Culturally Responsive Teaching in STEM for HSIs

Project Title: ENGR 124: Thermodynamics

Integrity, Equity, and Clarity in Course Assessments

Reflection on Instructional Change:

One practice from the ESCALA curriculum that I found most relevant and important for my course was "Culturally Responsive and Equitable Assessment Strategies". I was surprised that some of the strategies that I adapted to improve the integrity of my courses may not be aligned with culturally responsive practices. For example, I was surprised to learn that the most equitable weight for homework is less than 5%. I always considered homework as a type of low-stakes assessment as well as a practice tool so I grade them mostly based on efforts not results. Thus, I assign 10 to 20% weight of the final grade for them to encourage students to use this tool. I knew some students cheated or at least collaborated on homework but thought even a little engagement is better than none. However, I never considered the effect of this approach on equity. I am going to rethink how I have been using homework in my courses. This is something that I need to learn more about and act accordingly. As such, I just started reading a book entitled "Grading for Equity" by Joe Feldman.

I was also surprised (and pleased) to see how intuitively some of the practices that I have already been using are considered equitable, such as, the student has the option to retake the assessment and I pick the highest grade, there is no minimum or maximum number of students who can qualify for a grade, I primarily use a scale of A-F, and I do not include a “Participation” category in the grade.

Regarding low-context vs. high-context cultural bias, I think I can improve some of the writing assignments in my courses by increasing the “situational interest” of students by encouraging them to choose a topic that directly affect their community. Also, in order to push them away from just a passive observer to an active participant, I plan to ask them to explain what they are going to do to help to address the problems they described.

**Evidence of Instructional Change**
The Canvas page for the first module of the course	ESCALA STEM Equity Index Spreadsheet

Syllabus

**Faculty Bio**
	Farshid Zabihian, Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator, Department of Mechanical Engineering Teaching Interests: Thermodynamics; Power Plants; Renewable Energy Systems; Fluid Mechanics Areas of Scholarship: Fuel Cells; Renewable Energy Systems (Solar, Ocean, Geothermal, Wind, etc.); Engineering Pedagogy Email: farshid.zabihian@csus.edu

This work was supported by grant funding from:
	STEM4Equity: US Dept. of Education STEMHSI P031C210012 NSF STEMZone: 1832335 *Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, US Department of Education, or Sacramento State.