ODECE works with Emeritus Consulting, LLC to bring nationally renowned experts in inclusive pedagogy to campus.  

Inclusive Pedagogy Showcase: October 15 - 16

Tuesday, Oct. 15 | 8:30 - 10 am | UMC Aspen Rooms 

Plenary Session: Inclusive Pedagogy as Opportunities for Innovation

Panelists: Provost Russ Moore, CU Boulder; Founding Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, Dr. Kirk Ambrose, CU Boulder; Dr. Gwendolyn Jordan Dungy, and Dr. Alma Clayton-Pedersen

Please join visiting esteemed scholars and inclusive pedagogy experts for a panel discussion with Dr. Alma Clayton-Pedersen who served as a Vice President at AAC&U from 2001 - 2010, and Dr. Gwendolyn Jordan Dungy who served as executive director of NASPA from 1995 - 2012 and who is a Senior Fellow at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success. They will be joined by CU Boulder Provost Dr. Russell Moore and inaugural Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Dr. Kirk Ambrose. The panelists will discuss the central role that inclusive pedagogy plays in teaching excellence and student learning outcomes, and how it will be an increasingly vital element of teaching and learning well into the future. Establishing inclusive pedagogy as a hallmark of making excellence inclusive at CU Boulder also creates opportunities for collaborative innovation and research, as well as grant pursuits. The panelists will discuss what such opportunities might look like at CU Boulder, and how this work may have a broader impact on the P-K- 20 education pipeline. Participants will have time for discussion and Q&A. The session will be moderated by visiting education expert Ms. Sonja Armstrong.


Tuesday, Oct. 15 | 1 - 2:30pm | UMC Aspen Rooms RSVP

Becoming a Resilient Practitioner of Inclusive Pedagogy

Presenters: Dr. Ashley Finley, Dr. Karen Inkelas, Dr. Alma Clayton-Pedersen

Join us in welcoming back esteemed scholars and inclusive pedagogy specialists Dr. Ashley Finley and Dr. Karen Inkelas as they lead a hands-on workshop that explores the nuances of enhancing your role as an inclusive pedagogy practitioner. These specialists will join the session remotely and moderated in person by Dr. Alma Clayton-Pedersen. The session will offer opportunities for you to share and explore your successes and challenges of becoming an inclusive pedagogy practitioner. We expect this session to provide direct feedback about how to address some of the challenges the CU Boulder community has faced in implementing inclusive pedagogies and offer new strategies for newcomers to the discussion. We will also facilitate conversation with and engagement among Drs. Finely and Inkelas, new practitioners and those already implement these pedagogies. Session participants will leave with strong knowledge about how inclusive pedagogical practices can be implemented in accessible and effective ways.


Wednesday, Oct. 16 | 8:30 - 10:30 am | UMC 415-417 RSVP

Inclusive Pedagogy: The Way Forward

Presenters: Dr. George Kuh, Dr. Saundra McGuire, Dr. Thomas Nelson Laird, Dr. Kelly Mack, Dr. Alma Clayton-Pedersen

The opening workshop will be followed by two concurrent breakout sessions. We will first engage in a brief whole-group discussion, followed by two hands-on breakouts featuring guest specialists in inclusive pedagogy and learning assessment.  This preamble to the workshops will comment on the current state of inclusive pedagogy, and the scholarship on teaching and learning practices.


Following opening workshop

Breakout #1:  Pathways to Implementing Inclusive Pedagogies Pervasively
Presenters: Dr. Saundra McGuire, Dr. Kelly Mack, Ms. Sonja Armstrong

Moderated by Dr. Clayton-Pedersen, this session is designed to take a deep-dive into ways to advance these practices and look using the 4-M model to look at activities on the disciplinary, personal, departmental, institutional and levels. This session welcomes returning inclusive pedagogy experts Dr. Saundra McGuire and Dr. Kelly Mack to share their wisdom and inspire our thinking.

Breakout #2:  Pathways to Assessing the Impact of Inclusive Pedagogies Pervasively
Presenters: Dr. Thomas Nelson Laird, Dr. George Kuh, Dr. Alma Clayton-Pedersen

Moderated by Ms. Armstrong, this session is designed to address methods of robustly assessing the inclusive pedagogies that have been implemented or planned to be implemented. Participants will engage in discussion about considerations of assessment tools based on the learning outcomes expected from the practices they have used or expect to use. This session welcomes returning inclusive pedagogy and assessment specialists Dr. George Kuh and Dr. Thomas L. Nelson Laird.


