Chancellor's Professor of English & Director of the Office of Student Research, IU Columbus
My goal is to be a thoughtful, careful, and empathetic teacher, and so I immerse myself in professional development—realizing that I can always grow, just as my students can.
I first enrolled in the Mosaic Faculty Fellows program when it was a new active learning initiative. With such great learning experiences the first time around, I knew that the new Mosaic track in inclusion and accessibility would be grounded in effective, evidence-based teaching strategies and scholarship.
Ongoing improvement is one of the core values of my teaching philosophy. I work to improve what I'm already strong at and work on what needs to be improved. My teaching and research center on inclusivity, so it's already an area of strength for me. I'm not as knowledgeable about accessibility, especially with respect to technology, so I'm learning as much as I can.
My goal is to work with students to enable them to become the best academic versions of themselves. I want to ensure that my students obtain the critical thinking, reading, writing, and leadership skills that enable them to be communicators, problem solvers, innovators, and community contributors.
I know that students can and will succeed through marshaling and implementing practices of Universal Design for Learning and feminist pedagogies—which prize inclusion and accessibility—and other evidence-based teaching strategies, especially active learning ones. If we design for and facilitate inclusion, accessibility, and diversity in our classrooms, then we create a safe, welcoming space for everyone.
In my classes, we emphasize that we are a scholarly community, and participation and engagement are expected from all. My students benefit greatly from learning in a Mosaic classroom that supports flexible seating configurations, innovative class assignments and activities, and a method of delivery (mini lectures and whole-class discussions) that values every student. These practices lead to extraordinarily high rates of participation and engagement.
My students cite these dynamics as transformative, allowing them to learn difficult and challenging concepts and material (and a lot of it!). I'm proud of this outcome because when students understand they can learn difficult material and that there are rewards that come with it—a sense of accomplishment in concert with new knowledge, skills, abilities, and outlooks that are personally and professionally significant—then learning becomes an exciting pursuit.
I'm grateful that IU values and supports high-quality scholarly teaching because such teaching makes all the difference for our students. When you become immersed in the literature about inclusion and accessibility, you realize that you won't have all the answers or maybe get it right all the time. It's important to be adaptable and to put in the work and effort to getting it right as often as you can.
Even one pedagogical change when it comes to inclusion and accessibility can make a significant and measurable impact in the classroom and in the learning experiences of our students. Over time, these small changes become substantial ones when taken together.
It's a never-ending journey with respect to designing and teaching for inclusion and accessibility, but it's a journey that my students and I have found to be very important and completely rewarding.
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Visit the Assistive Technology and Accessibilty Center, the Digital Gardner Initiative, IU eTexts, the Mosaic Initiative, Teaching.IU, XRI, ACI Fellows, and the IU Knowledge Base—not to mention your campus teaching and learning center—for more on topics related to this issue.
