></div></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">What I try and do is mentally start with student engagement in class. I focus on what they need to learn in terms of content and dispositions. Then the math tasks (curriculum) are aimed at those things. The assignments and assessment layers are added aligning with the goals. From there you finish with the logistics, etc. and you have your course. That helps me see what to cut, what to exclude. Then I go back to my over-engineered course and take out the things that are not needed or at the very least revise them down. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This doesn't mean my classes are simple or bare bones. That's a risk, too - a course that merely shows the content and gives multiple choice tests. Simplicity is about finding the right balance between all the things you wish you could accomplish in your class and a real-world experience that is fulfilling for the instructor and students. It's focusing on making the best choices you can make for student learning and growth and letting go of trying to do everything. The coverage issue is a real thing. We all struggle with it, and what helps me stay centered is focusing squarely on students, the math, their interaction with the math, and their long-term intellectual growth. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In short, you gotta choose. </div></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-15435315810827988402022-12-15T09:46:00.000-05:002022-12-15T09:46:36.887-05:00Presentation at AMATYC 2022: Equitable and Inclusive Teaching Practices<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This blog post is an adaptation of a presentation I gave at AMATYC 2022, in Toronto, Ontario. Title of the presentation is “Equitable and Inclusive Teaching Practices”</span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-567541d8-7fff-a9ff-4861-71416dda872a"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The presentation is split into two parts. Part 1 is an outline of 4 lenses we can use to think about our teaching and more generally society. The second part is about teaching scenarios using the four lenses and our experiences.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First some caveats. There are more than four lenses. The four I chose are just viewpoints I chose that I find helpful in a workshop-like session. There are many other things to consider, which are beyond the scope of the presentation.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lens 1: Math’s teeming shore</span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first lens to use is about something I call the Math’s teeming shore.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Give me your tired, your poor,</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Emma Lazarus’ sonnet is the idea of all the people who were left out, gathered on the teeming shore yearning for a better life. In one subset of America, the ideal is to bring these people in and welcome them. In a similar way, so many people in Math have been left out. How many times have you heard, “I am not a math person” or “I am not good at math”? </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Math education has left many on the outside, and this is a major problem for our society, because this damages our ability to be a more equitable and informed society. This brings us to the second lens...</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lens 2: math literacy as a civil right, implicit biases</span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From the seminal work of Bob Moses and the Algebra Project (</span><a href="https://algebra.org/wp/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://algebra.org/wp/</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), we have the idea that math literacy is a critical literacy. In fact, math literacy is a civil right. Without an ability to think and evaluate some issues quantitatively and scientifically a person cannot fully exercise their rights and be a full citizen or have equal opportunities in society.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is a fundamental paradox in education. Teaching people to think and problem solve is a good thing in my opinion, but not everyone would agree. If we teach people to think, then they start to question the system they live in. If we teach people to think, they start to become qualified for jobs they are not intended to have. In short that is why there exists Math’s teeming shore.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A brutal example from the past is The Native American Boarding Schools (</span><a href="https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/us-residential-schools" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/us-residential-schools</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). These schools designed to “assimilate” indigenous people via their children. Assimilate of course is a euphemism for genocide, and in 2021 the first of several discoveries of </span><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tk-eml%C3%BAps-te-secw%C3%A9pemc-215-children-former-kamloops-indian-residential-school-1.6043778" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">hundreds of remains of children at these schools were reported</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Content Warning). </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When people opine of the dearth of Indigenous people in STEM, one false myth some people use about this is that Indigenous youth are not interested in STEM, or that it’s falsely not part of their culture. Crucially what is left out as a possible explanation is our actual history. That in itself is an indictment. Further when people talk about culture, they are actually not talking about culture. They are really talking about power. One group had the power and the other didn’t, and that is how we got here.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The problem isn’t the Indigenous students or the black students or the women or whatever group you want to focus on. The problem is our history and our collective ignorance of it. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How do these things relate to teaching? History lives with us in ways we may not be aware of. For example, false assumptions can affect our daily work. If a student requests an extension for an assignment or doesn’t turn something in, then certain assumptions can be triggered depending on a student’s identity. A source of implicit bias goes down deep to underlying assumptions, norms, and conditioning that have formed us. Implicit biases are rooted in our history, and that impacts how we solve (or don’t solve) our problems with math literacy.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lens 3: the shokunin or artisan spirit</span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’d like to think that there’s a way out. What I’ve latched onto is starting at the core of what teaching is. A Shokunin is an artisan with great skill who also works for the benefit of their community. This idea applies to teaching. One way to deal with our equity and inclusion issues is to adopt a Shokunin spirit or artisan spirit when we teach.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When I started my career, I didn’t have a diversity statement in my syllabus. I didn’t intentionally think about equity in the classroom. I did not use IBL with an equity lens. These are things I have learned over time from people who have made the case that we need to do more. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is one way our profession has moved forward. Some people have done the work to improve their courses and come together to form coalitions to courageously make the case to others for equity and inclusion in Math. From there new policies were adopted and more resources and attention are being directed to make progress. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Have we done enough? No, obviously. We have a lot more work to do. But the point still stands that if we think of our teaching practices like an artisan, we can continually improve our craft for the good of society. By teaching practices, I don’t just mean what we do in the classroom, but more broadly the system surrounding it. If enough of us do this work at different layers of the system, we can potentially make systemic change.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Lens 4: IBL methods</b> </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">IBL can help with equity and inclusion, but only if the instructor focuses on these things. IBL methods are a pathway, not a panacea. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The artisan spirit should be connected to tools and practices that work. There is a body of scientific work that establishes IBL methods as effective in learning and leveling the playing field. Here’s a </span><a href="https://www.colorado.edu/eer/publications" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">link</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to work by Laursen at al. I won't go into details of what IBL is or what the literature says, since these are well worn paths that have been talked about elsewhere. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Part 2: Scenarios</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With these lenses in hand, we looked at a few scenarios at the session, and discussed what we could do. The second was a little more than half the session in terms of time, and participants offered good ideas for how we could move forward with their teaching. We discussed the ideas at our tables and then shared with the whole group, which was about 50 people. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Scenario 1: The same 3 or 4 students raise their hands first when it’s time for student volunteers. What can you do to make sharing more equitable?</i></span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Scenario 2: What are the positives and some pitfalls of randomly assigning groups of 3 or 4 students to work on a problem?</i></span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Scenario 3: In this scenario, put on your “implicit bias” lens. How can implicit biases and social frames amplify the comments left on student work? Compare the following two responses.</i></span></span></p><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“Good start to a solution. I noticed that you didn’t use the definition of… Consider using the definition…”</i></span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“It’s obvious you didn’t do the reading or put in a good effort…”</i></span></span></p></li></ol><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Task 4: In the spirit of being like an artisan/shokunin with your teaching, consider how to improve/update…</i></span></span></p><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Syllabus statement, pronouns, resources for marginalized groups</i></span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Course content</i></span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Deadlines (hard vs. flexible)</i></span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Assessment</i></span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Small groups, pairs</i></span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Students with disabilities/accessibility</i></span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Department/college level</i></span></span></p></li></ol><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Outro</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even for large classes, like the ones I teach at the University of Toronto, we do something significant with respect to equity and inclusion. I coordinate a course with 1500 students, split into 8 lecture sections, and 35 tutorials/recitations. We have 8 instructors, 24 TAs working together to provide an equitable and inclusive class. </span></span><span style="font-size: 14.666667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Large class sizes are not an obstacle for equitable and inclusive teaching, see the list below where most of the items are orthogonal to class size. </span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What are we doing?</span></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Diversity statement in the syllabus, and visible inclusion in class, in Canvas announcements.</span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">TA training on equity at the start of the term.</span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Teaching using IBL with a focus on equity.</span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Online option with recordings for students with disabilities.</span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grading for growth to the extent possible, with group reports with resubmissions without penalty.</span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Offer online office hours.</span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Collect weekly feedback to adapt to students’ needs and to uncover issues that we can address early in the term.</span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Eliminating biased problems and images from previous iterations of the course.</span></span></p></li></ul><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Those are some of the things we have implemented, and these are just the start. We need to improve each of these items and create norms and a department culture where students feel they truly belong.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Each of us has some power as instructors. To the extent we have power, we should use it to do good in our classrooms and at our institutions. We should be the hope we want to see in the world.</span></span></p><br /></span>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-91643909270968355612022-09-15T09:16:00.000-04:002022-09-15T09:16:51.562-04:00Interview: Professor Daniel Reinholz, San Diego State University, Gender Equity in Math Classes<p><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's a great pleasure to be able to interview of Professor Daniel Reinholz, San Diego State University about a vital issue, gender equity in the academy. As it happens, how we teach using active learning matters very much. This interview is based on a recent 2022 publication, <i><a href="https://pubs.nctm.org/view/journals/jrme/53/3/article-p204.xml" target="_blank">When Active Learning is Inequitable: Women Participation Predicts Gender Inequities in Mathematical Performance</a>, </i>Journal for Research in Math Education, Volume 53, Issue 3.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The authors of this article are Daniel Reinholz,Estrella Johnson, Virginia Tech, Christine Andrews-Larson, Florida State University, Amelia Stone-Johnstone, California State University Fullteron, Jessica Smith, Florida State University, Brooke Mullins, The University of Virginia's College at Wise, Nicholas Fortune, Western Kentucky University, Karen Keene, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Niral Shah, University of Washington-Seattle.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, tell us a little about yourself.</span></i></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My name is Daniel Reinholz and I’m an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at San Diego State University. Broadly, my research focuses on understanding how patterns of inequity arise in mathematics classrooms, developing methods to make these inequities visible, and helping instructors recognize and disrupt these inequities with their teaching. One way that I have done this is through the EQUIP observation tool (</span><a href="https://www.equip.ninja/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.equip.ninja</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) that I co-develop with Niral Shah </span><a href="https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?KnqLpc" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Reinholz & Shah, 2018)</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. EQUIP is free and customizable, and it tracks who gets to participate and how. Because participation is a key part of learning, we want to ensure that all students get to participate in meaningful ways (not just some students who are positively stereotyped in math classrooms). EQUIP automatically generates data visualizations to help instructors rethink their strategies for their next lesson. Most inequities that arise in classrooms are subtle and unintentional, so having extra data to support us to teach better is always helpful.</span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-88f277c2-7fff-4429-d78a-f06e0b02f7c3"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When not working on math stuff, I’m probably playing with my two young children, or making music on the drums or piano. I love spending time outdoors, enjoying the oceans of San Diego, and traveling when life allows for it.</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Active learning by itself isn’t a panacea to issues in equity and inclusion in the classroom. We have known this from earlier work. You and your co-authors recently published a paper in JRME, When Active Learning Is Inequitable: Women’s Participation Predicts Gender Inequities in Mathematical Performance (2022). Why did you study this issue and what are some of the takeaways from your paper?</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A number of years ago I was talking with co-authors </span><span data-rich-links="{"per_n":"Estrella Johnson","per_e":"strej@vt.edu","type":"person"}" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Estrella Johnson</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and Christy Andrews-Larson at a conference about some findings from the TIMES project they were running. The TIMES project is an excellent set of inquiry-oriented curricula for upper division mathematics. Christy and Estrella (and others on the project) had developed a robust professional development program that they studied over a few years. Surprisingly, they found gender inequities in the inquiry classes that weren’t present in the lecture classes. (To be clear, the inquiry classes led to greater learning </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">overall</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but there were inequities, because men disproportionately benefited compared to women). I suggested that we work together and analyze their data using the EQUIP tool, so that we could get a better sense of what was happening in terms of classroom participation and how that might connect to inequities in student outcomes. As expected, the amount of participation by women was a significant predictor of how well women scored on the performance outcomes.</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Tell us about “shared inquiry” and what that looks like?</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although our study was primarily focused on quantitative data, we developed a few qualitative profiles of classrooms to help readers get a better idea of what was happening. The </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">shared inquiry </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">set of classrooms were the ones that had the highest levels of performance for women. What we found is that in these classrooms, students were most likely to respond directly to their peers and build on each other’s ideas. In short, the instructors had created a productive community of learners that could work together to deepen their mathematical understandings. Although the other classes in the study also featured inquiry-oriented teaching strategies, some of those were more centered around the teacher going back and forth with individual students. In other words, the teacher was the center of the conversation, not the students.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were no classroom observations at the beginning of the semester, so we can’t say exactly </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">how</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the instructors initially built this positive community. But we can hypothesize that they used a variety of strategies to build their classroom culture, community agreements, participation norms, empower students to share ideas and take risks, and so forth. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a caveat, I want to mention that these instructors didn’t simply ask the students “who would like to participate?” and have students answer in a free-flow way with no guidance. Our research across hundreds of classrooms shows that if instructors aren’t intentional in setting up the participation dynamics and supporting marginalized students, then white and masculine norms tend to dominate, and so white men talk more than most other students. In short, using a variety of simple strategies like having students raise their hands, using wait time, waiting for multiple hands before calling on someone, stopping conversations with think-pair-share if nobody raises their hands, and setting up students to share work from small groups to the whole class are all useful and we’ve used them in our professional development across settings to great success.</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>What are the benefits of a shared inquiry classroom? </b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These classrooms empowered students to learn from another and respond to one another. They helped students deepen their thinking, take risks, and have ownership over their learning. This is quite a wonderful thing to witness in a mathematics classroom. Stereotypical images show stressed out students sitting in desks listening to lectures. In contrast, these classrooms had students engaged with each other and learning from each other.</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Why might pairs work better than larger group sizes? Other implications for using groups?