Dr. Kathy Obear, March 18-19, 2019

Kathy O'bearThrough leadership development, staff training, organizational consulting, and executive coaching Dr. Obear has supported leaders and staff to develop the competencies and determination to create more inclusive practices, policies, programs, and services and create the organizational infrastructure necessary for sustainable, systemic change. She partners with organizational change agents to design and implement strategic activities to increase the readiness for change, deepen internal capacity, and institutionalize shifts to transform organizational culture and daily practices.

A successful author of three books with over 30 years of experience specializing in conflict resolution, change management, and creating inclusive environments, Dr. Kathy Obear is a leading expert in helping to establish socially just environments where everyone feels valued and respected.

As the founder of The Center for Transformation and Change, Obear has given speeches, facilitated training sessions, and consulted to top leaders at hundreds of universities, human services organizations, and corporations across the United States and internationally with a goal to increase the passion, competence, and commitment to create inclusive, socially just environments for all members of the organization.

 Join this interactive, skill-based session where participants will practice tools and strategies to create a sense of belonging for all students, help students see themselves in course materials, and collectively set expectations to accelerate student learning and success. Obear will provide insight on creating space for respectful dialogue and disagreements, as well as building awareness and skill in minimizing microaggressions. 

 Participants in this interactive, skill-based session will practice tools and strategies to interrupt racist dynamics in the moment, respond effectively to racism in ways that further learning, and revise classroom practices and policies with a Racial Lens to promote greater student success for all. For participants who grew up in predominantly white schools, families, neighborhoods and workplaces, it can be difficult to recognize common racist microaggressions and dynamics that occur in classrooms; this session is designed to help deepen that capacity. 

 Join this interactive, skill-based session where participants will practice tools and strategies to create a sense of belonging for all students, help students see themselves in course materials, and collectively set expectations to accelerate student learning and success. Obear will provide insight on creating space for respectful dialogue and disagreements, as well as building awareness and skill in minimizing microaggressions. 

Dr. George Kuh, February 18-19, 2019

ODECE is excited to host Dr. George Kuh, Founding Director, Senior Scholar and Co-principal Investigator at the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, for the fifth round of Inclusive Pedagogy Workshops for Spring 2019.


High-impact practices (HIPs) have become part of the lexicon of American higher education. Over the past decade, national and individual institution data provide persuasive evidence that students participating in one or more HIPs benefit in unusually postive ways.  This is because, when done well, a HIP induces students to devote more effort to educationally purposeful activities. In addition, HIPs confer salutary effects on students from historically underrepresented backgrounds and the less well-prepared, as they appear to help boost academic performance and persistence above predicted levels. In this session, we’ll review the suite of activities that at the present time qualify as a HIP, such as discipline-based first-year seminars, learning communities, writing-intensive courses, service learning, study away, undergraduate research, and internships.  Emphasis will be given to the features of HIPs that foster the success of ALL students, advance the equity agenda, and cultivate such dispositional attributes as interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies that employers say are essential to workplace effectiveness. 


When is something called a HIP really a high-impact practice?  That is, how can we be confident that students will realize the promising effects of HIPs participation?  One critical factor is implementation fidelity – making certain that the experience includes the eight features common to a high-quality HIP.  Another topic that warrants attention is what needs to be done so that a given HIP works well in the local campus context and culture.  In this session, we’ll look more closely at these issues as well as other institutional policies and programs that contribute to student success including some that have the potential to confer HIP-like effects if intentionally modified.  We’ll also consider the key elements that constitute a high-quality, developmentally powerful HIP including learning communities, student-faculty research, and a capstone or culminating experience.  Finally, we’ll spend some time reflecting on key take-aways from the previous sessions and priorities going forward in order to double down on the equity-minded student success efforts agenda. 


Substantial empircal evidence shows that students who participate in high-impact practices (HIPs) are more engaged in educationally purposeful tasks, inside and outside the classroom.  In addition, students who have done two or more HIPs are more likely to persist and complete their studies. Continuing challenges for most institutions are increasing the number of available high-quality HIP-like experiences and addressing the documented disparities in the characterisitcs of students who do a HIP.  Initiatives such as the NASH Taking Student Success to Scale (TS3) are focused on these issues.  At the same time, individual campuses also must leverage existing resources and engage additional partners in the work.  In this session, we’ll consider the range of complementary policies and practices that help create a culture of student success.  Emphasis will be given to different approaches to scaling HIPs participation by linking the promise of HIPs to institutional priorities and involving various campus offices and programs to make more students aware of and induce them to pursue one or more HIPs.  For example, systematically incorporatng periodic reflection into student employment is one way to engage large numbers of students in something akin to a high-impact experience.

