Readings

Catherine Ford, Rigor and Flexibility: A False Dichotomy

We often hear FLC participants say things like, “Look, I can be flexible. I can let students turn things in late or find ways to bring their grade up. But they’ll be unprepared professionally, so being flexible is really doing them a disservice.” This perspective—that “flexibility” results in reduction of academic rigor—is challenged in this article, where Ford contests the notion that deadline compliance and knowledge regurgitation constitute “rigor” and suggests that critical thinking and knowledge creation actually necessitate flexibility and student agency.

Hammond, 3 Tips to Make Any Lesson More Culturally Responsive

Not up for “rappin’ about the periodic table”? GOOD, because that’s not culturally responsive teaching. In this article, Hammond essentially summarizes the key elements of Parts 2 & 3 of Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain, drawing on her argument that American educational environments tend to ignore cultural practices that rely heavily on oral learning. She suggests three strategies: gamify it, make it social, and storify it.

Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), Small Teaching Changes, Big Learning Benefits

This article provides an overview of the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) project, which has shown how a few simple structural changes in teaching can result in significant benefits, especially for “underrepresented, first-generation, and low-income students.” You can learn more about TILT in this module’s Deeper Dive.

Media and Other Resources

Anya Kamenetz, Learning Myths Quiz

This quiz and article helps you explore some of the common misconceptions and practices about learning that are not based in what we know about how people learn. You might be surprised at what myths you’re still incorporating into your teaching! Take a few minutes to try the quiz and read about this issue before exploring some of the practices that research in the Learning Sciences tells us is effective.

Digital Promise, Introduction to the Learning Sciences

Digital Promise has created a nice overview of what Learning Sciences entail, along with some nifty graphical representations. Start here to get a better understanding of the 10 key insights offered by learning sciences.

Hammond, Using Neuroscience to Help Students

Inclusive Teaching: Evidence-Based Teaching Guides

Although written with STEM in mind, this extraordinarily well-documented interactive resource provides specific, evidenced-based recommendations for inclusive teaching that apply across disciplines.

The Ultimate Learning Sciences Research Rabbit Hole: Network Graph Visualization

Just how deep do you wanna go? This is a massive, interactive web of research in learning sciences published between 2009 and 2018, spatially organizing over 110,000 articles by topic, relationship, and significance to the field. If you want to explore the research around a specific area you’re considering for your Action Plan, this is the place to go!