</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My early research work focused on peer feedback </span><a href="https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?wNMzt3" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Reinholz, 2015, 2016)</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In particular, I had pairs of students provide feedback on in-progress solutions to homework problems, which they later had a chance to revise and turn in. I’m a strong proponent of partner work because it provides more equitable opportunities for students to participate. Because there are two students, in most cases, both of them are able to take turns and share their ideas. In larger groups, group dynamics can take over and one or two students dominate the conversation. Larger groups can also work well when they are set up properly, but they definitely need more support to provide equitable learning opportunities. Variety is a spice of life, and it makes our teaching better too. A variety of different modalities can give students a lot of different ways to learn and engage.</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>What an instructor says when visiting groups matters (e.g. “Show me what you tried…”) In your prior work, how instructors prompted students that positively or negative affected women and non-binary students?</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this study we were focused on coding whole-class contributions, so we can’t speak to what happened in small groups. However, in prior work we have observed gendered interactions in small groups </span><a href="https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?GhaUZC" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Ernest et al., 2019)</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. What we find there is that a lot goes on behind the scenes that instructors aren’t always aware of, and some of it can be very sexist and problematic. As instructors, the ways that we interact with students both explicitly (e.g., community building and norm setting to disrupt oppressive ideas) and implicitly (e.g., valuing student contributions, seeing student strengths rather than criticizing them) can help move away from that type of environment. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most importantly, our work showed that women and non-binary students tended to participate more in the small groups and less in whole-class discussions, if there was an overarching masculinized environment in the classroom. As instructors, we should be listening to the interesting things our students are saying in small groups, and helping support them to successfully share them publicly (e.g., “Kayla, that was a really interesting observation about the group axioms. Can you share that with the class when we come back together? I think it’s really important for them to hear your insight.”). Using statements like this, we can help get minoritized students into the whole-class discussion in a way that showcases their brilliance. Although the studies I’m focusing on here attend to gender, we’ve found similar results for race in other settings.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>We know there is quite a strong literature in support of active learning from the past several decades. How might this paper or a paper like this be misinterpreted or used for misinformation?</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To be clear, our main finding was that </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">overall</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> students learned more in the active learning classrooms when compared to lecture. However, because men disproportionately took up the learning opportunities made available in class (leaving less opportunities for women), they benefited even more from the inquiry teaching. To say it again – on the whole students learned more in the active classes. This work doesn’t provide any evidence in favor of pure lecture. Of course, we all use direct instruction at times, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but students also benefit when they have chances to try problems, talk to their peers, and so forth. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think it is pretty easy for someone to take this paper as evidence that active learning is problematic, but that would be a misinterpretation. More accurately, I would argue that this paper shows how we need to be intentional about creating equitable learning environments, so that </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">all</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of our students are able to benefit from the rich learning opportunities available in our inquiry-oriented and inquiry-based classrooms. We shouldn’t assume that it will happen automatically. The very same inequities that exist in society tend to reproduce themselves in our classrooms, unless we explicitly disrupt them.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>One challenge for many instructors is using an equity lens during the planning phase of teaching. When instructors plan, it’s mostly thinking about the content and how to organize activities in class. False cultural frames, implicit bias, and other factors are not usually considered intentionally. What are some specific areas where instructors can use an equity lens with intent and hopefully good outcomes?</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the last eight years I’ve had a laser focus on classroom participation. Having observed hundreds of math classrooms (and other disciplines too), essentially every classroom that I’ve observed has some sort of inequity </span><a href="https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?tAOS1Z" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(e.g., Reinholz & Wilhelm, 2022)</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. These inequities are exactly what you would predict based on gender and racial stereotypes in mathematics. Typically, classrooms have 1-2 dominant students from dominant groups (often white men), who will take up a large proportion of the conversational space, and not allow for other students to participate as well. Knowing this, instructors should be intentionally planning how they are going to support women, non-binary folx, racially minoritized students, disabled students, and so forth. Strategies for controlling the flow of discussions and who gets to participate (like the ones I described above), can go a long way to disrupting long standing inequities in our society that manifest in our math classrooms. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another area that instructors don’t often think about is access. In mathematics, we assume that there is a single, best way to communicate (through formal mathematical proof), and we look down upon other ways of expression (through our bodies, or drawings, or more informal language). However, students bring a wealth of lived experiences and cultural resources that we can draw upon to help them understand math better. One way to approach this is by opening up conversations around access. Rather than creating a rigid classroom structure, ask students what they need to do their best work. Rather than only allowing one way to complete an assignment, give students a wide variety of options to engage and express their learning.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve recently written an article about creating access in the classroom that I’d love to share with the community </span><a href="https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?vXyb40" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Reinholz & Ridgway, 2021)</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Currently, I’m working on two books that describe both mathematics teaching strategies and the EQUIP method in detail. Stay tuned, and I’ll be excited to share these resources with our community.</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Any other advice for instructors?</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have a few pieces of advice. First, don’t try to do it alone. There are so many incredible mathematicians and </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">non-mathematicians</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> doing really fantastic work, and we should learn from each other. Most of what I know about effective and equitable teaching has come from watching others do it and learning from them. You could create a learning community with peers. Most important, there’s a lot to learn from our colleagues outside of mathematics. Even though they are working in different disciplines, they have a wide variety of strategies and teaching methods that we might not think to use because they are not as common in math, but they are actually very effective.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Second, there’s so much information out there–from the Academy of Inquiry Based Learning, The MAA Instructional Practices guide, research articles, and so forth–that we’re in a really great place to learn more. When I work with instructors, I don’t recommend trying to change too much at once. I usually have folks work on about one new practice every month, so that they can get used to using it, incorporate it into their teaching, and learn how to do it effectively. If you change everything at once, it probably won’t work very well, and it’s easy to conclude that the new strategies aren’t effective (even though that’s not true). Slow and steady is best from my view.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Third, have fun! Getting to know our students, building relationships, and having fun is the foundation for building a happy, productive, exciting, and equitable classroom. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Resources</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.maa.org/programs-and-communities/curriculum%20resources/instructional-practices-guide" target="_blank">MAA Instructional Practices Guide</a></li><li><a href="http://www.inquirybasedlearning.org/race-equity-and-inclusion" target="_blank">AIBL Equity and Inclusion</a> page.</li><li>Future <a href="http://www.inquirybasedlearning.org/pam" target="_blank">Picture a Mathematician</a> workshops will be posted here.</li><li><a href="https://www.colorado.edu/eer/research-areas/women-science/building-gender-equity-academy" target="_blank">Building Gender Equity in the Academy</a>, Laursen and Austin.</li><li><a href="https://www.colorado.edu/eer/research-areas/women-science/advance-institutional-transformation" target="_blank">Advance Institutional Transformation</a>, Evaluation and Ethnography Research, University of Colorado Boulder.</li></ul><p></p></span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">References</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -36pt;"><a href="https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?8yIlSU" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ernest, J. B., Reinholz, D. L., & Shah, N. (2019). Hidden competence: Women’s mathematical participation in public and private classroom spaces. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Educational Studies in Mathematics</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">102</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(2), 153–172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-019-09910-w</span></span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -36pt;"><a href="https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?8yIlSU" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reinholz, D. L. (2015). Peer-Assisted Reflection: A design-based intervention for improving success in calculus. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(2), 234–267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40753-015-0005-y</span></span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -36pt;"><a href="https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?8yIlSU" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reinholz, D. L. (2016). The assessment cycle: A model for learning through peer assessment. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">41</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(2), 301–315. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1008982</span></span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -36pt;"><a href="https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?8yIlSU" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reinholz, D. L., & Ridgway, S. W. (2021). Access Needs: Centering Students and Disrupting Ableist Norms in STEM. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CBE—Life Sciences Education</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">20</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(3), es8. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-01-0017</span></span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -36pt;"><a href="https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?8yIlSU" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reinholz, D. L., & Shah, N. (2018). Equity analytics: A methodological approach for quantifying participation patterns in mathematics classroom discourse. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Journal for Research in Mathematics Education</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">49</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(2), 140–177.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reinholz, D. L., & Wilhelm, A. G. (2022). Race-gender D/Discourses in Mathematics Education: (Re)-Producing Inequitable Participation Patterns Across a Diverse, Instructionally-Advanced Urban District. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Urban Education</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859221107614</span></span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -36pt;"><br /></p></span></div>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-73282044097811609012022-06-15T13:48:00.007-04:002022-06-17T21:03:58.468-04:00The great 8 pillars of IBL teaching and grading for growth<p>It's time to connect the pillars of IBL teaching and grading for growth (alternative grading). The idea here is that these two sets of pillars go together and help provide a holistic framework of teaching. The combo is better than the individual components. Peanut butter & jelly. Peas & carrots. Mac & cheese. </p><p>IBL pillars:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Deep engagement in rich mathematics.</li><li>Frequent opportunities for students to collaborate with peers and their instructor(s).</li><li>Instructor inquiry into student thinking.</li><li>Instructor focus on equity.</li></ol><div>Alternative grading pillars:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Clearly defined standards.</li><li>Helpful feedback.</li><li>Marks indicate progress.</li><li>Reattempts without penalty.</li></ol><div>Both IBL and grading for growth are frameworks or "big tents," within which are a set of tools for each. Instructors can select tools to address the needs and challenges in their teaching context.</div><div><br /></div><div>When you are planning your next course, use the <b>great 8 pillars</b>! </div><div><br /></div><div><i>Disclaimer</i> The number of pillars can change over time. So this might be the fab five or the nine pillars someday. The number doesn't matter. The combination of IBL teaching and grading for growth is what matters.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-23979502283443970942022-06-01T12:16:00.001-04:002022-06-01T12:16:19.958-04:00Grading for growth in large classes: a first attempt<p>Here's the context. 1000 students are in first-year Linear Algebra, split into 7 lecture sections with 7 different instructors, and 14 TAs, who teach dozens of tutorials/recitations. That's a lot of people!</p><p>We started the term online due to the omicron wave in winter 2022, and then taught the second half of the term with a mix of in-person and online. At the beginning of the term, we did not know when or if we would return to in-person learning, and had to setup the course in early January with the uncertainties of the pandemic. This post focuses on the assessments for the course and some initial thoughts. </p><p><b>TL;DR</b> You can implement grading for growth even in large, coordinated courses.</p><p>Here the assessment setup:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>First a major constraint... An in-person final is mandatory and "owned" by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and has to be at least 35% of the grade. The other 65% of the grade was based on the items below. Also note that in Canada, 80% is an A-, 70% is a B-, and so on. So the weight of the final is not as immense as it would be in the U.S. In the U.S. 25% is a rough conversion.</li><li>I gave a two-part final. Part 1 tests core standards worth 25% of the course grade. Part 2 of the final had challenging problems worth 10% intended for students who want to improve their grade to an A or A+. </li><li>In lieu of midterms (which would have been online for at least one of them), students submitted 4 graded group reports. (Two additional assignments were reflective writing assignments for a total of 6 reports.) Group size was set at 2-3 students, and some groups were allowed to grow to 4 due to special circumstances (e.g. adding a student to a group). </li><li><b>Group reports</b> (30%) were submitted online (Gradescope) and the TAs and instructors graded 2 or 3 of the 4 or 5 problems. The ungraded problems were checked for completeness. Problems that were graded, were graded with a rubric for mathematical correctness and presentation. The entire assignment was out of 10 points, and written feedback was given to students.</li><li>Students could resubmit group reports at least once. For the early group assignments, we had the capacity to accept up to 3 resubmissions. The last group assignment, which was due near the end of the term, allowed us to accept one resubmission.</li><li><b>Online homework</b> (20%) was assigned on <a href="http://www.mathmatize.com" target="_blank">MathMatize</a>, and the due date for all assignments was set for the end of term. Students were allowed to redo problems as many times as needed, and were given suggested completion dates that matched the pace of the course. </li><li>Because the course was a flipped, IBL course, students were required to do <b>reading assignments</b> (15%) before class. Reading assignments were done on Perusall, where they were graded using "threshold" grading with instant feedback. If students made 3 or more comments they would get credit for the assignment. Reading assignments had a hard due date, because we expected students to read the sections before we would do activities in lectures. The 4 lowest scores were dropped, which allows students some flexibility. </li></ol><div>Lectures were centered on activities to support student learning of the core ideas. Tutorials were a mix of activities, practicing basics, and preparing students for their group reports. I won't go into further details about how classes were organized, since the focus of this post is grading for growth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Students could pass the course if they did all of groups reports, online homework, and reading assignments. Students would need to perform well enough on the final exam to earn an A or B.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Whys?</b> </div><div>I wanted to accomplish a few things. One is to reset incentives towards learning and intrinsic values. Another is to center honest, hard working students who want to learn, and reduce incentives for cheating. A third is to avoid using creepy proctoring software (where students have to ask a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/01/online-proctoring-college-exams-coronavirus/" target="_blank">proctor for permission to move if they need to vomit</a>), which also use <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/8/22374386/proctorio-racial-bias-issues-opencv-facial-detection-schools-tests-remote-learning" target="_blank">biased algorithms</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>One aspect of grading for growth that I appreciate is that the honest students, who do their own work and submit their mistakes are not penalized or behind, compared to people who lookup answers or pay for services that give them the answers. Students who make mistakes receive feedback, and grow from the process. These students appreciated being able to update their reports and fix issues. Their grades aren't being negatively affected by those who cheat. The students who cheat will learn less and be less prepared for the final, future courses, their lives, and careers. Online cheating is a reality at the University of Toronto and sadly almost everywhere, when things are setup the old way with timed, rigid, high-stakes (online) tests as the bulk of the grade. </div><div><br /></div><div>The pandemic is a major factor still (and will be next year too, imo), and impacts students and their families. The gradient of risk also skews heavily towards the more vulnerable and marginalized. Grading for growth with opportunities to resubmit work without penalty gives students more time to learn the material during the semester and crucially creates a more level playing field. If students get sick or have to deal with a family emergency, flexibility is built into the course to help students get their work done during the term. It should not matter, if a student learned something in week 8 vs. week 10. </div><div><br /></div><div>Students who don't invest in the learning will not do as well on the final exam or in their future work (or life). The final exam is one of the ways that students are held accountable during the term. More broadly, students need to learn the course material as well as learn how to learn, and the course philosophy is talked about with students. Students will need both the content knowledge and the improved thinking in their lives, and cheating/looking up answers won't help them become better and smarter. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Group reports are focused on why questions or having students explain why things work the way they do. Sample questions on group reports:</div><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><div><i>Give examples of a plane in $\mathbb{R}^3$, using vector form, normal form, and standard/cartesian form. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of each representation.</i></div><p></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The setting for this problem is $\mathbb{R}^3$. Suppose you have a plane $P$ and two vectors $\vec a$ and $\vec b$ in $P$. The task is about the general question, ``If you add two vectors in a plane, is the result still in the plane?'' More specifically, using examples, diagrams, and sentences, find characteristics of planes, $P$, such that $\vec a + \vec b \in P$. Additionally, find characteristics of planes, $P$, such that $\vec a + \vec b \notin P$.</i></p></blockquote><p></p><div><b>Some things I'd like to change</b> The reason why we have to have group reports vs. individual reports is due to TA hour limitations. Without constraints I would have students submit individual reports and have all problems graded. But that is way beyond the budget for TA time. </div><div><br /></div><div>Practically speaking, reducing the number of group reports to 2 per term could allow for individual reports, with 1 rewrite each. The pros would be that there would be more individual feedback, and less incentive for students to divvy up group report problems and focus on fewer problems. The downside of going down to 2 reports is that you have fewer topics covered and higher stakes per report. There are other options such as 3 reports done in pairs or 3 reports done individually. I'll have to sort this out this summer. One takeaway here is that there are options and tradeoffs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Reading assignments and online assignments generally work as they are intended. They focus on basic skills and fundamental concepts. The one issue that is specific to the University of Toronto is regarding Perusall and reading assignments. There are local tutoring services in Toronto that sell Perusall comments that customers can copy-paste into the system. Some of these get flagged as "plagiarism" by the Perusall system, but students can make slight edits and work around the issue. One way to get around this is to switch to reflective writing assignments submitted via Canvas and grade these for completeness. </div><div><br /></div><div>Tweaking the final into more sections to make clear what the standards are and what students are expected to know for the final is another area that will be worked on. One idea is to have three parts to the final with specific themes. </div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Part 1: 10% of course grade is based on core skills (e.g. computing determinants, determining if a set of vectors is linearly independent.)</li><li>Part 2: 10% of course grade on demonstrating conceptual understanding of core concepts (e.g. answering concept questions via short answer or sentences.)</li><li>Part 3: 15% of course grade on applying ideas and skills to solve more challenging problems. (Prove why a given matrix is/is not diagonalizable.)</li></ol><div>Students will be given a final exam guide with the details, sample problems, and a list of standards that will be covered on the exam. Students who do all the term work would go into the final with 65% of their course grade in hand (or a course grade equal to a C). Getting 80% of parts 1 and 2, will net 16% or a total score of 81% in the course, which is an A-. Students who want an A or A+ will need to solve some or all of the Part 3 problems (or get 100% on parts 1 and 2 to get an A).</div><div><br /></div><div>Setting aside the details of the scheme above, the main takeaway is that instructors can set percentages for the term work and final exam parts in ways to fit the assumptions and values of their institution. What I did was try my best to think of something that would work and then I'll adjust as I learn and get feedback. </div><div><br /></div></div><div><b>Places to start</b> A couple easy places to start with grading for growth is to make homework online with infinite attempts (WebWork, MathMatize, or whatever is bundled with your textbook) and setting up a standards-based final exam using. I am unable to implement a standards-based (formerly called mastery-based) final at UofT due to policy restrictions. </div><div><br /></div><div>With standards-based finals what I did in the past is to write a Part 1 of the final with the core standards, where students need to earn 90% on it in order to keep their grade going into the final OR earn a C- (if the incoming grade is below a C-). Students scoring less than 90% on Part 1 could have their grade go down on a sliding scale up to a whole letter grade. Part 1 has core standards, such as basic skills and computations. The theme of Part 1 is "If you pass this class with a C-, you should know these things." (What is on Part 1 needs to be transparent to students with ample opportunities to practice.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Part 2 of a standards-based final are challenging problems that are opportunities for students to demonstrate that they learned the material deeply and can raise their grade up to an A. Part 2 problems can be proofs, explanations, or more challenging problem-solving questions. </div><div><br /></div><div>Again I could not implement this due to policy constraints, but standards-based finals are a way to start without having to change everything. Keeping all the other parts the same, and using a standards-based final is a reasonable starting place. Once you get that down, then you can move onto other parts of the assessment scheme.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>Final thoughts</b> I used grading for growth in small classes (enrollment 25-35) for many years, so the idea wasn't new to me. Transitioning to coordinating large courses meant focusing on things like group reports, a "tiered" final exam, and then thinking about how to make things work within the TA hours constraints. The smaller the class, the more options you have. </div><div><br /></div><div>One advantage of having a TA hours budget is that you have to think about what would work without spending all your time on grading. It's not ideal or "excellent," whatever that means, but it's better. And better is good. More TA hours would also be good :) </div><div><br /></div><div>If you are teaching a small course and have no TAs, one idea is to think of your own budget in time. Set aside a number of hours you would spend marking per week or per term, and then figure out what could work in that time budget. </div><div><br /></div><div>I know that for many it is big step to use alternative grading, but there are major benefits to switching that needs to be emphasized again and again. <i>When you align assessment with learning and implement IBL or active learning, it's a much better experience for students and makes the entire course more aligned with the goals of education. It brings us closer to our vision of humanistic math education. </i>Thus, it is worth the effort to go down this route.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Resource</b> Check out the <a href="https://college-bridge.org/our-services/conferences/the-grading-conferences/" target="_blank">Grading Conference group</a>, their slack channel, and work with a community of educators working on this grading for growth. They are a fun, friendly group, and will help you get started. </div><div><br /></div><p></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-84708096293304164562022-05-05T13:50:00.000-04:002022-05-05T13:50:12.450-04:00Dual delivery: teaching in-person and online for equity and access for students with disabilities, marginalized studentsDual-delivery teaching is the idea of teaching in-person and online at the same time. It's also called hyflex or hybrid teaching, and I am not sure how these are defined by others. In this post, I outline why I chose to teach dual-delivery everyday for this past academic year, and why I think this is an important way forward as we continue to deal with the pandemic and ultimately provide better support for students with disabilities and students at higher risk. I also share my tech setup and some of experiences from this past year.<div><br /></div><div><div><b>Context</b> I teach large lecture sections of 150-200 students, with TAs, access to Zoom and Zoom cloud storage, and being able to buy the necessary gear. I teach at the University of Toronto, a large, urban, public research institution. I am an able-bodied person with not health conditions, and my perspectives are as an ally. <div><div><br /></div><div><b>Why should we still offer some form of online option?</b> The gradient of risk skews disproportionately towards poorer, marginalized, black, brown, indigenous, and disable people. What this means is that they have to manage more risk and can suffer worse outcomes due to a range of factors, many of which are consequences of an unequal society that existed before the pandemic. </div><div><br /></div><div>Consider the case where a student is vulnerable or lives with someone who is vulnerable. Considers the multiple layers of students who come from marginalized communities, take mass transit, lack access to good healthcare, sick leave, and options to work from home. Additionally, when students get sick and need to isolate, they need access to the course. While these are just a handful of examples, the general point we can draw is that risks and consequences are not equally shared by our students. Marginalized, racialized, disabled student bear much more of the risks and consequences of the pandemic. </div></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Some politicians and administrators framed returning to in-person learning using the false binary of (A) in-person = good for mental health vs. (B) virtual learning = bad for mental health. In reality we live in a much more diverse and complex world. Some students are concerned about their health, and being forced to return to in-person classes is a source of anxiety. Hence, society has a wide spectrum of people and needs, and false dichotomies are by nature unequal, not inclusive, and can contribute to codifying systemic inequities.</div><div><br /></div><div>If we take a step back and think about teaching over the past several decades, we have not given much attention to people with disabilities to our shame. The pandemic exposed this clearly. We don't do nearly enough for students with disabilities. And as people get tired of the pandemic and rush back to in-person only learning, we also eliminated online access in most cases, leaving marginalized students behind yet again. Many institutions chose in person only, and if students can't make or miss class, then the message was for them to "get the notes from a classmate," as if nothing happened between 2020 and today. </div><div><br /></div><div>But the thing is, we know how to do it better. We learned during this pandemic how to teach online, and provide more access and more support for disabled and marginalized students. Offering students online options provides more ways for students to manage their risk and get an education.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>My current tech set-up and typical day</b> </div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>iPad, apple pencil, laptop, Rode Wireless Go mic.</li><li>Teach class from the physical classroom, and start a zoom meeting.</li><li>Zoom screen share iPad, connected via cable (for quality and reliability).</li><li>Project computer screen in class via HDMI, so students in class see the iPad screen.</li><li>Use a mic setup that allows students in-class and online to hear you (necessary for large lecture halls, not necessary for smaller classes.)</li><li>Class is taught using Notability (PDF annotation app) used as a virtual whiteboard with prepared handouts and google slides.</li><li>Record class meetings to Zoom cloud, post to Canvas with PDF notes from class.</li></ol><div>A typical day is similar to what I'd normally do. I have activities planned that switch between students working in pairs and whole class discussion. With the zoom option open, student can join breakout rooms or depending on the attendance, stay in a whole group discussion online. The teaching experience is broadly the same, but there are differences. </div><div><br /></div></div><div>I visit in-person students as I would normally. I go around the room and check in on a subset of groups as move around the class to different locations each time. I use this to guide the timing and to seek out questions or topics we need to make public.</div><div><br /></div><div>For zoom students, I tried a couple of different things, depending on whether I had a TA in the lectures (AKA lecture TA). When I had a lecture TA, I would have the lecture TA manage the zoom discussions. In my opinion, this is the best option. It's hard to manage the zoom discussions and in-person discussions (for me and my context of large classes). Having a TA dedicated to working with the online students worked best, and it's what I recommend if possible.</div><div><br /></div><div>In some of my classes, I did not have a lecture TA, and in that situation, I am not be able to monitor the zoom class as much. I did try having students work in breakout rooms, via selecting their own group or assigning students to groups randomly. Some groups worked on the problems, and other groups were less active. My sense is that for each class of students there may be different levels of participation depending on the specific people in the class, and there isn't a single strategy that works for all situations. My approach is to go in with a strategy to encourage student engagement, and select from a list of strategies to see what works. As I get more experience, I may be able to say more and find ways to refine my teaching so that I can check in on the zoom students more frequently. </div><div><br /></div><div>One advantage for students on Zoom is chat. Chat is the most used feature and I engage with students in class on Zoom via chat. The chats would range from welcoming students at the start of class, asking 3-2-1-go questions, soliciting responses to math questions, and answering questions. When I give the class a task to work on, I use part of that time to check on the chat, switching between chat and visiting students in class. <span><span></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Padlet/Google doc is one way to help students in both groups to share in a single space. I have had mixed success with this. Moving to an app on a phone or switching to another browser is an extra step. That extra step is enough to see a drop in participation. Instructions have to be clear and direct, where we ask each group (pair) to share their thinking. (One idea I may try in the future, is to ask students in-person to have one group member join the zoom meeting with video off, in order for the group to access the class chat. Another suggestion I learned about is to use Discord/Slack during class, but that also requires using another app.)</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>Why post a recording?</b> Some students truly benefit from a recording, particularly some students with disabilities. Recordings allow students to stop/start/review the video enabling them to to stay focused on the content, see the live transcript, etc., where they might otherwise get lost in a live class. This is the main reason to post recordings. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>There are other reasons to post recordings. If you teach a multi-section course, perhaps only one of the classes needs to be taught in dual-delivery mode. For example, some instructors may not have the skills yet to teach via active learning and dual delivery, and the recording can be used by students from any section. Sometimes students need to revisit an idea or want to review, and having a recording is helpful in these cases. Students who get sick may not feel well enough to join synchronously, and having options for catching up. I am sure there are more reasons, and this is merely a list from my experience.</div><div><br /></div><div>The most common reason I have heard against posting recordings stems from a deficit mindset. The reasoning is more or less boils down to concerns that some students will become lazy and not attend class, if a zoom recording is available. Therefore, their reasoning is to not offer class recordings in order to force students to attend class. But let's be clear. The needs of students with disabilities should always take priority over something like attendance policies. One of my former students said it best.</div><blockquote><div><i>"Accessibility should never be a bargaining chip or an afterthought. It's about making something that isn't possible for someone possible, and that's not nothing for people who are disabled—it's absolutely everything, it's the whole wide world."</i> - anonymous student, University of Toronto</div></blockquote><div><b>What's hard about dual delivery? </b>It's more work, and involves a lot of juggling. Ideally, instructors should be provided with enough TAs/learning assistants to manage the in-person and online activities. If you have small classes, then it is more doable without TA help. For larger classes, having extra help makes a bigger difference.</div><div><br /></div><div>I did teach a large class (enrollment 140) in dual delivery without any TA support in lectures. It's not easy, and you have to make choices with how you use your time. What this meant in practice is that I did not have the time or resources to check on the zoom breakout rooms often. I primarily used chat to communicate with the online students, but was not able to manage group dynamics regularly. During group work time, I would visit students working in pairs in the in-person portion of class, and the timing of in-person group work tends to go faster than online groups, which is another factor to consider. One way to mitigate all this is to be sure that students knowhow class is structured, and they could still ask questions via chat or take their questions to their weekly 2-hour tutorial/recitation section or office hours.</div><div><br /></div><div>Students are nearly universally understanding. In most of their courses, they do not have an online option. Thus, the existence of something and knowing that you are trying your best with the time and resources you have is well-received. The point here is that students understand when resources are limited, and offering something and knowing you are doing your best is appreciated, even if it is not ideal. </div><div><br /></div><div>The big institutional limitation is lack of support for the extra work this takes at the present time. There exists solutions to helping a broader range of students in all our classes that can be implemented now. Institutions should provide the TA/LA hours, the gear, and any necessary training and support for more instructors to do this effectively. It's something I will be advocating for going forward so that dual delivery will become more widespread.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Technical stuff</b> Audio is the biggest tech challenge, especially if you need to be mic'd up for a large lecture hall. The fix is to either use two mics, or to use a line splitter. I chose the latter. </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Rode Wireless Go transmitter on my shirt sends the audio signal to the receiver.</li><li>The receiver sends the audio signal to a line splitter. You then need two more cables to connect one line to the AV system in the classroom and another line to your computer. (The cable to my computer requires a TRS to TRRS adapter.) </li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcCh80o00sykC_bkn8Hi5B35TfvaCSZg0PnC5FsBw2ZuZuEK5zCwnRTvG4Y1VrQCsLHhbv0dIc9yJ6Nq40vJsuv-E2x-mtPw3duksmFmc6tOPIr98DZsn6eJg5NOcRQVf0QT2xWLT-0vSY2_-IJhIw-JSoAWb9ubwsL1c7Eg2lv4ran4V30vG-ffEQ/s866/splitter.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="854" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcCh80o00sykC_bkn8Hi5B35TfvaCSZg0PnC5FsBw2ZuZuEK5zCwnRTvG4Y1VrQCsLHhbv0dIc9yJ6Nq40vJsuv-E2x-mtPw3duksmFmc6tOPIr98DZsn6eJg5NOcRQVf0QT2xWLT-0vSY2_-IJhIw-JSoAWb9ubwsL1c7Eg2lv4ran4V30vG-ffEQ/w198-h200/splitter.png" width="198" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Good audio makes a big difference for video or zoom, so I suggest investing in a lavalier mic or wireless lavalier mic system. When audio is poor quality it can make the videos much harder to learn from. </li></ul><div>Technical setup time is about 5 minutes to get the AV system on, mics on, iPad and zoom meeting up and running and then all the window management that comes with zoom. With repetition it gets easier, but it's a lot of setup time and you do have to double check each day that you have all your gear ready, batteries charged up. It's a production I repeated for each and every class meeting this year. </div><div><br /></div><div>I should note that there are other ways to setup your tech. What I described is a bit ad doc, based largely on the equipment I already had and what I am familiar with. If you try something like this, your tech setup might look different.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Assessment</b> Another piece I'll only mention briefly is standards-based grading. This topic deserves its own blog post. What I'll share is that equity and accessibility also intersects with assessment, and having flexible due dates and opportunities to resubmit work is another piece of the approach I am using. Given the turmoil of going to college during a pandemic, students getting sick, etc., having a flexible assessment system keeps more students moving forward in their education. I didn't have to deal with tons of emails about needing extensions or petitions for missed midterms, etc. The assessment system was designed so that students were encouraged to learn, get feedback, and continue learning. