Transparency as a Strategy to Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

How does transparency promote diversity, equity and inclusion?

According to the research conducted by a grassroots assessment project, the Illinois Initiative on Transparency in Learning and Teaching, a correlation between transparent design and student success was found (Winklemes 2013). Amongst the findings of this research, new data was found about learning practices that support underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students in their studies. Students whose faculty practiced transparency had greater self-confidence with an increased ability to recognize when they needed help in their learning.

Winklemes notes that this research is opening up further ways to improve retention and graduation rates for underrepresented and nontraditional students.

Read full report: Transparency in Teaching: Faculty Share Data and Improve Students’ Learning By Mary-Ann Winkelmes

Because it is known that many of our students suffer from library and research-related anxiety, often feeling inadequate, confused or insecure about how to find things in the library, Leuzinger and Grallo (2019) stress the importance of intentionality in activity and lesson planning. Transparency can help lessen the amount of clarifying questions from students, address confusion due to opaque directives, and allow the students to feel confident going into the lesson or activity, rather than seeped in fear, confusion and dread.

Often first generation students have difficulty navigating their professor’s expectations and knowing how to satisfy those expectations. With transparency, the professor or instructor’s criteria is revealed, taking some of the guesswork out for the student. Similar to best practices within Universal Design for Learning, professor’s added efforts in visual cues within their syllabus have proven effective for first generation students. In addition, transparency provides a framework to connect in-class content with actual reality, explaining how students will use lessons or skills in other courses, in their daily lives, and within future careers.

Read full report: Reaching First- Generation and Underrepresented Students through Transparent Assignment Design

Read also: First Principles: Designing Services for First-Generation Students

Burns, Lundgren, Vecchie (2020) defines culturally responsive assessment in four categories: (a) including students in the assessment process, (b) reconceptualizing assessment, (c) examining equity in the classroom, and (d) increasing transparency and accessibility (178).

Professors can be more culturally responsive in allowing students to choose how they want to demonstrate their learning. This may look like assessing student work outside the typical standardized test or essay. It would be interesting to think about how culturally responsive assessment would work in Transparent Design within one-shot sessions.

Read full report: Culturally responsive assessment in the psychology college classroom

References

Arch, Xan and Gilman, Isaac. (2019). First principles: Designing services for first-generation students. Library Faculty Publications and Presentations, 11. https://pilotscholars.up.edu/lib_facpubs/11

Burns, K. C., Lundgren, M., & Vecchie, R. (2020). Culturally responsive assessment in the psychology college classroom. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 6(3), 177–184. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000220

Leuzinger, Ryne and Grallo, Jacqui. (2019). Reaching first- generation and underrepresented students through transparent assignment design. Library Faculty Publications and Presentations, 11. https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/lib_fac/11

Winklemes, M.A. (2013). Transparency in teaching: Faculty share data and improve students’ learning. Liberal Education, 99(2). https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/transparency-teaching-faculty-share-data-and-improve-students

Winkelmes, M. A., Boye, A., & Tapp, S. (2019). Transparent design in higher education teaching and leadership: A guide to implementing the transparency framework institution-wide to improve learning and retention. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.