For information on how to access the recordings of Dr. Kuh's sessions, please contact odece@colorado.edu

George KuhODECE is excited to host Dr. George Kuh, Founding Director, Senior Scholar and Co-principal Investigator at the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, for the fifth round of Inclusive Pedagogy Workshops for Spring 2019. He is adjunct research professor at the University of Illinois and Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at Indiana University (IU). He is a senior scholar and founding director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) as well as the founding director of IU’s Center for Postsecondary Research and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). George D. Kuh is adjunct research professor at the University of Illinois and Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at Indiana University (IU). He is a senior scholar and founding director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) as well as the founding director of IU’s Center for Postsecondary Research and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). George has more than 400 publications and made several hundred presentations on topics related to assessment strategies, institutional improvement, college student engagement, and campus cultures. He has consulted with about 400 institutions and organizations in the U.S. and abroad. His recent books include Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education (2015), Ensuring Quality and Taking High-Impact Practices to Scale (2013), High Impact Practices (2008), and Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter (2005, 2010). His work has been recognized with awards from the American College Personnel Association, American Educational Research Association, Association for Institutional Research, Association for the Study of Higher Education, Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, Council of Independent Colleges, National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and National Center on Public Policy in Higher Education as well as eleven honorary degrees.

HIPs at 10

Holistic Student Development

High-Impact Educational Practices

Dr. Tia Brown McNair, October 22-23, 2018

ODECE is excited to host Dr. Tia Brown McNair, Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success at Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC, for the fourth round of Inclusive Pedagogy Workshops for Spring 2018.

Making Excellence Inclusive is AAC&U’s guiding principle for access, student success, and high-quality learning. It is designed to help colleges and universities integrate diversity, equity, and educational quality efforts into their missions and institutional operations. Through the vision and practice of inclusive excellence, AAC&U calls for higher education to address diversity, inclusion, and equity as critical to the wellbeing of democratic culture. Making excellence inclusive is thus an active process through which colleges and universities achieve excellence in learning, teaching, student development, institutional functioning, and engagement in local and global communities. A high-quality, practical liberal education should be the standard of excellence for all students. The action of making excellence inclusive requires that we uncover inequities in student success, identify effective educational practices, and build such practices organically for sustained institutional change. Through a discussion of selected AAC&U strategic initiatives, including the Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence: Campus-Based Strategies for Student Success project, and the Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) Institute, participants will identify strategies to accelerate broad-scale systemic innovation to advance educational practices that engage diversity and challenge inequities in student outcomes to make excellence inclusive.

To what degree does greater transparency of intent and purpose of high-impact practices (HIPs) contribute to underserved students depth of engagement in and learning from these experiences? What are effective strategies for improving transparency and communication of goals, as part of instructional design and development? How does increased student engagement through problem-centered high-impact practices result in demonstrated improvement of student achievement of learning outcomes? Through a discussion of the lessons learned from the Association of American College and Universities’ project Transparency and Problem-Centered Learning participants will explore practical steps to advance student learning and success.

Imagine if the national conversation on college readiness and student success engaged in a reframing of the question "Are students college-ready?" to “Are our postsecondary institutions student-ready?” Becoming a Student-Ready College provides a new perspective on designing and leading student success efforts by asking the more pragmatic question of what are colleges and universities doing to prepare for the students who are entering our institutions? What changes need to be made in an institution's policies, practices, and culture to make excellence inclusive for ALL students? Through a discussion of key principles from Becoming a Student-Ready College this session will help campuses identify and strengthen efforts to improve student learning and persistence toward completion.

Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success at Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC.  She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact educational practices, and student success, including AAC&U’s Network for Academic Renewal series of yearly working conferences.  McNair also directs AAC&U’s Summer Institute on High-Impact Educational Practices and Student Success. McNair serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives: "Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation," “Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence: Campus-Based Strategies for Student Success,” and Purposeful Pathways: Faculty Planning and Curricular Coherence.” She directed AAC&U's projects on "Advancing Underserved Student Success through Faculty Intentionality in Problem-Centered Learning,” "Advancing Roadmaps for Community College Leadership to Improve Student Learning and Success,” and "Developing a Community College Roadmap. McNair chaired AAC&U’s Equity Working Group that was part of the General Education Maps and Markers (GEMs) project that represented a large-scale, systematic effort to provide “design principles” for 21st-century learning and long-term student success. She is the lead author of the book Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016). McNair is a co-author on the publication Assessing Underserved Students’ Engagement in High-Impact Practices.  Prior to joining AAC&U, McNair served as the Assistant Director of the National College Access Network (NCAN) in Washington, DC. McNair’s previous experience also includes serving as a Social Scientist/Assistant Program Director in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources at the National Science Foundation (NSF), Director of University Relations at the University of Charleston in Charleston, West Virginia; the Statewide Coordinator for the Educational Talent Search Project at the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission; and the Interim Associate Director of Admissions and Recruitment Services at West Virginia State University. She has served as an adjunct faculty member at several institutions where she taught first-year English courses. McNair earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and English at James Madison University and holds an M.A. in English from Radford University and a doctorate in higher education administration from George Washington University.

Dr. Thomas Laird, April 9 - 10, 2018

ODECE is excited to host Dr. Thomas Laird, associate professor in the Higher Education and Student Affairs Program and Director of the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University Bloomington, for the third round of Inclusive Pedagogy Workshops for Spring 2018.

Given current issues on campus and within the community as well as what is known about the educational benefits of diversity, the need for each and every course to examine how to be more inclusive is palpable. Relying on a model developed by the facilitator, participants in this interactive session will learn how to use the model to plan on making courses and programs more inclusive and to assess the diversity inclusivity of such educational experiences. For context and comparison, results from the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement will be used to illustrate how the model can be operationalized for assessment as well as help participants understand how faculty members from 4-year institutions across the country reported including diversity into the different elements of their courses (e.g., purpose/goals, content, pedagogy, and assessment/evaluation). Participants will have opportunities to examine their current practices, plan to introduce more inclusive practices in the future, and discuss the opportunities and challenges in this work.

In this session, we will explore aspects of a campus culture that foster high-impact practices (HIPs), including widespread participation in and valuing of HIPs by students and faculty. Relying heavily on what’s been learned from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE), we will examine how different elements of a HIP culture connect to one another. For example, we will see how getting more faculty to value HIPs could be a component of increasing student participation in HIPs. We will unpack who participates in and values HIPs and ask how to build a HIP culture equitably. Session participants will leave with ideas and plans to gather information, develop support, and work through challenges and resistance in order to build a HIP culture that fosters equitable HIP participation and outcomes.

In this interactive session, participants will learn how faculty members can be more actively involved in assessment, how to be more inclusive in their teaching, and how to better encourage student participation in high-impact practices. More than simply describing each of these, however, the facilitator will attempt to persuade participants that their action is needed now and it is their responsibility to be more engaged. Participants will examine evidence, much coming from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE), and participate in exercises that reinforce the case for greater engagement. Active questioning of the facilitator and each other will be encouraged.

Thomas LairdThomas F. Nelson Laird (Ph.D., 2003, University of Michigan) is an associate professor in the Higher Education and Student Affairs Program and Director of the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University Bloomington. Tom received a B.A. and M.S. in mathematics before shifting his academic focus to higher education. His current work concentrates on improving teaching and learning at colleges and universities, with a special emphasis on the design, delivery, and effects of curricular experiences with diversity. He is principal investigator for the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement, a companion project to the National Survey of Student Engagement. Author of dozens of articles and reports, Tom’s work has appeared in key scholarly and practitioner publications. He also consults with institutions of higher education and related organizations on topics ranging from effective assessment practices to the inclusion of diversity into the curriculum.

Dr. Kimberly Tanner, March 21 - 22, 2018

ODECE is excited to partner with Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) in hosting Dr. Kimberly Tanner, professor of Biology at San Francisco State University and director of SEPAL (the Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory), for the second round of Inclusive Pedagogy Workshops for Spring 2018.

