UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Speakers from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University will present “Rigor as Inclusive Practice: Improving Equitable Outcomes in Teaching” in a Zoom workshop on March 23.
Presented by the Penn State Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, participants must register in advance by visiting schreyerinstitute.psu.edu. Penn State faculty, teaching assistants, instructional/learning designers and administrators at all campuses and colleges are invited to attend.
Jamiella Brooks is the director of Student Equity and Inclusion Initiatives at the Penn Carey Law School, University of Pennsylvania. Julie McGurk serves as director of Faculty Teaching Initiatives at the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning at Yale.
Rigor and inclusion are often seen in opposition to one another, despite the evidence that inclusion necessitates rigor to empower all students to grow, build on their strengths and learn. Additionally, ill-defined or false notions of rigor lead to practices in teaching that are neither inclusive nor equitable and produce unnecessary stress. This interactive workshop will illuminate the ways that the term "rigor" is often misused or misunderstood, guiding participants to a more inclusive and substantive enactment of rigor in teaching.
The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence is part of Penn State Undergraduate Education.