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Summary </b>Now that we have the tech, skills, and experience, more of us can move forward with reaching and supporting a wider spectrum of our students. It's more work, and it'll require some training and investment from our institutions to help us manage an appropriate workload and do it well. The big benefit will be in creating a more humanistic educational experience for a wider range of students. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Dual Delivery + Active Learning + Standards Based Grading + Humanity</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The pandemic is not over yet. No matter how badly we want it to be over, it's not over, especially and particularly for marginalized people. In fact, with the way public health measures have suddenly disappeared this year, at-risk people are possibly in a more dangerous time now than in 2020. Further many student needs (students with disabilities) will continue to exist even after the pandemic is in the past. Thus, providing dual delivery gives students the freedom to manage their risks and make decisions that work for them. Rather than going with a one-size-fits-the-able-bodied students as some of us are being encouraged to subscribe to, we can instead use what we learned to show grace, kindness, empathy, and humanity and teach <i>all</i> our students. </div></div></div>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-69810547207815559322021-10-02T09:32:00.002-04:002021-10-02T09:32:39.600-04:00Resources for Professional Developers (short post)<p><i>Note: I've been backlogged for a few months from moving and starting at a new job. More posts on IBL topics coming. </i></p><p>Last August, I gave the Leitzel Lecture at MAA MathFest. In that talk, I shared some resources for professional developers. Here's a <a href="http://www.inquirybasedlearning.org/resourcespd" target="_blank">link to a webpage on the AIBL site</a> with a range of resources.</p><p>Some items you find are:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>N things to consider when facilitating a workshop</li><li>AIBL Handbook for Online Professional Development: Lessons Learned from PRODUCT Workshops</li><li>AIBL Workshop Modules for course coordinators running department-level workshops on IBL</li><li>Self-paced course on Race in America</li><li>Links to blog posts on equity and inclusion</li><li>Explainers and evaluation reports for about what IBL workshops are and evidence about their effectiveness. </li></ul><div><br /></div><p></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-46895134752448744472021-04-03T13:08:00.002-04:002021-04-03T13:08:22.345-04:00Umami and Teaching: "Feeling Closer to the Teacher of My Vision"<p>Umami is a Japanese term from the culinary world described as meaty, savory deliciousness that deepens flavor (<a href="https://www.ajinomoto.com/aboutus/umami/5-facts" target="_blank">Link</a>). Umami as an idea has other forms. For example, umami can also be the first sip of coffee in the morning. Ahhh! Or it can be taking a refreshing hot shower after a long hike on a warm summer day. Ahhh!</p><p>We usually talk about IBL teaching in terms of benefits to students, the key features, or the nuances of how to implement it well. What faculty gain is talked about less, and is often overlooked. For many of us teaching is a calling, and it's not only because we love our subjects. The enjoyment of teaching is in meaningful human interactions, students and instructors working together towards to learn, discover, and grow as humans. </p><p>One of the big reasons why instructors should use IBL methods is because it's <i>enjoyable and fulfilling</i> for instructors. A centerpiece of IBL teaching is building community, and when students and instructors work as a team, then the magic happens. Enabling the dreams of students and transforming their lives is a great thought to wake up to in the morning. That's a form of umami within the grasp of every teacher.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/eer/" target="_blank">evaluation team</a> (Sandra Laursen, Devan Daly, Tim Archie, Chuck Hayward) for the NSF PRODUCT asked participants, <b>what did you gain personally from employing IBL methods? </b>Below are a some responses from participants about umami and teaching. Enjoy!</p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><p><i>“I personally enjoy going to class more each day. When lecturing I sometimes found myself dragging myself to the classroom with particularly challenging groups. In IBL classrooms, I am generally excited to see what my students will do each day.” </i></p><p><i>“Teaching using IBL methods keeps me excited about teaching, helps me see things from different angles and I learn new things from students all the time.” </i></p><p><i>“When I can do it, I feel really proud and energized--feel closer to the teacher of my vision.” </i></p><p><i>“I feel that the IBL workshop helped me adapt my pedagogy in small ways to try to create equity and make my students feel that this was their classroom and that I believed in them unconditionally. I held those beliefs prior to the workshop, but the workshop opened my creative thinking to all the ways I could adapt small (and large) behaviors to support my goals.”</i></p><p><i>“I enjoyed my time in class more, was able to interact more with the students and develop deeper relationships with each.” </i></p><p><i>“I've learned more about the material than I thought I had left to know.” </i></p><p><i>“I found it much more enjoyable designing a course around IBL methods, and implementing these methods in my classroom. There's only so much you can do with a lecture, and it becomes boring after a while. It was exciting when students surprised me with the answers, both correct and incorrect.” </i></p><p><i>“I enjoy teaching more, and find my work has much more value. I'm not just teaching students calculus, I'm changing what they think mathematics is and their views of themselves and their own view of their ability to do mathematics.” </i></p><p><i>“It was a lot of fun! It felt like my students and I were working together and that they were like mathematicians in training/apprenticeships.” </i></p></blockquote><p><i></i></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-69296472051590456492021-03-01T19:56:00.000-05:002021-06-01T02:40:41.034-04:00The case for virtual conferences and workshops post pandemic<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhwyG6xulnzKTEayKuPEsB4pmbQvB39uA8EEZbuNgtxCg3aD-kXZBr-HEtGvWtl1IzocSN7HIvShws5IXuWnbXZlGI04pEfRCaJAxHFKtVT1gAFboolrXNHIhwHd7EX66KHvHOYqSg-qs/s2048/Climate.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhwyG6xulnzKTEayKuPEsB4pmbQvB39uA8EEZbuNgtxCg3aD-kXZBr-HEtGvWtl1IzocSN7HIvShws5IXuWnbXZlGI04pEfRCaJAxHFKtVT1gAFboolrXNHIhwHd7EX66KHvHOYqSg-qs/w640-h426/Climate.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt;">The future is not written. We can secure the prosperity of future generations through our actions today. We can make choices that determine how we ultimately manage the climate and human climate crises, AKA the twin crises, of our time. We need both policy and individual actions to address these crises, and while individual actions are small in terms of contributions to the CO2 footprint, changing norms and influencing the policy requires individuals to take part in the process by raising awareness. We influence the people in our circles. </span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b11fb168-7fff-c154-24cc-799788a3a0cf"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everyone wants to see friends, family, and colleagues in person and enjoy activities we can do together. Conference travel has taken me to places I wouldn’t have traveled to otherwise, and I have been able to meet new people and learn new ideas via work-related travel. No one wants to travel more than I do, and I understand how going virtual impacts people. </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcuf_YEcvHFmPZDd3q3uO-Rqzq-w7xKcTK3Tw-Wo_G2jmvM8XVRcDdEfMRY-1nQQaD6xO1qpuMsHWmQ9T7hfES6Kd0XSfkNBF6PJ_-tLF6V7Mh7-oRQAH4NiS21JXzGcDrOQGRF8xiV1M/s2048/Warming+Stripes.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1583" data-original-width="2048" height="494" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcuf_YEcvHFmPZDd3q3uO-Rqzq-w7xKcTK3Tw-Wo_G2jmvM8XVRcDdEfMRY-1nQQaD6xO1qpuMsHWmQ9T7hfES6Kd0XSfkNBF6PJ_-tLF6V7Mh7-oRQAH4NiS21JXzGcDrOQGRF8xiV1M/w640-h494/Warming+Stripes.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warming_stripes</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But my thinking has drastically changed the past few years, and now I’ve come to the conclusion, where I strongly believe we need to do things differently in higher education. We should plan virtual meetings and conferences post pandemic as the default (with allowances for regional hubs). More and more faculty are concerned about our role in the climate crisis, and some believe we should do our part to reduce our carbon footprint and set an example for other sectors of society. My individual actions are tiny compared to what professional societies and institutions can do, and purchasing an electric car or reducing my air travel is minuscule in relation to what the math profession or the larger education sector contributes. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How much CO2? For one of the 2019 IBL workshops offered by AIBL, the total flight miles was about 90,000 miles traveled by just 33 participants and facilitators. These flights created about </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">24 tonnes of CO2, and does not include airport transfers, conference room service, and if family or significant others also traveled. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conferences create orders of magnitude more carbon footprint than a single, small workshop. One large example is the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). “Take the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) — the world’s largest Earth- and space-science conference — held in San Francisco, California, last December. We calculate that its 28,000 delegates travelled 285 million kilometres there and back — almost twice the distance between Earth and the Sun. In doing so, they emitted the equivalent of about 80,000 tonnes of CO2 (tCO2e).” (</span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02057-2" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Link</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). The Joint Math Meetings or MathFest are much smaller, yet still could account for thousands of tonnes of CO2. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think most people understand generally why this matters. David Wallace-Wells wrote about some terrifying studies in his book, “The Uninhabitable Earth.” Half of all CO2 emitted in history has been during the last 30 years. In one study just the difference between 1.5C and 2.0C and only looking at air pollution (and not other factors) results in an estimated 153 +/- 43 million deaths. This is unconscionable, especially given that poorer, developing regions and BIPOC communities will bear the greatest burden, and they have contributed far less to the crisis (</span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0108-y" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Link to cited article</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). Not only is climate the largest problem we have faced, it is also the largest social justice problem we have ever faced. What scientists have learned is that we are on the path past +2C, and that climate change is a dial, not a binary on-off switch. The less carbon we emit, the less suffering there will be, and humans control how far we turn this dial. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e286drjBZ-w" width="320" youtube-src-id="e286drjBZ-w"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another major reason why I believe in the value and promise of virtual options is </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">equity</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. There are a handful of groups of people that often are not able to participate in professional development workshops or travel to conferences. These are people with small children or other people in their care, people with health issues or disabilities that prevent them from traveling, non-tenure track faculty, and instructors who do not have access to travel funding, who often work at 2-year colleges and regional institutions. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even before the pandemic, people in these categories were not able to travel to conferences or workshops. For those who have been able to travel in the past for work and are looking forward to doing it again, imagine all the people working in our profession who have not had such opportunities. During the pandemic some of them were able to attend virtual JMM or a virtual IBL workshop, and if things open back to the way they were, these groups will once again be locked out. Even if we had the technology to create zero-carbon air travel, equity will persist as an issue. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One overlooked consequence of going back to 2019 is that it puts the onus on individuals to try and navigate systemic issues. Individuals would have to choose between the climate or attending a conference to advance their careers. Some individuals will not be able to attend, and all they can do it email the organizers, if there will be remote participation options. This is one way systems perpetuate social problems, and hence it is the responsibility of professional societies and institutions of higher ed to work on these issues and develop systemic solutions to system induced, contributed, or created problems. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One aspect of addressing the climate and equity crises is the essential role of policy. In our small corner of the world of math associations, policies could be crafted that help us do better in both reduction of our carbon footprint and increasing access for all people in the math profession. Otherwise, we will continue to add to climate problems and maintain social inequities.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Biennials, regional hubs and virtual attendance can significantly reduce emissions (</span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02057-2" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Link</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). Carbon offsets can be purchased to mitigate absolutely necessary travel (and could be built into the cost of registration fees. I personally use <a href="https://native.eco" target="_blank">Native Energy</a>). I We can also develop virtual events during conferences and workshops to include activities for informal community building, recreating some of the valuable informal time at in-person conferences. We can innovate how we organize these sessions and utilize technology to make these experiences check all the boxes. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One oversimplified mental exercise is to ask, "Would I rather spend part of our carbon budget on work travel or on visiting family once a year?" This is not a real choice. It's an exercise in engaging in defining priorities and attempting to connect to our values.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a profession we say we care about climate and equity, and if we go back to the way things were in 2019 after the pandemic, then it’s tantamount to looking the other way. Looking the other way normalizes human suffering and inequities, which is exactly the opposite of the collectivist values needed to pull us together to deal sufficiently with the twin crises of our time. So let’s not look the other way and languish in complacency, because we need a more empathic, active response. Let’s look forward and think creatively to recreate better and more inclusive ways to meet and do our work. </span></p></span></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-42024374352569155022021-02-26T18:03:00.000-05:002021-02-26T18:03:56.284-05:00IBL Rhythm Changes (IBL-Jazz Analogy)<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm_changes" target="_blank">Rhythm Changes</a> is a common 32-bar chord progression in jazz, originating as the chord progression for George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M-cej-5dkc0" width="320" youtube-src-id="M-cej-5dkc0"></iframe></div><p>Jazz is a useful analogy to some aspects of IBL teaching. You have your big goals and plans for what to do in class, and as the teacher you are the holder of the vision for the course. But what happens in class depends on the people there. Two sections of the same course can often be different on a day-to-day basis. What an instructor does depends on what happened the class before, and being able to "improvise" in the moment to take advantage of what students are saying and doing. That is, be open and able to dance with the spirit. </p><p>The word improvisation sometimes has the connotation that things are just made up on the spot. That's not the case in Jazz improvisation or teaching, and we can unpack what improvisation means. In Jazz improvisation is a studied, practiced, musical art form. Improvisation is within a context, a set chord progression, and there are standard practices and key notes. From these "ingredients" comes the creative artistic part, which I cannot explain and merely enjoy as a fan of Jazz. </p><p>The connection to teaching is that we have our plans for the days and weeks of the course. What happens in a lesson or a specific activity depends on what students do and where they are at. This is where teaching improvisation (or flexibility) comes in. Depending on what a student says, we adapt to maximize the learning opportunities present. Mistakes, half starts, full solutions, alternative takes, are all valued discoveries and items for discussion. The students respond to the teacher, and the teacher adapts to the students. The whole group tries to do math and create learning.</p><p><i><span> </span>"In music, silence is more important than sound." - Miles Davis</i></p><p>We can teach using silence, and teaching using silence can mean several different things. One is to ensure students have time to think for themselves. Another is to let students to discuss with one another, where the teacher is not talking and instead listening to student thinking. A third meaning of teaching with silence is letting problems do the talking. This is when a rich task has the imbedded learning through engagement in the problem-solving process. Rather than the teacher explaining it all, the process of working through a problem can be a way knowledge and skills are learned.</p><p>Silence can go too far, of course. A song with 3 minutes of pure silence isn't music. I'm arguing for a balance of saying enough to keep things going or set the stage, but not too much that I'm doing all the playing and students are sitting on the side. </p><p>So what about our detailed plans? Miles Davis might say, "So what." Plans are preparation, and we should expect to be flexible and present in the moment. Plans are the practice, the setup, the choices about what we're working on, and how we're going to work together. If things go well, our students have the time and space to comp and solo in class, and we learn to work together as an ensemble be more creative, thoughtful, and respectful.</p><p>IBL is like Jazz, and one of our jobs as teachers is to be prepared for rhythm changes.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ylXk1LBvIqU" width="320" youtube-src-id="ylXk1LBvIqU"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-26427575459760566652021-01-28T10:12:00.002-05:002021-01-29T19:25:14.933-05:00IBL Workshops Work! Validating Our Theory of Change with the Theory of Planned Behavior (Preliminary)<p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This blog post is co-written with Dr. Tim Archie, CU Boulder, Ethnography and Evaluation Research, </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tim.Archie@Colorado.EDU,</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and this is work done by him and Dr. Sandra Laursen, Devan Daly, Chuck Hayward, CU Boulder. </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">This effort is funded by collaborative NSF grants </span><a href="https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1525077&HistoricalAwards=false" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">DUE-1525077</a><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1525058" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">DUE 1525058</a><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c236f309-7fff-6ead-20c9-d9e9f21b0cfc" style="font-style: normal; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“A lever is a simple machine used to move an object at one location by applying a force somewhere else. When we try something and see that it is working, we have gained leverage on the problem.” -Levers for Change, AAAS </span><a href="https://www.aaas.org/resources/levers-change-assessment-progress-changing-stem-instruction" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Link</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-901dac88-7fff-b5dd-4b9a-77c80fd3bb4e"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this piece, we look at one of the key levers for change, professional development workshops in higher education. We'll start with our theory of change, and then share results from our research team. Specifically the data is based on participants, who attended intensive 4-day IBL workshops. These workshops provided intensive training to more than 500 college math instructors, impacting hundreds of courses and thousands of students per year. Peer-reviewed articles will be published separately, and if you have questions about technical aspects of this work, please contact Tim. In this piece, we focus on the </span><i style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">broad story about how professional development can change instructor behavior in </i><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>the</i></span><i style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> classroom</i><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></span></p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-4417d360-7fff-51ed-7c50-6808d4a3cd56"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Our Theory of Change</b> </span></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is that instructors need </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">professional development</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to make the switch from passive instructional methods to creating active, student-centered, inquiry-based learning environments. This professional development must address </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">instructors’ knowledge and skills</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to carry out IBL in their own classrooms, but also their beliefs about instruction, and must mesh with their own identities as teachers and understanding of their own students and teaching contexts. Achieving substantive change in teaching can be addressed via intensive summer workshops that provide these resources and a strong, steady support system that follows each instructor through the evolution of their professional career. Yet we also need to find ways to build the pipeline of instructors who are aware of and receptive to IBL methods. To widely offer these varied forms of professional development will require a larger, more flexible group of skilled professional developers than is now available. Building capacity to design and deliver effective professional development is necessary for increasing uptake in college mathematics.