Through the language they use, instructors create classroom environments that have the potential to impact learning by affecting student motivation, resistance, belonging, and self-efficacy. Effective learning environments require instructor leadership in communicating in dynamic ways, motivating high-quality student work, building trust, and embracing the teaching and learning process. However, despite the critical importance of instructor language to the student experience, little research has investigated what instructors are saying in undergraduate classrooms. We systematically investigated instructor language that was not directly relate to content and defined this as Instructor Talk. Using a grounded theory approach, we have identified five robust categories of Instructor Talk that can characterize ~90% of non-content language found in over 60 courses: 1) Building Instructor/Student Relationships, 2) Establishing Classroom Culture, 3) Explaining Pedagogical Choices, 4) Sharing Personal Experience, and 5) Unmasking Science. The remaining ~10% of instances of Instructor Talk in these settings were categorized as non-productive or potentially discouraging in nature. Attention to Instructor Talk in undergraduate classrooms may be key for instructors to create inclusive learning environments. (1-1.5 hour)

Teaching diverse populations of students requires instructors to construct learning environments that are inclusive and equitable. Research in psychology and other disciplines suggests that how students personally experience learning environments strongly influences engagement, motivation, sense of belonging, and conceptual learning. Additionally, constructing a learner-centered classroom – with ample opportunities for small-group dialogues and for student reflection on learning – is associated with higher learning gains. In this interactive workshop, participants will share a common experience as the basis for discussing how students may experience classroom environments differently from one another. Individual participants will then have the opportunity to self-assess their current awareness 21 common equitable teaching strategies and identify those that could be immediately implemented in their classrooms. (1.5-2 hours)

Kimberly TannerKimberly D. Tanner, Ph.D. is a tenured Professor of Biology with a research focus in Biology Education and is Director of SEPAL – The Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory, which is her research group within the Department of Biology at San Francisco State University. Since joining the SFSU faculty in 2004, Dr. Tanner’s SEPAL research group has addressed three main lines of inquiry: 1) understanding the novice-to-expert transition among undergraduate biology majors, 2) developing novel assessment approaches to revealing student conceptions in science, and 3) evaluating the effectiveness of approaches to promoting equity in science. Her collaborative research investigating Science Faculty with Education Specialties (SFES) has been published in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and PLOS ONE. She has been Principal Investigator on NSF-funded GK-12, TUES, CAREER, and Core Research awards, as well on a National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership award and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Science Education Award. Through these awards, she has engaged hundreds of science faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students – locally, regionally, and nationally – in professional development to support innovative and evidence-based science teaching. Dr. Tanner is a founding member of the Editorial Board for CBE: Life Sciences Education, co-author of the widely read Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning features, and co-author of Transformations: Approaches to College Science Teaching. Dr. Tanner regularly serves on committees for the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the American Society for Cell Biology. Dr. Tanner has been nationally and internationally recognized for both her research and her teaching in biology, including receiving the 2012 National Outstanding Undergraduate Science Teacher Award from the Society for College Science Teachers, being invited faculty for the 2016 Latin American School for Education, Cognitive, and Neural Sciences, and receiving the 2017 Bruce Alberts Science Education Award from the American Society for Cell Biology. Kimberly earned her BA in Biochemistry from Rice University in 1991, her PhD in Neuroscience from UC San

Francisco in 1997. She also completed a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology Education (PFSMETE) jointly between Stanford University and UC San Francisco.

Dr. Ashley Finley, February 26-27, 2018

ODECE is excited to host Dr. Ashley Finley, Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Dominican Experience at The Dominican University of California, for the first round of Inclusive Pedagogy Workshops for Spring 2018.

As the implementation of high-impact practices (HIPs) has become more prevalent on campuses, important questions about efficacy have emerged among national and campus-based researchers. This is particularly the case with regard to participation in HIPs among historically underserved and underrepresented students because they are rapidly becoming the new majority across the country. As discussions around access to higher education have accelerated, understanding how particular pedagogies influence the learning experiences of these students is imperative. It is also important to understand a) the effects of students’ participation in multiple high-impact practices, and b) the ways in which the quality of implementation of these practices influences students’ experiences and outcomes. This workshop will draw upon findings from a national research project that explores the efficacy of high-impact practices for these students, and considers the broader implications of these practices for all students. Participants will consider findings from quantitative data and student narratives, and how an equity-minded approach to facilitating student learning translates at the classroom level. The discussion will emphasize how collaborative work among faculty, staff and administrators can build an inquiry-guided and evidence-based approach for developing a deeper understanding of student learning and success.

