According to researchers Hogan and Sathy (2022) “inclusion is a culture in which all learners feel welcomed, valued, and safe” (p. 10). Creating a culture of inclusion means adopting an inclusive mind-set (Hogan & Sathy, 2022).

One way to develop an inclusive teaching mind-set is to practice questioning. For example, when making any instructional design or teaching decision, you might ask these questions:

1. “Who might be left behind as a result of my practice?
2. How can I invite those students in?” (Hogan& Sathy, 2022, p. 11).

According to Tanner (2017), cited in Hogan and Sathy (2022), learners feel excluded when there is a lack of structure in the learning environment. Low structure learning environments may contribute to feelings of unfairness, exclusion, or cultural collisions between students’ home culture and the class culture. In contrast, high structure supports a sense of fairness, inclusion, and student success (Hogan & Sathy, 2022).

Why High Structure. According to Hogan and Sathy (2022), high structure courses:

Hogan and Sathy (2022) recommend incorporating high structure characteristics into your course weekly routine and class sessions.

Welcome Email. Build rapport and communicate support with a brief, welcoming email to students 1-2 weeks or several days before the course begins. Consider these ideas:

• Share a thoughtful message that invites all students to the course,
• Include links to complete start-up tasks such as reading the syllabus, and
• Consider building rapport with appropriate self-disclosure. Some ideas include linking to some personal information, including a welcome video, or sharing a reflection on your experience as a student new to this field.

Pre-Course Survey. Use a survey to get to know your students, their experiences, and needs as they start the class. Consider including survey questions like:

• Name and pronunciation of their name
• Pronouns
• Major/minor
• What part of the state/country/globe are you from?
• What do you think you will learn in this class?
• What would make this course more meaningful or interesting to you?
• What have instructors done in the past that has worked well for you?
• It is important that all members of the class feel included, what does your vision of inclusivity look like? Or alternatively what does this NOT look like?
• Another variation: On the first day, ask students to anonymously fill out a note card or online form/survey answering: “I wish my professor knew that I don’t feel included when….”

Introduce Yourself. Bring inclusive strategies into your own introduction:

• Don’t assume, let students know how they should address you (Dr., etc.).
• Normalize sharing the pronunciation of your name and consider linking an audio in your email signature or course. You might invite students to do the same.
• Model how students might introduce themselves, “Hi I’m [name] and I use [pronouns] pronouns.”
• Share some personal information, such as your student journey to the field or passion for the topic.

Student Introductions. Practice inclusion when inviting students to introduce themselves:

• Always invite (not require) students to share information such as pronouns if they choose, as not everyone is ready to share that information publicly.
• When calling a student’s name, do not guess at pronunciation, ask them how to pronounce it, listen carefully, and repeat it until you get it right. Accurately pronouncing all your students’ names sends the message “you belong.”
• Consider inviting students to use name tents with names, pronouns, phonetic spelling
• Use a student’s name or gender-neutral terms to refer to students if you don’t remember their pronouns such as “Yes, that built on your classmate’s comment…”

Syllabus. Rather than telling students what’s in the syllabus, ask them what’s in the syllabus. Provide a brief overview of the content, then consider these kinds of activities:

• Engage students in a syllabus scavenger hunt.
• Students take a no-stakes syllabus quiz.
• Put students in small groups to discuss the content of the syllabus with prompts like “find one topic of interest that everyone in the group can agree on and share why.”
• Use an online discussion that prompts students to ask and answer questions about the syllabus content.

Hogan and Sathy (2022) offer various strategies for creating inclusive office hours.

Foster welcoming and approachable hours:

• • “Where’s home for you?
  • What kinds of things do you like to do in your free time?
  • What was one of your favorite courses last semester/in high school and why?
  • How did you decide to come to [insert school name]?
  • What are you considering as your major? (Occasionally, if the student seems open to it, you can ask about goals or plans after college, but this can be an unnerving start for some students.)” (Hogan & Sathy, 2022, p. 171).

