This site provides examples of instructional resources created in the Humanizing Online STEM Academy, a professional development program funded by the California Education Learning Lab and administered by the Foothill DeAnza Community College District.
Before I began this course, I carried many traumas and pains from my own undergraduate STEM experience. However, I did not truly understand the reasoning behind why I found undergraduate STEM courses to be so traumatic. It was not the course material that was challenging for me, it was the feeling of not being cared for and simply being a number on my ID card. I felt that I was a dollar commodity for the department and not a person. Fascinatingly, I found my humanities courses to be juxtaposition to my STEM courses. My humanities courses were taught in a humanized fashion and they gave me the much needed support for me to continue to pursue my dreams in the STEM field. In my own teaching practices, I have strived to try to prevent my own students from feeling alienated and instead feel that they are cared for. I did not have a recipe book for this practice and it was based on what I thought I would have liked to have seen in a caring, yet high demand course structure. This professional development workshop was the most enlightening workshop that I have ever attended. Not only do I understand how to help my own students in a meaningful way, but I also understand the specifics of what was so challenging for me in undergraduate.
Now that I have taken this workshop I have a deeper understanding of myself and how I can improve my own courses. One interesting thing that I discovered about myself was that what was challenging for me in undergraduate was the cultural mismatch between a low context culture and a high context culture. This course made me much more aware of my high context cultural values and to be aware of balancing my teaching style within a low context culture. Another powerful lesson I learned about myself from this course is how I struggle with imposter syndrome. I now have a term for this feeling and I can now help my students work through those feelings as well. Finally, the main important takeaway from this workshop was how to create a humanizing course that builds on trust, presence, awareness and empathy. Those characteristics allow for instructors to demand high quality work in an environment where students feel cared for. When students feel cared for, growth can occur in students' metacognition awareness and cognition of the material. The term for this style of teaching is warm demander pedagogy and it is my plan to continue to strive to be this type of teacher.
In many ways, I have held myself back from my true nature and have tried to work within what I thought were the " rigid expectations" for a professor. However, I now have a deeper understanding of how important emotions are in learning. I plan to start my face to face courses with light music from a variety of voices and ask my students how their week has gone. In my online courses, I plan to ensure that I will provide instructor presence and show my own weaknesses through empathy and storytelling. These practices can increase feelings of trust from the students, which will allow for them to feel safe to make mistakes and participate in class activities. When students feel cared for, they are more capable of learning. I plan to make it clear in my syllabus and in my assignments that students are encouraged to grow and make mistakes. I will encourage my students to reach out to me and their peers for help. I believe that these humanizing pedagogical practices will allow for me to be a warm demander and for my students to produce high quality work.
My liquid syllabus provides a simplified syllabus with information on how to be successful in the first week of class. It provides personal and professional information about myself and my teaching philosophy, so that my students can begin to establish trust. This syllabus contains a course pact and support links, which help demonstrate that I care about my students' learning before the course begins.
I chose a smog skyline of Los Angeles city for my course card in my Chemistry and Society class. Los Angeles is our local city and most of the students will be able to recognize this city. Smog is related to chemistry - it is all about chemical reactions caused by society's consumption of fossils fuels for energy. I feel that this welcomes students to the course by getting them excited to study their own local city and how they can possibly make it better.
My homepage for the first week of class is very simple. This simplicity allows for the students to be easily navigated to the correct place to start. It also makes the course not overwhelming. Importantly, the homepage serves as a kindness cue of social inclusion for students. I provide a welcome image and text with the theme of chemistry and society. The image contains a picture of a city and a chemistry lab. I also have a silly video of me wearing a lab coat, goggles and playing with my kids chemistry set. I take off the goggles and lab coat and describe to the students that in this class that they will not need them. The goal is to get the students started into the course in a lighthearted and welcoming feeling.
A "Getting to Know You Survey" sends the signal to students that the instructor cares about the student's individuality, thereby alleviating stereotype threat. This practice helps sends a cue that the instructor cares about the student's success. It also provides room for the instructor to learn important information about their students who might need extra support. I place one of these surveys in my orientation module. Two example questions are given below:
What name would you like me to use when addressing you?
Sometimes I provide feedback using video. Would this be okay, or would you prefer written feedback every time?
Any important information, I record in the "Notes" column of the gradebook. When I send emails or make feedback for students I try to keep their responses in mind. For example, a hard of hearing student, might not appreciate video feedback. Another student, might prefer to go by their middle name and would feel disconnected with the class if I constantly refer to them by a name they do not prefer.
This ice breaker fosters a sense of belonging by connecting students with each others' real-world experiences. I ask students to share their own past mistakes and how they ultimately were successful. I share my own story as an example. I also ask other personal questions that relate back to the class. All of these questions make students feel more comfortable being selectively vulnerable with their peers. This activity ultimately strengths the community bonding in the class.
A Wisdom Wall is a collection of "learning stories" recorded by students in a prior class and listened to by students in a current class. By listening to the advice, future students can identify that struggle is normal. The future students can learn strategies from past students on how to be successful. This activity fosters metacognition by connecting students with spoken reflections of their learning and portrays ability as a growth process, as opposed to a fixed characteristic.
A bumper video is a short video to used in a variety of ways to help alleviate confusion or stress about a topic or assignment. Bumper videos are used for example to provide a brief explanation of a new assignment, clarify a sticky concept, or introduce a new module. The "Create Your Own Experiment for Elementary School Children" is a bumper video I created to help describe a term project worth 50% of the grade in one of my courses. By watching this video students will get an overall sense of what needs to be accomplished. The video provides a warm demander expectation: high quality work, but room for improvement with draft assignments. Hopefully, this video will alleviate fears and get students motivated to start the project.
Microlectures are short 5-10 minute lectures on a targeted topic that covers only one learning objective. This is a powerful tool, as the course content can be designed around each individual learning objective. That way, students do not need to try to skim a 60 minute lecture to find the topic they need to review. The instructor can also provide reading and problems around that one learning objective. In my example microlecture, I lecture only on the learning objective: Identify common characteristics for strong and weak acids and bases. This microlecture is placed in a module titled "Acid Rain." In the module, tudents will learn about acids, pHs, complete and net ionic equations and finally they apply that knowledge to acid rain and ocean acidification. Ultimately, microlectures such as these, can provide for a highly organized course with clear learning objectives.