Assessing the efficacy of high-impact practices, particularly at the course-level, can be determined in different ways. But one critical part of this assessment is measuring the degree to which students can demonstrate the learning outcomes intended from engaging in a particular high-impact experience. It is one thing for students to believe they possess a skill, but quite another to actually demonstrate it. Using an example of student work, faculty will engage in a hands-on exercise to understand how to interpret and apply a learning outcomes rubric designed to assess students’ cognitive development (i.e. the Critical Thinking AAC&U VALUE Rubric). The focus of the session is to deepen faculty members’ understanding of how such rubrics can be used at the course, program, and institutional levels to guide equity-minded inquiry of student learning and success over time, particularly for underserved students. As part of this process we will also consider the essential role of assignment design to promote better learning and assessment of learning outcomes.

Though high-impact practices contribute in significant ways to changes in students’ cognitive development, what is often underappreciated are the ways in which these learning experiences also contribute to their well-being. By connecting learning and well-being, campus conversations about “whole student development” can move beyond the boundaries of student affairs and into the innovative territory between the curriculum and co-curriculum. In this space, the value of students working through challenging problems, persevering to complete projects, and the resilience to overcome failure are seen as valued parts of the learning process, rather than fringe benefits. This session will explore how aspects of student well-being can be intentionally articulated and assessed alongside other essential learning outcomes, and why these outcomes are integral to a commitment to Inclusive Excellence. Participants will consider national and campus-based research connecting student learning with well-being outcomes such as sense of purpose and flourishing. We will also discuss how a commitment to whole student development as part of high-impact practices can provide a meaningful bridge between classroom learning and students’ personal development.

Ashley FinleyDr. Ashley Finley is the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs & Dean of the Dominican Experience at Dominican University of California and the national evaluator for the Bringing Theory to Practice (BTtoP) Project. She was the senior director of assessment and research at AAC&U and is currently an AAC&U senior fellow. Finley’s research and campus-based work focuses on connecting best practices for program implementation, assessment design, and inclusive excellence with institutional goals and strategic planning. She has published a number of articles, book chapters, and monographs, including Civic Learning and Teaching; Assessing Underserved Students’ Engagement in High-Impact Practices; and “Well-Being: An Essential Outcomes for Higher Education.” In her role with Bringing Theory to Practice, Dr. Finley has worked with campuses to implement and assess programs focused on the intersection of emphases attendant to the whole student— their engagement in learning, civic development, and psychosocial well-being. Before joining AAC&U, she was an assistant professor of sociology at Dickinson College, where she taught courses in quantitative methods, social inequality, and gender in Latin America. As a faculty member she taught courses incorporating high-impact learning practices, such as learning communities and service learning. Finley received a BA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an MA and PhD, both in sociology, from the University of Iowa.

Dr. Kelly Mack, November 13 - 14, 2017

Previously the Boulder campus was fortunate to welcome Dr. Kelly Mack. Dr. Mack is the AAC&U Vice President for Undergraduate STEM Education and Executive Director of Project Kaleidoscope, a non-profit organization focusing on undergraduate STEM education reform, presented Inclusive Pedagogy workshops at CU Boulder on November 13 - 14, 2017.

Across these workshops, Dr. Mack showed how personal involvement in professional organizations such as the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) help provide opportunities and resources to become more mindful, inclusive teachers and researchers. 

Participants:

  • Learned how national collaboration in STEM reform is professionally beneficial;
  • Learned how an initiative to increase diversity and equity in STEM can extend to your work; and
  • Learned how institutional models related to gender values in STEM can improve faculty career/life management at CU Boulder.

Monday, November 13 at 9 - 10:30 am UMC 382-386  Since its founding in 1989, Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), the STEM Reform Center of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has been one of the leading advocates in the United States for transforming undergraduate STEM teaching. PKAL is dedicated to and exclusively focused on empowering STEM faculty, particularly those from underrepresented groups, to graduate more students in STEM fields who are competitively trained and liberally educated. It has to date empowered an extensive network of over 7,000 STEM faculty and administrators committed to the principles, practices, and partnerships that advance cutting-edge, integrative STEM higher education for all students. This presentation will introduce CU Boulder STEM faculty to the possibilities for collaboration with a national STEM reform platform and explore the myriad of ways in which the institutional successes of CU Boulder can be transferred to other institution types for immediate uptake. Emphasis will be placed on both virtual and face-to-face opportunities for STEM faculty professional and leadership development, including the new and exclusive My Tenure Trek™ diversity simulation.