</span></p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-983fe827-7fff-7a02-3d82-d339c2d230a5"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">College math instructors are not fully trained in teaching. We may receive some training as TAs, and then we are off to start our teaching careers. Active, student-centered teaching methods, such as IBL, require skills and practices for maximizing effectiveness. While some instructors are able to learn and develop these skills on their own or by attending conferences, professional development workshops can provide a big boost to help instructors new (or newish) to IBL teaching.</span></span></p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-74260fe0-7fff-a191-306b-abf502348e90"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The IBL workshop is a 4-strand model. The fours strands are (1) analyzing video of IBL classes, (2) discussing the nuts and bolts of running an IBL class, (3) developing a target IBL course, and (4) studying articles from the mathematics education literature. The four strands were designed to address specific obstacles instructors face in their classrooms.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do we know a workshop works? </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To answer this question, we need to define two terms, </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IBL capacity</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IBL intensity</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-b6cf0680-7fff-664c-a622-254e39f84a3d" style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IBL capacity</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is an aggregate of several variables. It includes a participant’s beliefs about the effectiveness of IBL, knowledge of IBL, and skill in using IBL. What the evaluation team did is ask participants to self-rate their capacity before the workshop, immediately after the workshop and one year after the workshop.</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our data show in the figure below that workshops increase IBL capacity. We see a statistically significant increase in capacity measures from pre to post workshop and that these gains are sustained through to the one year follow-up. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fda94153-7fff-9083-b6e3-d27503a54a99" style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 327px; overflow: hidden; width: 477px;"><img height="327" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QdU8_cMZeVrtVnybNdgDZlcELQRyUBxtuQULyk_Q1OzIylfTBg6loUq306ihy7Nd8TA-X3mpBh1CHbHLQ4C3qgvPlu9lN1JOL1cpp14RbX46vm2YezA6vPCFzLkjUksJ_d0h84L5" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="477" /></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(The slight drop from post-workshop to follow-up is not statistically significant.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8423d7c4-7fff-9694-2c98-86d7ec4bbaaa"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IBL intensity</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a way to measure how much or how intensely an instructor is using IBL. We know the workshops are effective because a large percentage of participants, 94%, reported using IBL methods after attending the workshop. We also asked participants about the frequency of use of a range of teaching practices (e.g. group work, student presentations, lectures, etc.) before they attended the workshop and again one year after they attended the workshop. Higher scores indicate more intensive use of IBL and lower scores indicate lower IBL use. Based on their responses, we created an IBL intensity scale shown on the y-axis of the chart below. We see a statistically significant increase in IBL intensity from pre-workshop to follow-up. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a53f0548-7fff-2fad-1120-a4e571783ed4"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 229px; overflow: hidden; width: 523px;"><img height="229" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/lmfbz9sSgNiJ5d1ySSfk_twPXVC454BkpkJ1xRvBXYDR0uFCcPSJM7O_0IZXRcTG1XS9PV4P8ed2Tv2xV6gZwtLyypr-UbYLpqY2_3PixTm6RWgsnsaF1hK2LwErc_75XyrU7Vgi" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="523" /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crucially there is more to the story on top of the increases to IBL capacity and intensity. The evaluation team also conducted additional analysis to explain more precisely how the workshops work, using the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">theory of planned behavior </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Ajzen 1991)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. T</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">he theory of planned behavior path model explains how the IBL workshops are influential in changing teaching practices and the relationships between IBL capacity, IBL intensity, and some other key factors.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-208e7aa0-7fff-45b9-57eb-aa12d286ffff"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 282px; overflow: hidden; width: 457px;"><img height="282" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7R_12VScauISZ3Oh2FLK_FhqsdMvhGdbwKMZhydMDz5pxI4kgOrkcImcxAV37Os7SZmTO9ff84e5nce3bJzFS2IPPJjt5HsCkOBEHg7_I4CO226UFF34k8N3hqcSENeF1dMqCCCu" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="457" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let's go down the left side of the model. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Belief that IBL is effective</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a factor that influences teaching. Simply put, the stronger your belief is in the effectiveness of IBL, the more likely you intend to implement IBL, which in turn affects IBL intensity. The IBL workshop has a strand that provides an opportunity to learn about the research supporting the use of IBL, see successful examples of IBL, and learn about real-world stories of student success. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9dfb4df3-7fff-2ad9-f0c8-f7c1006291e8" style="white-space: normal;"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="white-space: normal;" /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Subjective norms</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> include factors such as department or institutional support and supportive colleagues. For instance, the more supportive your department chair is, the higher your intent to implement is, which then affects IBL intensity. Generally, the more supportive the environment is, the more instructors use IBL. Subjective norms can also be a barrier. If you lack support, then you are less likely to implement. Norms matter, because teaching is a cultural activity, and local environments play a role.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The last factor on the left side is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">perceived behavior control</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This is the perception of how much you control your behavior, which is highly dependent on IBL capacity. If you feel confident in your skills and knowledge how to implement IBL, then this directly impacts both intent and IBL use. This is where IBL workshops play a direct role. Skills and practices are central topics of the workshops, and as shown we have data supporting participant gains in IBL capacity. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-7f89dfb8-7fff-49ae-ff85-a609ea1bde26" style="white-space: normal;"></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-2fe50d8d-7fff-6034-69f6-f13e9de354c0" style="white-space: normal;"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="white-space: normal;" /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are other contextual factors that play a role. These factors are prior IBL experience, whether a course is coordinated (in a way that is supportive of IBL), and class size. All of these factors can potentially be barriers, such as coordination that steers instructors away from IBL or large class sizes. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Factors such as gender, career stage, rank and position, and institutional type do </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>not</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> influence IBL capacity or IBL intensity (i.e. were controlled for). This is a striking result, because what this means is that </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">anyone can teach via IBL anywhere!</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> While individuals do face different challenges in the field due to their identity, group differences are not detected in the data. Of course identity matters in teaching, but what we know from experience and from data that no matter what group you are in, it is possible to teach via IBL in whatever setting. This means that the challenges we face are surmountable, and the focus should be on finding ways to support instructors. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Technical Question</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What does r = 0.18 mean in the relationship between attitudes that IBL works and intent to use IBL?</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> These are standardized regression coefficients which describe the relative strength of association between an independent and dependent variable. Standardized coefficients have standard deviations as their units, making the coefficients comparable when variables have different levels of measurement. </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please also see “An Effect Size Primer: A Guide for Clinicians and Researchers” </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/14805-020" style="text-decoration: none;">https://doi.org/10.1037/14805-020</a></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Summary of key findings</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-accae9a4-7fff-3dbc-87f8-a8ea6d50f9d7"></span></p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">The theory of planned behavior model explains 21% of the variability of behavior change (IBL intensity). (Note: R^2 equal to 21% is a significant result for social science. For more see this </span><a href="https://blog.minitab.com/blog/adventures-in-statistics-2/regression-analysis-how-do-i-interpret-r-squared-and-assess-the-goodness-of-fit" style="font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Link</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">) </span></li><li><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Workshops increase IBL capacity. </span></li><li><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Workshops increase IBL intensity.</span></li><li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Department norms and institutional support matter for better or worse.</span></li><li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Other factors like class size, course coordination, environment, course coordination, beliefs, play a role influencing IBL intensity. </span></li><li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Anyone can teach IBL anywhere (under the right conditions)</span></li></ol></span><p role="presentation" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consequently, we can confidently say that IBL workshops work. Instructors change practices in meaningful ways. We can measure IBL capacity and intensity, and further we can see more clearly how the pieces fit together in a coherent story. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some policy implications include increased and sustained investment in professional development workshops</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">, providing more support for faculty to access training, conducting outreach by individuals and professional societies, targeted efforts to inform and train department chairs and course coordinators, and investing in addressing institutional barriers to adoption of IBL methods (e.g reducing class size, mitigating the effects of large class sizes).</span></p><p role="presentation" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p role="presentation" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>References</b></span></p><p role="presentation" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-01735ee8-7fff-49b4-115e-9e7f054bb394"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 50(2), 179-211.</span></span></p><p role="presentation" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p role="presentation" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-40add4cc-7fff-654a-efbe-888961a3336f"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Archie, T., Laursen, S., Hayward, C. N., Yoshinobu, S., & Daly, D. (2020, November 5-7). Findings from 10 years of math instructor teaching professional development [<a href="https://www.colorado.edu/eer/sites/default/files/attached-files/archietenyearsofpd_aacuposter2020.pdf" target="_blank">Link</a> to Poster]. This Changes Everything, AAC&U Virtual Conference on Transforming STEM Higher Education. </span></span></p><p role="presentation" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p role="presentation" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-92253362-7fff-817e-1241-44f310573434"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ferguson, C. J. (2016). An effect size primer: A guide for clinicians and researchers. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Methodological issues and strategies in clinical research (p. 301–310). American Psychological Association. </span><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/14805-020" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://doi.org/10.1037/14805-020</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></p><p role="presentation" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e9a62c8f-7fff-c5c9-05b0-73e1e72b43dd" style="white-space: normal;"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="white-space: normal;" /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b20e27c2-7fff-d923-f43e-68111093d0ff"></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-2949e58f-7fff-0272-7458-8ea8a4cd6f7b"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></p><p><span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-61742250378748332562021-01-08T21:05:00.004-05:002021-01-08T21:05:49.363-05:00Why I Use Dr. Y or Professor Y When I Teach<p><span style="color: #3b3d3e; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">When I started teaching, I was given some advice to use my first name with my students. The idea was to be more friendly and make things more comfortable in class. Many of us, perhaps nearly off of us, got that message. I didn’t think about it too hard then, and I did that for many years, all the while not knowing that what I was doing was making things harder for women in academia.</span></p><p class="im in gr io b ip jg iq ir is jh it iu iv ji iw ix iy jj iz ja jb jk jc jd jf dn et" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="862c" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #3b3d3e; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Last month Dr. Jill Biden<span id="rmm" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span>was the target of a disdainful WSJ op ed, basically saying she’s not a real doctor and full of sexism and anti-intellectual tones. It’s one example of a long history of sexist put down of successful, smart women in the academy.</p><p class="im in gr io b ip jg iq ir is jh it iu iv ji iw ix iy jj iz ja jb jk jc jd jf dn et" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="30c8" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #3b3d3e; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Men get to be Dr. ___, even if they use Stan or Paul in class, but women get called Ms.___ or Alice, and it’s not always respected or assumed that the woman is a Dr. ___ and an expert.</p><p class="im in gr io b ip jg iq ir is jh it iu iv ji iw ix iy jj iz ja jb jk jc jd jf dn et" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2040" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #3b3d3e; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">This is how systemic biases can work. We do things without knowing that it undermines a group of people. A well intended suggestion I received early in my career, which sounded like good advice at the time, actually had some hidden( to me) negative aspects that oppresses women in higher education. Later I learned about the biases that make it so that women have to work harder and deal with more, and the extra challenges and burdens women have to deal with.</p><p class="im in gr io b ip jg iq ir is jh it iu iv ji iw ix iy jj iz ja jb jk jc jd jf dn et" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a8ea" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #3b3d3e; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Consequently, I decided years ago to use Dr. Y or professor Y with my students. It’s out of solidarity with women and minoritized groups, and it’s with the long-term goal of contributing to shifting norms towards equity and social justice. If we all did it, then that’d be the standard way students would address *all* faculty.</p><p class="im in gr io b ip jg iq ir is jh it iu iv ji iw ix iy jj iz ja jb jk jc jd jf dn et" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c019" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #3b3d3e; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">In countries like Japan, all teachers in elementary and secondary schools, professors, medical doctors, other leaders are given the title, “sensei.” It is an honorable title for those who teach or help others in society. Japan is not a society that earns high marks for gender equity, so I’m not trying to say that the term is some magic bullet. Thinking about what sensei means in Japan, however, does provide useful insights. Doctor can mean more than one thing, and we generally lack norms that could help our education system be more inclusive and equitable for women.</p><p class="im in gr io b ip jg iq ir is jh it iu iv ji iw ix iy jj iz ja jb jk jc jd jf dn et" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0a6f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #3b3d3e; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The closest thing we have to sensei is professor, although professor has been earmarked as a rank. For those who are lecturers and without a Ph.D., we do not have a professional title. Given all this, I argue that it is appropriate for all college instructors to use the title “professor” in classes, just as sensei is used by K-college instructors in Japan. Words and titles can mean more than one thing, and their meaning can be easily understood in context.</p><p class="im in gr io b ip jg iq ir is jh it iu iv ji iw ix iy jj iz ja jb jk jc jd jf dn et" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e322" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #3b3d3e; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Thus, I invite all my colleagues to consider using Dr. or professor with our students, if you haven’t done so already, because it contributes to shifting norms in a decisively positive direction. We could explain to our students why we are using our titles, and why it’s important to respect all educators for gender equity. Where possible, we can use our titles, identities, and positions at our institutions to level the playing field for women in higher education.</p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-83422809581718807982021-01-07T18:14:00.002-05:002021-01-07T20:10:55.734-05:00How much professional development is enough? <p>This post is a summary of some research findings for a series of workshops we have conducted with <a href="http://www.inquirybasedlearning.org/product-workshops" target="_blank">NSF PRODUCT</a>. The evaluation team for the project is Dr. Sandra Laursen, Dr. Tim Archie, and Devan Daly, CU Boulder E&ER (<a href="https://www.colorado.edu/eer/research-areas/professional-development" target="_blank">Link</a> to work on professional development, <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/eer/people" target="_blank">link</a> to people). The talk was presented at the Joint Mathematics Meetings on January 7, 2021.