LUNCH AND LEARN - Facilitating Inclusive Classroom Climates to Optimize Teaching and Learning
2025tue08apr12:00 pmtue1:00 pm
Event Details
You are invited to join SOCHE for a virtual lunch and learn entitled “Facilitating Inclusive Classroom Climates to Optimize Teaching and Learning,” on Tuesday, April 8, beginning at 12 p.m. ET. The session will be presented by Aja Bettencourt-McCarthy, Amy Koshoffer, and Dr. Tiffany Grant from the University of Cincinnati Libraries.
Higher education classrooms are filled with students with multiple, intersecting identities and various learning styles, abilities, and backgrounds that can shape their academic performance. As classrooms and higher education environments become more diverse, it is necessary to engage in practices that facilitate belonging and increase persistence among students with both visible and invisible marginalized identities. However, today’s political climate is trending toward prohibiting diversity training in higher education and is urging colleges and universities to ignore the impact of these identities on the learning experience.
This session will focus on inclusive teaching practices designed to foster belonging, combat imposter syndrome and stereotype threat, and remove barriers that lead to student attrition. Utilizing the Universal Design for Learning Framework and active learning techniques, presenters will share teaching techniques that facilitate student engagement, success, and persistence regardless of discipline.
We intend to empower instructors and facilitators to enter classrooms with a more inclusive mindset geared to strengthen the pipeline of historically under-represented students graduating from our colleges and universities. During this session, attendees will learn simple methods to create accessible and effective student learning experiences that will foster more equitable engagement and empower all students.
At the end of this session, participants should be able to:
- Articulate why student and instructor identities matter in teaching and learning spaces.
- Explore ways to measure classroom climate and to understand better how students are experiencing your classroom.
- Identify and implement learner-centered strategies that remove barriers and enhance learning for all students.
Recommended reading before this session:
- Invisible Knapsack reading
- Barnett, P. E. (2013). Unpacking teachers’ invisible knapsacks: Social identity and privilege in higher education. Liberal Education, 99(3), 30-37.
Registration for this event will close on Sunday, April 6. Click here to register now.
When: Tuesday, April 8, at 12 p.m. ET
Where: SOCHE Zoom platform (link sent at least 24 hours prior to event)
Cost:
- Personnel from SOCHE member schools: $5
- Personnel from NON-member schools/organizations: $10
- Students: FREE
Questions? Contact Mindy Claggett at SOCHE
Student Registration Fee Policy
Registration Cancellation Policy
Registration for this event will close on Sunday, April 6.
About the Presenters
Aja Bettencourt-McCarthy
Science & Engineering Global Services Librarian
University of Cincinnati
Aja Bettencourt-McCarthy is the Science & Engineering Global Services librarian at the University of Cincinnati Libraries. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Cincinnati, Aja was a librarian at both the University of Kentucky and the Oregon Institute of Technology. Aja’s research interests include information behavior, fostering inquiry and entrepreneurial mindsets in STEM, and instruction best practices.
Amy Koshoffer
Assistant Director, UC Libraries Research and Data Services
University of Cincinnati
Amy Koshoffer is the Assistant Director at Research and Data Services at the University of Cincinnati Libraries. She supports data management and sharing, open science, data literacy, and research reproducibility initiatives as part of the UC Libraries Research and Data Services unit. She is involved in developing research data services, educational opportunities for data management, data sharing and preservation, data analysis such as GIS and spreadsheet best practices, researcher impact, and collaborative research workflows.
Dr. Tiffany Grant
Assistant Director, UC Libraries Researcher Engagement and Inclusive Excellence
Director, Undergraduates Pursuing Research in Science and Engineering (UPRISE) Program
University of Cincinnati
Tiffany J. Grant, PhD, CDE® is the Assistant Director for Researcher Engagement and Inclusive Excellence at the University of Cincinnati Libraries. In her role, she develops and delivers services and resources to the UC research community to enhance research productivity, to promote more inclusive climates, and facilitate equity in research practices. She is also the current Director of the University of Cincinnati’s Undergraduates Pursuing Research in Science and Engineering (UPRISE) Program. In addition to her work in the library, Dr. Grant is also a Certified Diversity Executive, and she exercises her passion for recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities through her work in the libraries and beyond. Her research interests include infectious diseases, microbiology, and the intersection of health disparities and health/racial equity.
