Creating an effective learning environment by definition is maintaining a nurturing environment where each student feels safe to ask, answer, and share without being judged or belittled. Such an environment should boost students’ ardor to engage and take part in the mutual teaching experience and not to be a bystander. Importantly, an effective learning environment is tied to creating an inclusive environment. Undoubtedly, we all flourish in the environment that supports and leverages our skills. Conversely, when we feel judged and diminished, we withdraw and feel ashamed. The same applies to our students in the classroom and everywhere. 

Notably, the word “inclusive” does not only allude to creating a classroom that accommodates students from different backgrounds, races, or ethnicities. In fact, the connotation of "inclusive environment" should not be confined by that view. Rather, inclusion also entails nurturing students with different needs (academic or physical) and different point of views and beliefs. Human beings are not carbon copy from each other. Traditionally, instructor-centered pedagogy mainly relies on "one-size-fits all" where instructor's perspective is the sole right one. Definitely, that would subdue students' voice and disregard their individuality. 

The growing learning strategies of student-centered pedagogy aim to allure students' engagement to actively participate in the learning process. The effectual application of those strategies necessitates integrated efforts of both instructors and students to achieve learning objectives. Those strategies also leverage students' aptitudes and impart new skills that support their learning. 

Although challenging as it could sound, instructors could avail themselves of highly diverse classes to enrich their teaching strategies. Furthermore, a wholesome learning environment should be founded on mutual trust between students and instructors by elucidating clear expectations and policies. The Universal Design for learning (UDL) guidelines delineate disparate approaches to create an effective learning environment through enhancing students' engagement, teaching representation, and implementation. On the whole, an effective learning environment is a space where a reciprocal pedagogical process is taking place to make students feel valued and appreciated.

This core competency primarily focuses on how I can make an operational and functional learning environment that supports students to fulfill the learning goals efficiently. The literature now abounds with studies showing that student-centered teaching is superior to instructor-centered modality. Rather than being a receptive bystander in the classroom, in student-centered pedagogy, achieving the learning goals is a shared responsibility for students and instructors. That could be achieved by, for instance, minimizing the amount of lecturing and relying more on self-education approaches like problem-based learning, writing papers, designing presentation, flipped classroom, etc. These approaches leverage students' aptitudes, bolster their skills, and promote them to be attentive to their needs. The efficacy of the aforementioned tools cannot be achieved without ensuring an inclusive environment that embraces variable ideas and cultures. 

Admittedly, writing this core competency has been the most formidable compared to the other ones. That twinge of fear faltered when I started to build the knowledge and complete various training to articulate the competency. In fact, my feeling stemmed from the responsibility I feel towards students in the future. I realized that instructors could commit inequity and enforce injustice unintentionally. For example, it is unfair to assume that all students come to class with the same background information and/or misconceptions. Not all students will have the doughty to communicate that to instructors because they might think it is their fault and start doubting their capabilities. This instructor's unintentional action could doom a student to drop out of class, assuming they do not fit. 

Recently, a myriad of academics and psychologists have broached imposter syndrome among college students in many conferences and articles. Although imposter syndrome is principally an intrinsic feeling of incompetence, self-doubt, and apprehension of failure, instructors can innocuously exacerbate that feeling. In this article, the author enumerated many ingenuous behaviors whereby instructor could, what the author called, impostorize students. This article, honestly, enlightened me to the perniciousness of those behaviors that are often perceived as harmless. 

Additionally, unclear instructions and expectations could result in a festering feeling of inequity. A common example is in collaborative activities, I must ensure that each group member has a clear role assigned to them. In doing so, I will minimize the risk of a group slacker, which always instigates unjust feeling among the group. In CCTI, Dr. Cooper also alluded to the adversities of curving grades—a common practice in undergraduate and graduate education. I had a first-hand experience with this approach in my undergraduate and graduate studies; I never felt content with it. This approach conveys an insidious message that "students are entitled to get good grades even without the required effort." In fact, I never recognized my qualm towards this practice until Dr. Cooper mentioned it.  

Another hidden inequitable treatment is assuming that all students are able to take notes. I learned that not all students have this aptitude, which does not degrade their intellectual brightness. Therefore, an alternative should be accessible such as a skeleton PowerPoint to help build a structure for the lecture. Notably, instructors should ascertain that students have equal access to the information and resources required for class. An egregious example is the COVID-19 pandemic, which profoundly transformed academic and personal lives of instructors and students. Instructors faced a prodigious challenge to sustain an effective learning environment amidst the exigent needs to rely on completely virtual learning for a long time. I believe the biggest challenge was to ensure that all students have equitable access to internet and safe environments wherein they can attend classes. That was not forthcoming for many students. Several instructors at MSU were lenient to their students who had incomplete or late assignments. That was crucial, especially in the beginning, to subdue any feeling of aloofness and exclusion within students. 

Global learning is a growing concept that enhances cultural diversity. Inexhaustible ways to enforce that in the syllabus and class activities will boost the sense of belonging for students. For instance, assigned readings in the syllabi should contain international voices. Also, problem-based cases should be cross-cultural by reflecting various students' identities. In doing so, students of minority will feel represented in the curricula. Furthermore, in the classroom, instructors can create activities that encourage students to engage and express their different perspectives and ideologies. Nonetheless, I need to beware of stereotyping my students. Because I am an international scholar in the US and English is not my mother tongue, I have been frequently stereotyped. My accent, my appearance, and my faith invited specious assumptions about who I am. For instance, a faculty member told me that I should send him written expositions monthly so that he can review and give me feedback on them. The reason was that my academic writing skills, according to him, are not as superb as domestic students. I was not affronted by his request. Rather, the subtly conveyed condescension in his request invalidated his mentoring support. Thankfully, I have the stamina to disregard such insidious messages, and I proceeded to send him with some of my writings with confidence. Not all students are immune to stereotype threat. Therefore, our role as instructors to provide the safe environment where students, and anyone else, floursih and show their true self without the fear of rejection, humiliation, or judgement. A tangential aside, after a couple of months I stopped sending my writings to that faculty member because he stopped sending his feedback. Later, coincidentally, I knew that he found my writing to be "good". Paradoxically, he never communicated that to me. 

Naturally, this core competency, from my point of view, is the pivot of other core competencies. When the instructor succeeds in maintaining effective and safe learning environment, they will unfailingly master other core skills to achieve intended goals. In general, as explained earlier, several barriers could impact students' learning, such as language, physical, or cultural barriers. Undoubtedly, neglecting those barriers nullifies the inclusive environment and harms pedagogical process.