</p><p>One of the many research questions they studied is, "How much is enough professional development?" </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="347" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/usGTRCqDsyY" width="418" youtube-src-id="usGTRCqDsyY"></iframe></div><br /><p>Some key points:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>We offered two general types of workshops. </li><ul><li>One week, residential or online via zoom summer intensive workshops (IWS). These were 30 hours+ of workshop time with a year of follow-up email mentoring.</li><li>Shorter traveling workshops (TWS), where two facilitators would travel to a conference or department and offer a workshop that lasted from a few hours to a day or day and a half. </li></ul><li>IBL capacity is a measure of skills and practices related to IBL teaching. It's sort of like a battery pack for teaching. More capacity means more skills and knowledge.</li><li>One result from the analysis is that <b>both</b> formats had a positive and significant impact on increasing IBL capacity.</li><li>IWS participants implement a more <b>intensive</b> version of IBL compared to TWS participants. </li><li>TWS reached a different subset of the teaching population and was effective at <b>increasing interest</b> in IBL. </li><li>TWS reaching different subset of teaching population is due in part by outreach efforts to send facilitators to groups that are not doing IBL yet. For example, sending teams to 2-year colleges. The IBL community in math roots in the Mathematical Association of American, which skews toward 4-year and advanced degree granting institutions. Travel funding can be a barrier for IWS, and TWS commitment level is lower. (It's a commitment to spend a week of summer at an IBL Workshop.) </li><li>Rather than the dosage analogy, a another analogy is TWS and IWS are different tools, and could be used strategically for different main purposes. </li><li><b>Takeaway</b>: Use TWS to increase awareness, interest, reach new instructors, and get people trying IBL methods. Use IWS to increase depth of IBL implementation. </li></ul><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p><p><br /></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-27775991756822453632020-12-16T22:56:00.007-05:002020-12-16T22:56:38.780-05:00IBL Blog Playlist (updated)<p>A really short post... I've kept playlist of IBL blog posts organized by topic. Posts go back to 2011, and the idea behind the playlist is to help people find some of the more popular posts, instead of having to dig around. Here's the link: <a href="http://www.inquirybasedlearning.org/playlist" target="_blank">The IBL Blog playlist</a>. Take care!</p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-88334365276282309632020-12-03T01:16:00.004-05:002020-12-03T12:35:19.986-05:00Owning IBL History<p></p><blockquote><i>History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history. If we pretend otherwise, we are literally criminals.</i> - James Baldwin</blockquote><p></p><p>History can be viewed as inconvenient, and we can try and ignore it or hide it, and thus be trapped by it. But embracing our history and its lessons is in my view a healthy step in the long, meandering journey towards a better society.</p><p>The IBL movement in college mathematics in America has some roots with R. L. Moore. Moore was a sexist and racist, and this is <a href="http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/special/RLMoore-racist-math.html" target="_blank">well documented</a>. This post is not about his teaching. This post is about the present day state of the <i>IBL movement as unequivocally a movement for social justice in math education, </i>and the history of how we arrived here. </p><p>Let's be clear. <i>The Moore method is not IBL.</i> One of the four pillars of IBL is instructor focus on equity. Today in 2020, we value people from all backgrounds, and our teaching must reflect this. When RLM prevented black students and women from enrolling in a class, he was being a gatekeeper via overt acts of bias. That was obviously wrong, it's part of our profession's history, and it is why we do not include Moore method in IBL.</p><p>For many years starting in the mid 2000s, effort and thinking went into trying to expand the definition of IBL in order to move forward. At one point in time, group work was not considered acceptable by some (not me) who promoted the Moore method. I remember clearly after giving a talk, fielding comments about the problems of group work and how it was not Moore method... Many of us, however, understood that we could not move forward with a binary choice between (a) Moore method and (b) lecture. There must exist a broader definition of IBL methods, and hence the idea by Sandra Laursen to use the "big tent IBL" phrase to be more inclusive of different viewpoints and implementation of active, student-centered teaching. We needed to expand on multiple levels to get more people feel welcome. </p><p style="text-align: left;">What's common in the big tent? The four pillars of IBL or IBME are "student engagement in meaningful mathematics, student collaboration for sense-making, instructor inquiry into student thinking, and equitable instructional practice to include all in rigorous mathematical learning and mathematical identity-building." (Laursen and Rasmussen 2019 <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40753-019-00085-6" target="_blank">Link</a>)</p><p>In 2015, Dave Kung, St. Mary's College of Maryland was invited to speak at the IBL conference. Dave and I (and others) discussed the issue of the problem of RLM's racism and how that was negatively impacting our ability to move forward. I expressed to Dave my support to address the issue of changing the name of the conference, because I felt then and as I do now that it was the right thing to do. </p><p>Below is a short excerpt from Dave's talk. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9xrEvK6gOyg" width="320" youtube-src-id="9xrEvK6gOyg"></iframe></div><p></p><blockquote><i>One of the things the IBL community needs to do is to drop the RL Moore name from this conference... As hard as that is for many people, there's a community out there which will never come to this conference, which will never attend the R. L. Moore conference, but they will attend the IBL conference. - </i>Dave Kung</blockquote><p></p><p>Some of us spoke truth to power during that time to change the name and to do more for social justice issues in math education and the IBL community. Some of us, myself included, paid a personal and professional price for it, but it was worth it. </p><p>The history of math education sadly includes things we are not proud of, which is not surprising given that teaching is part of our society. The question is what is our responsibility? It's clearly not to hide or whitewash history or to merely change a name and move on. We need to do things that make society better.</p><p>In the aftermath of that period of time, some in the IBL community worked intentionally on justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI). The equity pillar was added to the pillars of IBL so that the definition of IBL includes an instructor focus on equity. </p><p>We implemented a "ground game" to recruit math instructors from minority serving institutions, instructors of color, and women to IBL workshops. We did this so that high-impact teaching practices would reach more students from minoritized groups, which research strongly suggests can be beneficial to them. </p><p>It needs to be said; the joke is on RLM. Good implementation of IBL levels the playing field for women and people of color. This is classic irony, where the person trying to exclude women and black students from his teaching, ultimately contributes to creating teaching methods that have pulled up the people he was trying to keep down. We have pulled up by orders of magnitude more women and people of color than he excluded in his lifetime.</p><p>The double irony in this story is those who reject IBL methods in favor of teacher-centered instruction, because of RLM's racism and sexism. Education research suggests strongly that teacher-centered instruction leads to women and minorities leaving the STEM pipeline. Thus, those clinging to teacher-centered methods in effect are maintaining the status quo, which was RLM's goal. This is why we need science and humanity to sort through the messy data and social constructs. (<a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/12/6476" target="_blank">Theobald et al 2020</a>)</p><p>Anyways moving on, facilitators involved in the NSF PRODUCT workshops during the past 3 years engaged in diversity training, and we implemented sessions on equitable teaching practices at our recent summer workshops. These sessions have had an impact on participants, and more instructors in college math now know about ways to teach equitably, and we have the ability to offer professional development in equitable teaching practices today in college math, which wasn't a capability we had in the past.</p><p>I created a self-paced workshop for college math instructors interested in starting the process of learning more about race in America (Link to <a href="http://theiblblog.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-beloved-community-and-teaching.html" target="_blank">The Beloved Community and Teaching</a> self-paced workshop). This introduction to race in America is based on a longer list of videos posted here on the AIBL webpage (<a href="http://www.inquirybasedlearning.org/race-equity-and-inclusion" target="_blank">Link</a>). Connected to this is the love, empathy, respect movement to re-humanize education, especially during a pandemic (<a href="https://theiblblog.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-case-for-love-empathy-respect.html" target="_blank">Link</a>), and we are making progress in assessment by incorporating equitable, bias-resistant strategies, such as mastery-based grading (<a href="www.masterygrading.com" target="_blank">Link</a>). </p><p>In the aftermath of the protests following the murder of George Floyd, I wrote a statement posted on the AIBL website. </p><p></p><blockquote><i>Statement on Equity and Black Lives Matter: AIBL is an organization that works toward equity, inclusion, and dismantling systemic racism in education. AIBL strives to dismantle systemic racism via modernizing teaching via the 4 pillars of IBL. AIBL believes fundamentally in equity, inclusion, and promoting women and people of color in the Mathematical Sciences. We believe black lives matter, and we commit to specifically support the black community in Mathematics. While we acknowledge that some modern day teaching methods are rooted in the teaching methods of R.L. Moore, AIBL explicitly states that the Moore Method is not IBL. We explicitly make this distinction due to <a href="http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/special/RLMoore-racist-math.html" target="_blank">Moore’s well-documented racism</a>. </i></blockquote><p></p><p>Some have argued that we should change the name of the movement yet again. IBL = MM to some still, so it's tainted. I understand this feeling and I fully get why people would want to do this. This why I am sharing some of the history, so that people are informed about the efforts and battles of the past that bring us to the present day. My sense from all this is that embracing history is the way forward.</p><p>Embracing history to me means that we are honest about the mistakes we have made in our profession, and then work to fix these issues. We dropped RLM's name, and did several things listed above to start to move the needle. And we have more work to do obviously.</p><p>Dignity also matters. Everyone deserves to live and work with dignity. I understand this personally as member of the Japanese American community, where some of people I knew growing up were forced into concentration camps during World War 2. Thus, I apologize to all affected when RLM's name was attached to the conference and other events in the past. I apologize to black mathematicians, who feel unwelcome in the IBL community, because a known racist was held up, while your concerns about racism were being downplayed and dismissed. More of us should have listened and done more.</p><p>One of my personal goals as an educator is to help build a coalition of people, that joins together in fellowship to do JEDI work in math. I know I won't be perfect and I will make mistakes. I also know that I will own up to my mistakes, and continue to work with the <a href="https://theiblblog.blogspot.com/2018/08/beginning-of-academic-year-and-shokunin.html" target="_blank">shokunin spirit</a>, guided by my principals, where everyday I will try my best to contribute positively to our community. </p><p><br /></p><p>Additional Links:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Dave Kung's slides for his 2015 plenary are posted <a href="http://www.davekung.com/dtk/_.._Social_Justice.html" target="_blank">here</a>. The full talk is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V03scHu_OJE" target="_blank">here</a>.</li><li>CU Boulder E&ER (Laursen, Haberler, Hayward) has a page <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/eer/ibl-community" target="_blank">here</a>, devoted to "studying how people, structures, and ideas are important to the past development, current growth, and future sustainability of an educational community that promotes inquiry-based learning in college mathematics." </li></ul><p></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-52959577899720595662020-11-18T11:47:00.002-05:002020-11-18T11:47:51.131-05:00The case for love, empathy, respect especially during a pandemic<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6QxUzqrg-x9XFYzBFJSD21ko5S0TAwHrVz8tYD2uVKokdlkc4znvZdPPVvinAXAlVOe6aG0ANN7cgUaFG-FivF80uj6kDDXQYLlxZLkwOEbs9aSSOG45gXw8EvhcdDANUTHjOota8Cl8/s2048/LER+WeStandUnited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6QxUzqrg-x9XFYzBFJSD21ko5S0TAwHrVz8tYD2uVKokdlkc4znvZdPPVvinAXAlVOe6aG0ANN7cgUaFG-FivF80uj6kDDXQYLlxZLkwOEbs9aSSOG45gXw8EvhcdDANUTHjOota8Cl8/w212-h212/LER+WeStandUnited.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br />A global pandemic is raging. Children are stuck in online school, and teachers are struggling under the added weight of teaching online or in unsafe conditions, some who have little kids at home 24/7. Social problems are boiling over. Democratic norms are crumbling, and we struggle to coordinate even basic efforts to bring the pandemic under control. Teachers and students are trying to get through their courses, but with the world upside down. This is the context of education in 2020. <p></p><p>If that's not enough, stories of schools giving out more Fs during the pandemic are making the rounds. This makes me ask, "What are we doing to be giving <i>more</i> Fs during a pandemic and social crises?" Failing grades are clearly a bad sign, and something is seriously not working. </p><p>When a student is doing poorly, it can be for a number of reasons. If we are quick to judge them, it's really easy to blame the student. It's easy say it's their fault for not showing up or not doing the work. Deficit model sometimes kicks in stronger, and maybe the student just isn't "motivated" or "lacks the confidence" or innate ability. It is easy to judge. Online or virtual teaching makes it even harder for human connection, and I conjecture easier to be more deficit model oriented.</p><p>I remind myself that we are in a pandemic, and there is real pain and suffering out there in all our communities. People are struggling. They may have lost a loved one to Covid-19, or they may be the target of racial, gender or other bias. They may be feeling the weight of poverty, or feel the stress of a family business going out of business. A student could be lonely, sitting in from of computer screen all day, trying to learn in an isolated environment that just feels worse and worse as the weeks go by. </p><p>In reality, we don't actually know any student's full story, and this is especially the case if an instructor uses teacher-centered methods. Sure some students come to office hours and good teacher-student interactions can form in these situations. But generally speaking, the less students talk in class and the less they feel comfortable talking, the less likely it is that an instructor will have a good sense for who a person is. Even in active learning, it can be a challenge. </p><p>Love, empathy, respect in teaching is a few related things put together. It is a visible inclusivity image to remind us all to be kind and respectful to one another. It's also a way to signal to students, that you care about equity and inclusion, and that all students are welcome. And yet another way to think about love, empathy, respect is in our attitudes as teachers towards our students as humans. Love, empathy, respect is a mindset of being understanding. This idea is called a strengths based approach. That is, we don't assume that poor performance or lack of engagement is due to some deficit, and instead we start from a position of emphasizing student strengths.</p><p>It's not that hard really to get started. It comes down to listening. What I do is listen to students, and try and understand what the situation is. Then work with students to find ways to get them through the challenges. Using practices like active learning and mastery grading puts my course in a better spot to be more compassionate, while being fair to everyone. Giving extra chances to try a problem or assignment, is part of the standard package.</p><p>Here's a good story. A student of color named Kim (a pseudonym) failed calculus multiple times. Kim took the class 3 times and failed each of those times. That's three Fs. Most people would have given up, but she tried a fourth time. I actually had her in a different course (for future elementary teachers) during the same term, and noticed that in group activities and class presentations she did really well. When I learned about Kim's struggles with Calculus, it didn't add up. So I suggested she drop by office hours for her Calculus questions, and when she showed up I listened to her try and explain something to figure out how she was thinking. I learned how she was approaching Calculus versus the future elementary teachers, and saw how in Calculus she tried to memorize without understanding and would get stuck and not know what to do. In her other class, she worked from the core concepts first, and then was able to think through to find a solution. Kim's brain was engaged in entirely different ways. That was a key moment for her education, because she learned about her own thinking that hindered her progress in Calculus and her thinking that made her successful in her other math class. Skipping forward several terms, she ended up passing Calculus and taking several more math classes, until she earned enough credits to get a middle school math teaching credential added on to a multiple subject credential. That's a huge turnaround!</p><p>This was possible because I started from a position of love, empathy, respect. I made sure I tried not to judge, I listened, and then we found a pathway forward, based on Kim's strengths. Now back when this scenario happened, we didn't yet have the words, love, empathy, respect. There are other words and descriptions for this idea, and I am certainly not the first nor the best teacher to be a mentor like this. But I think today, if I didn't listen and was judgmental or dismissive, she might not have gotten out of the cycling of failing she was stuck in. In my mind it doesn't take great teacher skill or talent to do this, but rather it's mostly about being starting from a position of understanding and caring. </p><p>Another story is about a student named Jerry (pseudonym). Jerry is a historically successful student, but in the class I had with Jerry, things were very different. Jerry missed classes and assignments. When in class, engagement was low and Jerry was spaced out. Anyways, this is a case where the student would likely be written off. You gotta do the work to pass, right? Well, hold on. I'll email Jerry and check in... Ok, no response for a while. Ok, maybe I'll chat in person next class to meet outside of class... That worked, I think. Now it gets interesting.</p><p>It ended up being the case the student was going through a tough time with health issues. Life was hard, and the student was feeling depressed. I listened. I did what I could to be supportive, by extending deadlines and put the student in groups with highly supportive and dependable classmates. I also pointed out the long-term possibilities of all the wonderful things that could be done in Jerry's major. We all need hope. In the end, even after a rough start, Jerry was able to finish the course. Later on, I received an email from Jerry, saying thank you for the support and that it was truly a rough time, and that Jerry had thought about ending life. However, with the support of classmates, my teaching, and other community support, Jerry was able to turn things around. Good teaching can help save lives.</p><p>Today in 2020, love, empathy, respect is so desperately needed, by millions of students sitting in their rooms alone on their devices trying to get through school. We have a choice in how we engage with struggling students and in general people in our community. I also know that we are also working at over 100% capacity right now, and we're tired ourselves and it's hard to be even more for others. With that said, we all have a need to know that love is the opposite of hate, that empathy warms over the coldness of apathy, and respect counteracts the disrespect of deficit model thinking. </p><p>Hang in there and stay safe!