Learning Community Topics and Members

Learning Communities

Evaluation and Student Success

Can how we evaluate students help level the playing field? In this group, faculty will review the literature and reflect on how their methods of assessing student progress may affect different groups of students. Are there ways to set students up for greater success? What models might work better?

Members: Anne Cantu, Jonathan Garlick, Sonia Ortiz-Miranda, Patricia Smith

Teaching Inclusively in Large Enrollment Courses

How can we teach more inclusively in large courses? Can we engage our students more fully? Faculty in this group will wrestle with the perceived limitations of teaching large courses. How can we give better feedback for learning than simply exams? Can we design for more variety in how we foster student learning?  What does active and engaged learning mean in these courses?

Learning Spaces and Inclusion

Members: Sasha Fleary, Peggy Morris, Danilo Marchesini, Mitch McVey

Inclusive Teaching in Online Environments

This group of faculty are interested in how online environments might facilitate or hinder inclusive teaching. They are experimenting with the use of teams, expectation setting, discussion boards and how to develop a strong sense of community online.

Members: Ethan Danahy, CEEO, Engineering, Misha Eliasziw, Public Health, Diane McKay, Friedman, Felicia Sullivan, Tisch College

Inclusive Teaching in the STEM Disciplines

Improving the retention of diverse groups of students in the STEM disciplines is a national concern. This community is interested in understanding what kinds of strategies to teach inclusively help retain students. What are the most effective supports that we can build into our courses? Are there better ways to structure how we teach in STEM that will result in greater success?

Members: Francie Chew, Biology, Juliet Fuhrman, Biology, Ben Hescott, Computer Science, Jonathan Kenny, Chemistry, Mitch McVey, Biology, Sam Thomas, Chemistry, Darryl Williams, Engineering, STEM Diversity

Difficult Dialogues

This learning community focused on how we can create environments and opportunities in the classroom for facilitating difficult dialogues around significant and controversial issues. It also focused on how to respond to difficult conversations when they arise with students whether in class or outside of class, and how to use the difficult interaction as a learning opportunity for students and faculty alike.

Members: Jennifer Allen, Community Health, Julie Dobrow, Communications and Media Studies, Deborah Donahue-Keegan, Education, Barbara Parmenter, UEP, Cynthia Robinson, Museum Studies, Debbie Schildkraut, Political Science

Teaching for Inclusive Excellence

This learning community explored how to teach in ways that are not only inclusive and reflective of the wide range of Tufts undergraduate students, but that also capitalize on that diversity to create deeper, more transformative learning experiences for our students and ourselves.

Members: Sergiy Kryatov, Chemistry, Keith Maddox, Psychology, Danny McCusker, Dance and Drama, David Proctor, History, Susan Setnik, Classics

*These faculty development activities are made possible by a generous grant from the Davis Educational Foundation established by Stanton and Emily Davis after Mr. Davis’ retirement as chairman of Shaw’s Supermarket, Inc.