Monday, November 13 at 1 - 2:30 pm in UMC 382-386 In 2014, AAC&U launched the Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM (TIDES) initiative to increase STEM faculty – particularly those from the computer and information sciences – awareness of and self-efficacy with culturally responsive pedagogy. This effort included specific, campus-based projects designed to support the recruitment and/or retention of diverse students in computer science. TIDES also included a three-year long professional development program for STEM faculty, which included structured learning and application opportunities, as well as extensive institutes, continuous communications, and a rigorous assessment strategy. To date, TIDES has positively impacted nearly 300,000 STEM students – over 50% of whom are from diverse populations. However, more importantly, TIDES has illuminated how STEM faculty came to know what needed to be done to positively impact the success of these diverse STEM students.  In this presentation, Dr. Mack will share the design, implementation, evaluation strategies, and impacts of TIDES and explore ways in which they can be integrated into ongoing institutional STEM reform efforts.

Tuesday, November 14 at 9 - 10:30 am UMC 382-386 Strong traditionally defined gender roles related to domestic responsibility serve as a major barrier to the recruitment and retention of women in the academic STEM disciplines, particularly women of color. Therefore, efforts to diversify the STEM professoriate must extend beyond merely hiring qualified scholars from a wide range of identity groups to ensuring that the environments in which all faculty work are equitably supportive. Critical to designing such work environments is expansion of institutional capacity to self-assess its existing institutional family-responsive policies and programs against a national evidence-based framework. This presentation presents the results of a comprehensive document analysis, which revealed eight categories of institutional practices, policies, and behaviors that have effectively cultivated family-responsive work environments at four-year colleges and universities.  These categories provide the foundation for a framework that over 100 institutions of higher education, to date, have used to monitor their progress toward improving faculty career-life management.

Dr. Saundra McGuire, October 16-17, 2017

In October, the Boulder campus was fortunate to welcome Dr. Saundra McGuire. Dr. McGuire is the Director Emerita of the Center for Academic Success at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where she formerly held the positions of Assistant Vice Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry, presented Inclusive Pedagogy workshops at CU Boulder on October 16 - 17, 2017.

Monday, October 16 at 9 - 10:30 am AND 11 - 12:30 pm in UMC 382-386

21st Century students come to college with widely varying academic skills, approaches to learning, and motivation levels.  Faculty often lament that students are focused on achieving high grades, but are not willing to invest much time or effort in learning. This session will focus on the importance of helping students acquire simple, but effective learning strategies based on cognitive science principles. We will engage in interactive reflection activities that will allow attendees to experience strategies that significantly improve learning while transforming student attitudes about the meaning of learning.

Tuesday, October 17 at 9:30 - 11 am in UMC 235

Motivating today’s students to actively engage in learning activities proves challenging for most faculty. Very often millennial students do not respond as did students in the past to extrinsic motivators such as bonus quizzes and extra credit assignments. However, as James Raffini presents in 150 Ways to Increase Intrinsic Motivation in the Classroom, when the psychoacademic needs of students are met in creative ways, student motivation soars. This presentation will engage faculty in a discussion of addressing student needs for autonomy, competence, relatedness, self-esteem, and enjoyment in order to significantly increase student motivation.

Saundra Yancy McGuireDr. Saundra Yancy McGuire is author of Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation. Dr. McGuire is the Director Emerita of the Center for Academic Success at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where she formerly held the positions of Assistant Vice Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry.  Prior to joining LSU in August 1999, she spent eleven years at Cornell University, where she received the coveted Clark Distinguished Teaching Award.   Dr. McGuire has been teaching chemistry, working in the area of learning and teaching support, and mentoring students for over 40 years.  She has delivered keynote addresses or presented her widely acclaimed student success and faculty development workshops at over 250 institutions in 41 states and six countries.   Additionally, she has published her work in The Journal of Chemical Education, American Scientist, Science, The Learning Assistance Review, To Improve the Academy, and New Directions for Teaching and Learning. Her latest book, Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation, was released by Stylus Publications in October 2015.  The teaching and mentoring tools she has developed have led to curriculum change at several institutions.

She has received numerous awards for her work in improving student learning and mentoring students, the most recent of which is the 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Lifetime Mentor Award.  In 2014 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE). In 2012 she was elected a fellow of The Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations (CLADEA), and in 2011 she was elected a Fellow of AAAS.  In 2010, she was elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, and also became one of only seven individuals in the nation at that time to have achieved Level Four Lifetime Learning Center Leadership Certification through the National College Learning Center Association (NCLCA). In November 2007 the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) was presented to her in a White House Oval Office Ceremony.