</p><p><br /></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-54844603303813524422020-10-26T12:34:00.003-04:002020-10-26T12:56:58.984-04:00Seven Ideas to Help with Reopening K-5 Schools from an Educator Perspective<div>The focus on reopening has primarily been about health and safety for good reasons. It's a good time for us to add another layer to this discussion, which is to think about how we can improve teaching and other related factors to help reopen <i>smarter</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>A typical situation parents might find themselves in is this... Their child is doing math homework on their own, and gets stuck. This is added stress on top of all the pandemic stresses. Dinner needs to be cooked, like is hard as is. It gets emotional, parents are frustrated, Math feels awful, and then everyone wants to get back to in-person school ASAP! </div><div><br /></div><div>I totally get it. For many of us with kids at home, it's been a huge struggle during this pandemic. Juggling parental duties, work, taking care of yourself, it's a tough. We all want to go back to something normal. </div><div><br /></div><div>In this post, I share some thoughts about actions educators can take to help improve our situation. This is really important, because we want to make the decision to go back to in-person because spread is low and we have the resources to do it right. We shouldn't be reopening prematurely, because virtual teaching is bad. It puts people in harm's way for the wrong reasons. As of this writing, the US is hitting all-time highs in case counts, hospitalizations are increasing, and the government has literally said it's given up.</div><div><br /></div><div>What this means for schools is that virtual is going to be a big part of reality for a long time. I don't see a way for us to go back and it's magically 2019. </div><div><br /></div><div>Many families can't go back to in person, because they have a high-risk member. They deserve a good education. Others need to go back, because they have essential jobs. We need space for them. Little children should be in some form of in-person school (assuming it's safe), because they are so young and it's what they need. Secondary and college students should be largely virtual, because we need to set aside precious space and in-person time for the youngest and neediest. But we can make virtual better, and in some cases much better. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Caveats</b>: I'll focus on Math, because it is my area. The ideas are generally applicable to other subjects. Education is an extremely large sector. In California, there are over 6 million students in public K-12 schools. This means that the comments I write here are not going to cover all the cases due to the sheer size and range of scenarios that are present. But there are things we can do to (a) alleviate some of the pain and stress of virtual learning and (b) use better virtual learning as part of a larger strategy to carve out time and space for some in-person learning. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not commenting in detail about things like masks, coronavirus testing, or other health and safety measures. That's an area of expertise that I have been following closely, but it is not my area of expertise. </div><div><br /></div><div>Below is a list of some ideas to help with thinking through reopening schools from an educator perspective. The perspective I can offer as a professional developer in Math Education is that I see areas where we can improve teaching and learning that have benefits with dealing with the pandemic and can have lasting upside even afterwards. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>1. Prioritize the youngest, neediest tiers of students, teacher safety</b></div><div><div>The top priority should be to the youngest and neediest students and the safety of teachers. If a child can't read yet, because they are in kindergarten, then zoom isn't the best format for this child. Further, there are other situations for all grades (K-12), such as students who are homeless, who are not safe at their homes, or have special education needs or other needs. These students need to be on school campuses for their wellbeing. Hence the priority grades are K-2. And other priority groups can be also be identified and put into this top priority tier. </div><div><br /></div><div>As our pandemic situation improves, we can add in more tiers. The tiers are preK-2 and high needs, grades 3-5, middle school, and high school. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>Teachers should be classified as essential workers, and they should be in the early phase of vaccinations. They work with large numbers of people, indoors, for long periods of time. Teachers deserve all the support we can give them, because they do so much for our society. Sick or dead teachers are devastating to schools, just as losing HCW in medical settings.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>2. Try to decouple academics, socialization activities, and daycare</b></div><div>This section is about rethinking services provided by schools in a different way. In 2019 and before, schools provided all three of academic training, socialization, and daycare. What would help our problem-solving approach during a pandemic is to try and split these three things apart, as much as is reasonably doable. This doesn't mean we won't have overlapping areas with these three areas, but that we don't need to bundle them as all-or-nothing. Bundled, all-or-nothing thinking limits what we might possibly be able to do to help more children and families.</div><div><br /></div><div>For instance we could have academics taught mostly or completely virtually (depending on the grade tier), have socialization events in person and virtually so that children can learn social skills and just have fun and be kids, and daycare could be provided in smaller group sizes, so parents who can't stay home have safer options. </div><div><br /></div><div>For example there are families, where the parents are essential workers and the family has an at-risk member. In-person could be too risky. Families in this situation are put in a tough spot. Consequently, de-coupling the services schools provide opens the door for more solutions. In this case, daycare could be provided in a small setting nearby, while the children do mostly virtual learning, allowing the parents to work while mitigating risks. </div><div><br /></div><div>Secondary school students in virtual learning could do some in-person socializing, such as some organized activities in gyms or outdoor fields to do normal things like hangout with friends and get off of screens for a while. Of course properly distanced, masked, etc. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>Decoupling the three services is a complex task, requiring input from all groups, including parents, students, teachers, staff, and local officials. It'd be interesting to see existing solutions in this area, and my sense is that daycare is the key piece. If parents had good daycare, some safe options for socialization, and virtual teaching was good enough, we'd be in a very different context regarding the pressure to reopen schools.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>3. Improve virtual (and in-person) teaching via active, student-centered teaching</b></div><div>This item applies more to older grades and upper elementary. But all grades will likely have to be virtual part of the time. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, imagine a world where virtual teaching is fun. Your kids are okay with it, and they are learning. This releases some (a lot?) of the pressure to rush back to in-person school, and gives time for scientists and the government to develop better testing and treatments. </div><div><br /></div><div>Good teaching is good teaching, whether virtual or in person. Teaching is a complex system and cultural activity. I can't do it justice in this space. The short version is that we can use active, student-centered methods like inquiry-based learning (IBL) to shift classes to engaging, collaborative spaces. Uptake of active, student-centered teaching is still low in the US, and this is an area of need, whether or not we are in a pandemic. </div><div><br /></div><div>The four pillars of IBL teaching in Math are:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Deep engagement in rich mathematical tasks</li><li>Opportunities for regular collaboration between students and with the teacher</li><li>Instructor inquiry into student thinking</li><li>Instructor focus on equity</li></ol></div><div>These pillars aren't specific to Math, and you can substitute in whatever subject. On a typical day, roughly 2/3rds of class time should be spent on students doing tasks or engaged in thinking through questions, where students are guided by their teacher to think and discuss math questions, such that the process of answering these questions leads to authentic learning. </div><div><br /></div><div>Generally speaking, there exist ways to implement IBL methods in virtual settings that are promising for upper elementary and certainly for secondary. Professional development training for teachers is one way to get these kinds of teaching methods into our classrooms. Younger children need more hands-on learning, hence the need to prioritize bringing them back in the first round. </div><div><br /></div><div>More information about IBL is available on the <a href="www.inquirybasedlearning.org" target="_blank">AIBL website</a> and on this blog.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>4. No math homework in K-5!</b> </div><div>No matter the teaching methods used, one thing that can be done across the board is to eliminate or significantly change homework. Homework is not shown to help learning outcomes in K-5, and I'd argue that it's not needed everyday in secondary either. </div><div><br /></div><div>Homework for points adds stress, and even if students do it, many leave disliking Math due to the accumulation of negative experiences. When students are asked to do problem after problem after problem without help, all alone, it can really frustrating for students who struggle, and entire families feels this, and just makes them want to go back to in-person, whether it's the right thing to do or not.</div><div><br /></div><div>Math anxiety is a real issue. Many students carry math anxiety into adulthood. See this post on <a href="http://theiblblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/math-anxiety-realities-student-voices.html" target="_blank">Math Anxiety Realities</a>, where college students speak about their painful experiences from math classes. Teaching in ways that increases stress is not good for student learning, and sometimes leaves lasting scars. </div><div><br /></div><div>The best option is to eliminate math homework for K-5. Just don't do it. Do all the learning together synchronously or in-person where possible. </div><div><br /></div><div>For secondary, one option is to assign modernized, optional homework, where students are given handout to read about a math idea, technique, a solution to a problem, looking back at recently completed material just to name a few ideas. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another option, and a really easy one to implement is to state a problem or question and provide a detailed solution with an explanation. Ask students to try the problem first, and then have them compare their thinking with the provided explanation. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>5. Use mastery-based grading</b> </div><div>There are many reasons to update assessment. A points system is an extrinsic values framing of grades, which is actually not a good motivator, can lead to inequities, and isn't tied necessarily to actual learning. Students are told that homework is worth X points and tests are worth Y points, and it's all about getting points. While this has been the standard, it's not as good as a system with intrinsic values framing, such as <b>mastery-based grading</b>. In mastery-based grading, students are given transparent learning goals, and given multiple opportunities to learn them. The focus then is on<b> </b><i>learning</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div>A simple example of mastery grading is to give frequent quizzes/tests, where students are given two possible scores. One is "meets standard" and the other is "not yet." For problems that students earn a "not yet," they are given chances to retry the problem until they earn a "meets the standard." Quiz/test questions are centered on students explaining why things work, so that they the emphasis is on critical reasoning and problem solving. Basic skills and concepts should be practiced in class together with informal assessments to give feedback to students and teachers. This feedback then informs the class whether they should practice more or move on.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Other mastery-based grading systems exist that are more sophisticated and tuned for student learning. The example provided is an easy-to-implement version that is compatible with the challenges and constraints teachers face in a pandemic. See <a href="http://www.masterygrading.com" target="_blank">www.masterygrading.com</a> </div></div><div><br /></div><div>One key potential benefit of mastery-based grading is equity. I'll argue via an example. Suppose student A learns a topic in week 7 and student B figures it out in week 9. The test is in week 8. Student A get a higher grade than student B, but both have learned the same thing. Now let's say student A is in a middle class family with parents with college degrees who can work from home, and student B has to work or has parents who are working long hours, and student B has more non-school responsibilities. In this case, mastery grading would result in the students getting the same grade, because they learned the same things. </div><div><br /></div><div>Mastery grading can be bias resistant. That is, it is less likely to penalize the student who has more in life to deal with and/or fewer resources.</div><div><br /></div><div>In states like California, standards-based grading is already used in elementary schools. Where teachers can further make improvements is to drop timed tests, and use oral exams/interviews and other task-based live sessions to see if students are making progress. All these should allow for retakes after getting support. </div><div><br /></div><div>Online proctoring software raises many questions about whether they are ethical. Lockdown, surveillance testing is not morally sound, expensive, and completely avoidable. We can use better assessments that are more humane and aligned with learning outcomes that we value, such as critical reasoning and justification. (See this disturbing account reported on by The Washington Post, where a student asks a proctor if she can *vomit* <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/01/online-proctoring-college-exams-coronavirus/" target="_blank">Link</a>).</div><div><br /></div><div><b>6. Cull unnecessary or less important topics, and focus more on core topics</b></div><div>A typical math textbook has a lot of material in it. Most teachers and college instructors will say things like, "There's so much to cover." This really doesn't have to be the reality and shortchanges time on better, high-level goals such as problem solving and communication. </div><div><br /></div><div>In every course, some topics can be covered less intensely, because they are less important or tangential to the main learning goals. Each subject area can be culled down to essential topics using the state standards as a starting point. Culling the list of topics can help teachers and students by giving more time for core topics, which actually matter in the long-run. </div><div><br /></div><div>Connecting back to the revised homework ideas above, secondary math teachers can cover less important topics by assigning reading, a video, or a handout for students to read and try something. In this way, students get exposure to additional topics, but it's not taking up valuable class time that could be better spent on larger goals.</div><div><br /></div><div>The reality is that students use Khan Academy and other resources. Harnessing this for a range of uses opens time and space for educators to hone in on key ideas. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>7. Focus on community solidarity</b></div><div>More than any other time in our lives, we need community. We are living through a global humanitarian crisis, and it affects all of us in many ways. Thus, building community should be one of the core goals of every class. To do this, some class time can be used to build community on a regular or daily basis. We don't only teach Math (or insert your subject). We teach students, and they deserve an education that is humanistic, empathetic, and compassionate, especially in time like this. </div><div><br /></div><div>Why is building community so important? If students feel disconnected and stop caring about their education or worse their futures, then what's the point of learning how to add fractions or complete the square? Thinking of reopening schools purely and solely as a medical problem is incomplete and possibly dehumanizing or invalidating. Putting humanity first is the right move. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even in virtual learning, we can build community. Teachers can do this using chat, breakout rooms, padlet, jamboards, discussions, and others. Some socializing virtually can benefit students, and help them feel more involved connected to their classmates and teachers. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sample openers for class are fun polls like "What is your preference (a) oatmeal, (b) toast, (c) cereal?" Or "How many cups of coffee did your teacher need this morning?" Mix it up, have fun, be human and authentic!</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>Common misconception RE rigor</b></div><div>A common misconception area is that hard equals rigor. This is especially true in STEM subjects, where low grades, lots of homework, and lots of students doing poorly means the class is "rigorous." The corollary to this is that classes where students do better is less rigorous and watered down. </div><div><br /></div><div>All of the suggestions above are not about reducing rigor or lowering standards or "dumbing it down." They are adjusting how we teach or assess to improve learning. It should feel easier, more doable, and more enjoyable, if done right. If a student learns more their grades will go up. That's not a sign of less rigor, it's a sign of student success. If anything, regressive methods are ironically <i>less</i> rigorous, because many of the exam questions can be solved with google or looked up on Chegg.com. This means AI can do much of the usual tests tests, which is less rigorous than having to explain or justify why something works or doesn't work. </div></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Colleges messed things up</b></div><div>Colleges should have been bailed out and been virtual. We effectively spent significant "in-person budget" on the tier of students most capable of learning virtually, all the while seeding more outbreaks. Bad policy and planning is directly affecting your school's ability to reopen safely. I won't go into details, but here are some links, if you want to dig deeper.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/20/us-colleges-students-coronavirus-cases" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/20/us-colleges-students-coronavirus-cases</a></li><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-college-cases-tracker.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-college-cases-tracker.html </a></li><li><a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-case-against-reopening/" target="_blank">https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-case-against-reopening/</a> OR <a href="https://theiblblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-case-for-virtual-fall-term-2020-and.html" target="_blank">https://theiblblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-case-for-virtual-fall-term-2020-and.html</a></li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The coronavirus, poor leadership and being understanding</b></div><div>The pandemic is causing our problems. Let's be clear about this. While we may disagree about how to reopen or what to prioritize, the real problem, the real thing causing us all the pain and suffering is the coronavirus and the mismanagement of the pandemic. We need to acknowledge this and not unfairly blame schools or teachers or superintendents for the predicament we are in. Their job is to educate, not to do infectious disease public health. </div><div><br /></div><div>Further, East Asian countries have done a much better job managing this crisis, and they can run their schools close to normal. Lack of national leadership in the US, and a catastrophic lack of empathy have created this Groundhog Day cycle we are experiencing. The obstacles of reopening schools are unnecessary, avoidable, and directly a result of failed leadership. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thus, it's important we start from a position of understanding and kindness. Schools are not responsible for getting us into this mess, and we shouldn't place unfair responsibility on schools to get us out of this predicament, especially when many schools lack resources to even meet basic needs even before this pandemic. The predicament is on us as a society. Own it. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Outro</b></div><div>Other major issues in education need to be addressed eventually on a societal level. Specifically we also need to take more action on inequality, old buildings, overcrowding, poverty, school segregation, lack of or inadequate healthcare, and more, because all these things directly affect our schools and prevent us from forming a stronger, more just society. These issues overlap with the pandemic and can't be solved with improvements to classroom instruction alone. I mention this to contextualize the broader issues at play and the limitations of focusing on teaching.