Cultivating Equity-Oriented Teaching Practices Through Adaptive Professional Teaching Communities

• In Event: 28.065 - Advancing Faculty Development: Self-Efficacy, Availability, and Learning Communities

Abstract

We examined the following research question: how do adaptive instructional development strategies in a professional teaching community (PTC) impact instructors’ equity-oriented philosophies and practices? We studied a PTC where facilitators administered weekly surveys and evaluations and used the data to adjust their instructional development strategies and continuously improve instructors’ learning experiences. The PTC helped instructors collaboratively design, rehearse, reflect upon, and revise their toolkits for equity-oriented pedagogies (e.g., universal design, digital and active learning). Our data showed that instructors were able to reduce deficit thinking, be more receptive to feedback, cultivate a growth mindset toward teaching, and strengthen equity-oriented practices. Instructors reported that the PTC helped them use classroom data, rather than their assumptions, to improve student learning.

Authors

• Judy Nguyen, Stanford University

• Andrew Estrada Phuong, University of California - Berkeley

• Fabrizio Daniel Mejia, Berkeley University of California

• Shahana Farooqi

• Claire Bang, University of California - Berkeley

• Diana Marie Heath, University of California - Berkeley

• Sophia Ouyang, Berkeley University of California

• Heaven Taylor, University of California - Berkeley

• Diana Magdalena Alcala Pelayo, University of California - Berkeley

• Tara Madhav, University of California - Berkeley

• Angela Nguyen