Every Voice Matters: Designing an Equitable Classroom Discussion Observation Protocol to Engage All Students

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 9:00 am
  In Roundtable Session: Creating New Spaces and Methods for Equity in Science Teaching and Learning (Table 22)

Abstract

As U.S. schools become increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse, educators must ensure all students have access to quality science learning experiences. Students’ perspectives and participation are valuable to knowledge construction in their learning communities. It is necessary to provide equitable learning opportunities for students to engage in classroom discussions to achieve social justice and epistemological equity in education. This paper describes the development of an equitable classroom discussion observation protocol, which contains a checklist format of observable teacher practices to include students’ socio-cultural and linguistic, social-emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagements. It can be used as a formative assessment, a teacher self-reflection tool, or by an external observer to become more aware of incorporating equitable and inclusive practices.

Authors

• Lin Yan, Arizona State University

• Jeremy Bernier, Clemson University

• Man Su, Saarland Informatics Campus

• Rezwana Islam, Arizona State University

• Brian C. Nelson, Arizona State University