</div><div><br /></div><div>What is outlined here isn't attempting to solve all the problems, because many issues are outside the locus of control of educators. With that said, real, practical, implementable actions we can make things a whole lot better right now. </div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Prioritize the youngest and neediest</li><li>Try to decouple academics, socialization, daycare</li><li>Use active, student-centered learning like IBL</li><li>No math homework in K-5</li><li>Mastery grading</li><li>Cull content from course that are not essential</li><li>Focus on community solidarity</li></ol></div><div>Stay safe and healthy!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-92031757486492573012020-09-30T18:22:00.003-04:002020-10-26T12:34:22.230-04:00Mastery-Based Grading: Interviewing Sharona Krinsky, David Clark<p><i>SY: Massive thanks to Sharona Krinsky and David Clark for sharing their thoughts on the topic of mastery-based grading or MBG for short. This interview grew out of a different conversation Sharona, David, and I had about a separate topic. MBG is an excellent framework for assessing students for learning with a focus on equity and is compatible with IBL methods and non-IBL methods. </i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a1ba93ee-7fff-29ad-65db-ccbd2a1b6882"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Question 1: First, tell us a bit about yourselves</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sharona</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: I’m a full-time lecturer in the math department at California State University Los Angeles. I’m also the executive producer of Encore South Bay (<a href="https://www.encoresouthbay.org" target="_blank">Link</a>)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a community and youth theater company in Los Angeles. I have degrees in math from UC Berkeley and The Ohio State University, as well as an MBA from The Ohio State University. In addition to working, I love Israeli dancing, scrapbooking, and traveling.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: I’m an associate professor in the math department at Grand Valley State University, in west Michigan. I’m also a boardgamer (although not a very good one…), hiker and backpacker, and amateur photographer. I’ve lived my entire life in Michigan and nearby. For grad school, I moved from Michigan </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">south </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">into Canada.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-bbb489c0-7fff-75dd-87ad-91f556471c78" style="white-space: normal;"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="white-space: normal;" /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-34b2951c-7fff-b401-498e-a71155954434" style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Question 2: How did you get involved in MBG?</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sharona</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: A few years ago I was looking for more ways to bring active learning into my Calculus classroom and stumbled across Kate Owens’ blog about SBG [standards-based grading]. Started reading it and then joined the Google+ group run by Robert Talbert. This led me down a rabbit hole that included Robert’s blog and posts by Josh Bowman. I dove in head first, converting three separate classes at the same time to standards based grading and never looked back. From there, I had the incredible fortune to meet Kate at MathFest a few years ago in Denver which connected me with Dave, Drew Lewis, and TJ Hitchman. This was followed by a serendipitous run-in with Robert Talbert at Poly Teach at Cal Poly Pomona. A year later, I was asked to redesign and coordinate our GE statistics class, which has over 1,500 students in 50+ sections every fall and about 600+ students and 20+ sections in spring. I convinced my co-coordinator to do standard-based, mastery grading and brought about 30 other instructors along for the ride.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: As an undergrad, I took a few classes that used (what I now recognize as) Inquiry-Based Learning and Ungrading. They encouraged me to learn and persevere much more than my other classes. That experience lived in the back of my head throughout grad school, while I got more and more disappointed with the incentives that points brought into my classes (think: “Why isn’t this 8/10 instead of 7/10?”). After graduating, I heard a talk from TJ Hitchman during a </span><a href="https://www.maa.org/programs-and-communities/professional-development/project-next" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Project:NExT</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> session in which he offhandedly mentioned how he used standards-based grading in a geometry class. That started me down the rabbit hole, and I ended up completely re-working my syllabus to use SBG -- just weeks before I started teaching that course. That class was an amazing experience, and I couldn’t believe how much it improved my students’ experiences (they </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">begged </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">me to give them a quiz on the day before Thanksgiving break). Since then I’ve been slowly learning and converting more courses to use various forms of mastery grading.</span></p><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-46412233-7fff-fb8d-c2f8-75ca5b67288d" style="white-space: normal;"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="white-space: normal;" /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-612be264-7fff-2a91-8fa9-26ec4964f394"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Question 3: What are some of the key benefits to students?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Sharona</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c8d8ce9b-7fff-4d1c-57ce-412366c7dc40" style="white-space: normal;"></span></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Allows for growth through failure:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Getting students to understand that failure is not only OK but a better way to learn is a huge breakthrough. De-programming the idea that only immediate success is how you succeed allows time to build on growth mindset ideas and build grit in our students.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Talking Math, Not Arithmetic (of Grades): </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Students get to focus on questions such as “what do I not understand about the math?” instead of “how am I going to get enough points to get the grade I want?”. Conversations with students are positive, encouraging, and about MATH. They learn more, and they discover that they can succeed by not giving up.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Encourages deeper thinking and communication: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Students learn that there are a lot of ways to show that they understand the material. AND that understanding is not the same as getting the right answer. They learn to show what they know, even if what they know is partial or incomplete.</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>David</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: MBG...</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gives students time to learn.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It gives students a chance to come back from early failures without penalty. Compare that to how, in a traditionally graded class, doing poorly on an early midterm exam can tank a student’s grade for the rest of the semester. Similarly, if a student doesn’t have some background that an instructor expected, MBG helps identify this </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> give students a way to learn background material without penalty.</span></p></li><li><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Decreases test anxiety.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Because assessments are lower stakes, there’s less pressure on each individual assessment.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Encourages students to develop a growth mindset</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which can benefit them beyond any individual class.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sets up a clear path to success. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clear objectives, and grade requirements stated in terms of those objectives, let students see exactly what they need to do to succeed in a class. It removes the sense that grades are something that </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">happen</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to students, and gives them agency.</span></li></ul><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-aa7e2e8a-7fff-c1e6-ba6d-964d78c1bfb8"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Question 4: The covid-19 pandemic has highlighted serious limitations of timed, (high-stakes) tests. How do you see MBG helping in this current era?</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-ab8f572a-7fff-e754-11ac-23e2d382de0a"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sharona</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: In my opinion, MBG is the answer to the serious limitations of high-stakes tests. Although I still give timed assessments, the knowledge that the worst thing that happens as a result of the test is that they might have to test again tremendously lowers both the anxiety of the students and the incentives to cheat. Most students WANT to learn. That’s why they are in college. They want to do well, and they want the time spent studying to be worth it. If they can show what they know, get feedback, and then get to show it again, they quickly learn that it is worth it to do the work themselves. It also allows for tremendous customization of the learning process to meet students where they are, without placing undue burden on the instructor.</span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-bc47f359-7fff-11de-858c-7d6aa6bc78fc"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: During the Big Pivot online last March, the one thing about my classes that </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">didn’t </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">need to change was my assessments: My MBG setup was flexible enough to keep working. MBG lowers the stakes on every assessment. Even if an instructor uses timed tests, each one becomes lower stakes, since students have opportunities to retake or revise later. MBG also supports instructors in using assessments that fit the COVID era better, such as portfolios, interviews, or student-made videos. These kinds of assessments aren’t inherent to MBG, but they work well with the philosophy of determining if students have demonstrated overall proficiency in their work.</span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div><div><br /></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-572d1bd9-7fff-367b-1ab0-d74f757794d8"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Question 5: How does someone get started with MBG? And if someone has a question, where can they go?</span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-95902a9c-7fff-62ba-d2af-a86279600909"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sharona</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: In addition to reading about MBG and joining the community, instructors need to begin learning about and using Backwards Design principles to design the course. Begin by asking the big question “What should my students know and be able to do” after taking my course. And really hone in on that answer. Don’t just accept the list of skills that we have traditionally taught. For example, I really thought about what the core concepts of Calculus II were and came up with the math of “accumulation”, “the infinite” and “position and motion in space”. I then organized my learning targets around those core concepts. If you visit </span><a href="http://www.masterygrading.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.MasteryGrading.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> you will have links to over 16 hours of recordings from our first Mastery Grading conference, held online in Summer 2020.</span></p></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-57541a46-7fff-ac6e-327d-9db5a5ba9031"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Start by reading one or two of these articles to get an overall idea of how MBG works: </span><a href="https://blogs.ams.org/matheducation/2015/11/20/a-beginners-guide-to-standards-based-grading/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kate Owens’s standards-based grading blog post</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="https://rtalbert.org/specs-grading-iteration-winner/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Robert Talbert’s Specifications grading blog series</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, or </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ptL-7MEKOcyz4TmPTk-hwwFgzb9SjyLB8J1-aGJak-M/edit?usp=sharing" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">my MBT article</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Then check out the articles in the </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bauaBh23VbtrcYrZ-oUH6OAoyN7YVhawIQxQUZViwVM/edit?usp=sharing" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PRIMUS Special Issue on MBG</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. These articles are detailed explanations of how instructors have used MBG in many different classes, and they are free to all MAA members. Two great places to ask questions and get inspiration: Robert Talbert’s </span><a href="http://bit.ly/join-mastery-grading" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mastery Grading Slack Workspace</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (the link invites you to join the workspace) and the super-friendly MBG community on Twitter. Follow @MasteryGrading, check out this list of </span><a href="https://twitter.com/i/lists/1257696256907972611" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MBG tweeters</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and look at hashtags like #masterygrading, #sbgchat, and #pointlessgrading.</span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-3ef71b52-7fff-e1f5-a3e5-b2db785e3e5b"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Question 6: Anything else you’d like to add?</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-56f8a041-7fff-1df1-89bb-11eb2fec64a4"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sharona</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: MBG has been the single highest impact practice that I’ve adopted in over 30 years of teaching. I did workshops on “cooperative learning” in the 90’s and have used active learning for decades. I was an early adopter of the Hughes-Hallett Calculus text. Despite all of that, I never really succeeded in getting most of my students to really engage in the actual mathematics until I started MBG. The depth of content in my conversations with my students is incredible. And I really enjoy giving really high grades that my students worked incredibly hard to get. (My grades are bi-modal, all A’s, B’s and F’s). I call myself an MBG evangelist for a reason :)</span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-67afa97d-7fff-4909-b036-493ed4cdcdce"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: My first time using MBG was a “glass shattering” moment. I’ve never again been satisfied using points in a class. It’s changed not just how I do assessment, but my whole focus when designing a class. MBG also fits well with active learning pedagogies like IBL: We’re trying to inquire into what students know and set up opportunities for them to demonstrate their understanding -- rather than forcing limited assessments with punitive results. Finally, the huge variety of ways that people use MBG, and all the acronyms that go with it -- SBG/MBT/Specifications/etc. -- can seem intimidating at first. There’s a lot out there, and everyone ends up finding the best way for themselves. You can dip your toe into MBG (maybe using it only with tests or quizzes) rather than blowing up your entire class plan.</span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-71500768957178956052020-09-18T19:16:00.000-04:002020-09-18T19:16:49.331-04:00The Beloved Community and Teaching<p>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a global vision, the Beloved Community: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>"In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict."</i></p></blockquote><p>The late congressman and civil rights leader, John Lewis, dedicated his life's work in the pursuit of the beloved community. Many others continued this effort in a variety of ways, including the vital work of Alicia Garza, Patrice Cullors, and Opal Tometi, who founded the #blacklivesmatter movement, among many, many others that cannot be listed here across a spectrum of issues. Know that I acknowledge the variety and scope of the different struggles in society. </p><p>What does the beloved community have to do with teaching? Superficially, perhaps not much. But upon closer inspection, everything, at least everything that matters. I fully understand why a person could say the following.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>"I teach math [or fill in your subject], it's not my job."</li><li>"I don't want to be political..."</li><li>"I'm just a small person, in a small city, doing my thing. I'm not Dr. King or civil rights leader. What could I possibly do?"</li></ul><p></p><p>None of us are being asked to do extraordinary things, march every weekend, and sacrifice all our free time. As a college math instructor, I don't feel particularly powerful or influential. I know I am just a small person on a small stage in a small city. But if each of us pitched in and did our part, we'd be in a far better place. The lesson for me is that in order for us to create the beloved community, each and everyone of us must do our part with the people we live and work with in our communities. No hero is going to come save us from ourselves. </p><p>We all have something within our locus of control that can be impactful. For college math instructors this means doing something in our classrooms and our departments, colleges. We can center equity and inclusion. We can be visible about our values with our students and colleagues, and stop making excuses, such as "I don't want to be political." We can make equity part of hiring and retention processes, and we can insist that systemic biases, such as student evaluation of teaching, stop. Just stop. </p><p>Active, student-centered, <b>equity-centered</b> teaching is a pathway forward. We can teach students the values of we seek in society. We can show by example and lived experiences that equity and inclusion benefits all of us and creates a better, stronger society, where we are all better off. While schools and colleges by themselves are not enough, I firmly believe that education plays a central role. If it doesn't happen in our classrooms, then it can't happen in society. Therefore, we have an obligation to do this work.</p><p>So, use your power! Do something small in your next class, and nudge someone in your circle, and keep on building. Connect with people on our campus and in your profession, who have experience and expertise with DEI. Then we can build brick by brick, classroom by classroom, and more and more people will join the movement to reimagine, to rebuild, and ultimately to move toward the Beloved Community.</p><p>Need a place to start? Check out this self-paced workshop on Race in America (v1.0)</p><p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="299" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTtri36VTGyrrYEnIAM9B-_F4w8ze_JrmTVmBgijSZRPg2RHzNjTneHTjKUN7tilbxUuqSLQkPcYJYZ/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=60000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe></p><p>Stay strong, stay safe!</p><p><b>Link</b>: <a href="https://thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy/">https://thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy/</a></p><p><br /></p>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727087676431555393.post-55385500792441984112020-08-07T18:53:00.006-04:002020-08-13T17:47:41.902-04:00Virtual Teaching v1.0This post is an update of a post from May (<a href="https://theiblblog.blogspot.com/2020/05/virtual-teaching-version-09-not-final.html" target="_blank">Virtual Teaching, Mixed Synchronous-Asynchronous</a>). Fall is approaching, and we're sadly in worse shape regarding the pandemic. My institution and others are going with virtual for fall 2020 and like the entire 2020-21 academic year. <div><br /></div><div>Last spring I taught Calculus 2 (quarter system). We started and ended virtually. My thoughts on organizing class are in the embedded slides below. Ideas apply to STEM and potentially HS.</div><div><br /></div><div>Setting aside labs and clinical subjects, good teaching is good teaching. Whatever the format, we can teach effectively in virtual formats. It doesn't have to be horrible. The false choice that is unfortunately presented in the media is (a) in person awesomeness and (b) deleterious virtual teaching. We can do an outstanding job teaching Math virtually, and we can help and support students learn this year.</div><div><br /></div><div>Quote from a student in Spring 20: “I actually took [Calculus 2] last quarter and got a D, learning hardly anything. This quarter though, the learning style you are using is super helpful to me. I am way less stressed…. also am significantly better at solving the very same calc problems!”</div><div><br /></div><div>Slides on a virtual teaching:</div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="299" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vT1lV2Yu7swRf5496DuSU4qQzHbe6xwNJ8VP5O4NePl80EToVCkr45eHggamN64F7qECZhoOoJHeSu5/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=30000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe>Stan Yoshinobuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02467790965265134782noreply@blogger.com