• “Do you have a plan?
• Do you have rules to help others stick to the plan?
• How will you keep time?
• Are you willing to adjust the plan?
• Do you have accessible and clear instructions?
• Have you considered the physical space?” (Hogan & Sathy, 2022, p. 120-121)

Address microaggressions. Learn to recognize and address microaggressions. Help students learn about, recognize, and address microaggressions as well.

Rules of Engagement. Create structure by sharing or co-creating rules for participation. Establish what is expected and what is to be avoided. Establish accountability by having students discuss and propose how the class and instructor will handle situations where the rules are not followed. For example, if someone intentionally or unintentionally does not follow the rules, others can pause the conversation and remind them of the ground rules.

Timing. Clearly establish how much time groups will have together and provide suggestions for how to assure everyone participates, for example: In groups of 3, you will have 10 minutes total, each member will have 2 minutes to share their thoughts, then you’ll have 4 minutes as a group to decide on your group response. Have a plan to re-group, for example, give 1 minute countdown, ring a bell, or clap your hands 3 times to bring attention back to the whole group.

Groups and roles. Help students form groups to assure all students are included, consider purposefully assigning roles such as:

• Leader: Gets things started, assures others are engaging in their roles,
• Timekeeper: Helps makes sure the group is on time and everyone gets a turn,
• Moderator: Assures group stays on topic/task, and/or
• Reporter: Shares group thoughts with the whole class.
• Be sure to rotate roles to assure all students get the opportunity to lead group discussions.

Hogan and Sathy (2022) share many strategies for inclusive assessment, this section focuses specifically on some of their recommendations for inclusive exams.

Offer practice. Offer plenty of low and no-stakes practices that align with summative exams, so the questions and topics are not a surprise to students.  Consider these factors:

• Level of cognition. Do practices use exam-level questions? Do questions go beyond recall and ask students to apply, analyze, evaluate, etc.?
• Question format. Do practices use the same question types as exams?  For example, if the exam has essay questions, do the practices also include essay questions?
• Length and duration. Are there practice opportunities of similar length and duration of the exam?

• Format and length of the exam, including the number (how many questions) and format (multiple choice, essay, etc.) of questions.
• Clarify the exam conditions, when/if students can use outside materials or collaborate with others, if testing software will be used, and if there are enforced or unenforced time limits.
• Include information about scoring and evaluation methods such as how many total points, checklists/rubrics, etc.
• Communicate support of student success and shared responsibility, for example, “These exams tell us as much about how well I have taught as they will tell you about what you have learned” (Hogan & Sathy,  p. 182).

• Start class with an activity to put students at ease or helps students encourage each other before the exam, such as a brief poll or pair chat, a fun video, or motivational playlist.
• Provide instructions about what students can use as resources during the exam and what should be put away, as well as how to request leaving the room during an exam, such as for a bathroom break.
• Post a countdown timer for the exam period and post in the moment clarifications for everyone to see.
• Consider bringing supplies that students may need, such as extra pencils, sharpener, cough drops, tissues.

After the exam. Consider ways to incorporate inclusive evaluation, grading, and feedback practices such as:

• You might incorporate policies that allow for an occasional bad day or mistake such as dropped lowest scores, resubmissions, option to replace one midterm exam score with the final exam score if they performed better, etc.
• Grade items anonymously with names withheld.
• Develop and use evaluation rubrics.
• Provide positive, growth-minded tone in feedback that conveys high standards and belief in the students ability to meet those standards.
• Develop policies to handle questions that most students answer incorrectly, such as drop or give back points.
• Discuss results with students such as a distribution of scores and use the conversation to foster growth mindset.
• Consider ways to offer revisions and feedback including self, peer, and instructor assessment.
• Explore ways to use technology tools/features to help provide feedback.
• Contact individual students to invite them to meet with you or join an office hours or congratulate students who did well.
• In a shared document, invite students to share tips for what worked when preparing for the exam.
• Offer metacognitive wrappers to support students improve their learning strategies.

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