Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

You’re committed to equity and inclusion. You’ve been educating yourself about how higher ed systemically and systematically privileges some and disadvantages others, while working to create a just and equitable experience for minoritized students. Active learning pedagogies are already part of your toolbox, and you support your department’s ideas on curricular change. Still, you aren’t quite sure how to translate your commitment into further action. What’s next?

The following article identifies four pedagogical strategies for creating and delivering the equity-minded course you’re seeking. I suspect at least several of these are already familiar to you, so I’ve also included suggestions for how to extend and deepen your use of them. They are presented in no particular order; start with which ever one makes sense for you, your students, and the content you teach.

 All of us face new realities that threaten our pedagogy.. But it is often in the midst of those pressures that new pedagogies flourish.

Regardless of one’s academic discipline or the courses that we teach, college faculty members share a responsibility to prepare our students for success in our courses and academic programs, their professional careers, and ultimately, for life in general. While this is a seemingly formidable challenge, it is one that we, as members of the teaching profession, are called to embrace and achieve.

In recent decades we’ve seen the rise of an emerging interdisciplinary field that brings together neuroscientists and educators. As technologies like brain mapping and scanning continue to advance our understanding of the human brain, a sub-sector of experts are applying those findings to the classroom.

Instead of being based on traditional or individual assumptions about learning, education is beginning to be treated more like a science. The new discipline, neuroeducation, serves to apply the scientific method to curricula design and teaching strategies. This comes with attempts for a more objective understanding of learning that is based on evidence.