The HHMI Inclusive Excellence Initiative has three main goals in working with faculty:
1) Assisting with the incorporation of psychosocial and metacognitive strategies in introductory STEM courses to improve inclusion and student performance.
2) Creation of structured learning communities to promote collaboration and sharing of ideas, resources, and strategies related to inclusion.
3) Collaborate with STEM faculty to collect data on changes made in their courses, and provide faculty with feedback to refine these changes and to better achieve their course objectives.
These goals aim to create a more inclusive and welcoming classroom environment, which will ultimately assist in addressing achievement gaps among students. CIRCLE provides a variety of workshops and resources for faculty to learn and discuss the latest research on best practices:
- Community for Innovations in STEM Teaching, Inclusion, & Learning (CISTIL): a workshop series designed to support STEM faculty with inclusive teaching strategies. While the main focus is to reach faculty who teach introductory courses, we welcome any STEM practitioners to participate.
- CIRCLE Teaching Academy: A community of practice combining members of CISTIL and TIES to promote and sustain continual improvements in STEM education. Workshops are held approximately 2-3 times a year to facilitate conversations on evidence-based pedagogy.
- CIRCLE Teaching Academy Speaker Series: a speaker series stemming from the Teaching Academy that brings in speakers with expertise in evidence-based teaching strategies or the learning sciences to give keynote lectures about their research. The speakers are also available to meet with interested STEM faculty to provide personalized recommendations for how to incorporate strategies in their own classrooms.
- Consultations with an Education Specialist: As part of the grant, CIRCLE has brought on Ali York, an Education Specialist who specializes in implementation of inclusive practices. Ali is available to collaborate with any STEM faculty on course transformation projects. Interested faculty should contact Ali York at amyork@wustl.edu.
- Classroom Observations: As a continuation of the AAU Grant, we continue to conduct classroom observations using OPAL. This provides instructors with unbiased feedback about their teaching and allows them to reflect if this meets their desired outcomes. If you are a STEM faculty member and are interested in having your class observed, contact Ali York at amyork@wustl.edu.