Inclusive Pedagogy

In our department we believe that all individuals, regardless of circumstance, can thrive and achieve their academic and professional goals. For this reason, we subscribe to the philosophy that students learn best when provided with opportunities to develop and express their own understanding of mathematical concepts through active learning. 

• This philosophy is engrained in the culture of our department and in the curriculum and smaller class size of our courses. 

• To provide additional support for students, we offer a coseminars for Precalculus and Calculus 1 that provide students with additional active learning opportunities. 

• We are conscious of the reality that making pedagogy more inclusive requires discussion, reflection, and training for those who teach. In response, we offer a two-semester pedagogy course sequence for graduate students and a Seminar in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (SUME) for all members of the department. 

Our efforts are possible through our collaborations with the Student Academic Success Center (SASC), the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s GoldShirt Program, and other departments on campus that provide support to historically underserved students.

The department has moved to active learning in virtually all its service-level courses, an effort pioneered by Eric Stade and Robert Tubbs. 

This pedagogy is appealing not only for its general efficacy, but done right, data shows it improves the outcomes of women and traditionally underrepresented minorities. 

For this work in transforming the Calculus program, the Department of Mathematics has received national recognition, as well as grant funding. Notably, the Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership has declared the Department of Mathematics to be one of the national models for how calculus should be taught. Faculty and affiliates of the department (Kim Bunning, Eric Stade, Robert Tubbs and David Webb) received a Helmsley Foundation grant, as well as a five-year National Science Foundation grant called SEMINAL with the goal to help other colleges shift to active learning, thereby helping their diversity efforts.

As mentioned above, the department also has a long-standing relationship with the Student Academic Success Center (SASC), sending them three TAs or lecturers a semester who get trained in inclusive teaching practices. In light of their expertise, the department in 2016 hired SASC's STEM Director, Rebecca Machen, to design and teach MATH 1151, our coseminar for Precalculus. Machen's course design principles heavily influenced the design of MATH 1301, our coseminar for Calculus 1,  which we began offering in Fall 2023.

The Mathematics Academic Resource Center (MARC), run by Mathematics Department Lecturer Daniel Moritz, is a place where undergraduates can seek free tutoring services from undergraduate and graduate students. This is one of the avenues in which the Department of Mathematics connects with the undergraduate population from across campus, and consequently, we make a great effort to ensure that diversity, inclusion and equity play a central role in the training and hiring of those who work in the MARC.

Every semester, MARC employees receive Safe Zone training conducted by the Center for Inclusion and Social Change, Equity and Diversity training developed by Brian Shimamoto and Bystander training developed by Teresa Wroe (OIEC). The last two training events are co-lead by Moritz who has adapted them for the context of a math help room. In order to foster inclusive pedagogy, the MARC also offers Content Training seminars guided by the credo, “Learning is Dignity”. Tutors are trained to access what the student knows to help them assimilate what they do not know.

The MARC is committed to hiring students of diverse identities and backgrounds to create a robust community where all students seeking help feel welcome, respected, and served. The MARC also relies on students of diverse identities and backgrounds to help guide decision making processes (seminar attendance, requesting coverage, discipline, events, etc.) To this end, Moritz has also attended Equitable Hiring Practices seminars at Diversity Summits to guide hiring practices for the MARC.