Sum24 Culturally Responsive Teaching with ESCALA4

Summer 2024 Escala 4

CHAD 138: Social and Emotional Development

Learning / Community / Growth Mindset

Reflection on Instructional Change:

With ESCALA and the Culturally Responsive Teaching course, I learned to analyze my student data with an equity scale. From this analysis, I discovered an overrepresentation of Latinx/e students finishing my courses with Ds. With awareness that a group of Latinx/e students almost pass my classes, I decided to implement changes that would allow for more community learning and growth mindset.

To provide opportunities for community learning and growth mindset, I designed a series of practices to help students succeed on quizzes. From this professional development course, I learned that Latinx/e students in particular often learn collaboratively and in a community. Additionally, Feldman (2019) emphasized the importance of allowing students the opportunity to learn from errors. The following practices were implemented to address these values.

Study Guides: Detailed study guides were provided. They were organized so students could easily find the concepts in the lectures. They were designed to provide transparency and focus when studying.
Practice Quizzes: Students were given practice quizzes with 10 multiple-choices questions. The practice quizzes were credit/no credit, conducted individually and asynchronously. This was to ensure that the focus was on gauging understanding. Students were informed that the practice quizzes were designed with understanding that learning occurs when mistakes are made (Feldman, 2019, p. 30). Half of the questions on the quiz addressed content that has been covered in class/lecture. The other half of the questions were on content that had not been taught yet. The purpose was to have students reflect on what they know and do not know about the upcoming topics. Additionally, the hope was that students would be comfortable with uncertainty and focus on learning.
In-Class Quiz Activities: In class, students met in small groups (same groups throughout the semester). As a group, they collaborated on the same practice quiz questions that were completed individually, using scratchers to discover the answers (iRAT/tRAT). The goal was to have students discuss their understanding, feel comfortable making mistakes, and view learning as a process.
Quizzes: Each quiz had 25 multiple-choice questions. After completing the study guide, practice quiz, and practice quiz activity, students are provided access to the quiz asynchronously. After the first time taking the quiz, a student is notified which questions were answered incorrectly. They are then allowed to retake the quiz. The purpose of the retake is to allow students to learn from their mistakes. The first time taking the quiz is now a formative assessment, while the second time is a summative assessment (Feldman, 2019, p. 167).

During the Share and Analyze process, I received two recommendations. With the detailed study guide, it was suggested to incorporate strategies that help students study. It was also recommended that I have students complete the Growth Mindset Scale at the beginning of the course and again at the end of the course, discovering if a change occurred because of the implemented practices. For future courses, I intend on incorporating both recommendations.

**Evidence of Instructional Change**
	Share and Analyze Presentation
Students in class collaborating on the quiz activity using scratchers (tRAT) to determine if their answers are correct.	Image of quiz description in the syllabus. Link to Share and Analyze Presentation.

Before Course Syllabus

After Course Syllabus

The before course syllabus is a draft before taking the ESCALA course. I chose to apply what I learned to a new course that I had not taught before at Sacramento State. In this new course, 75% of the students had taken other courses from me. I asked for their feedback on the new practices I implemented with consideration of how I had taught other courses. Here are some of the comments from students:

"Because there are so many parts to the quiz process, I feel like I am retaining the information more."
"I feel like the conversations in our groups leads to more learning because we revisit the lectures."
"Helps with anxiety so I feel like I have the mental ability to learn and show my understanding."
"I like how the practice quizzes give some insight into what is about to come."
"Being able to retake helps with rethinking my understanding of the material."

**Faculty Bio**
	I am a full-time lecturer with Child and Adolescent Development in the College of Education. I have been consistently teaching for Sacramento State since 2011. Courses I have taught for the program include Child and Adolescent Development in Context, Language Development, Social and Emotional Development, Controversial Issues in Child Development, Early Literacy Development, Issues in Parenting, and Human Development.

Funding
	This work was supported by: US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project TECH4Equity US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM4Equity P031C210012 *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 or the US Department of Education.