To practice paradox means to simultaneously provide your students with structure and flexibility. Think of a suspension bridge withstanding high winds - it is purposefully built to provide stability but is also resilient when the need arises. When the weather is good and when the weather is bad, the bridge allows travelers to reach their destinations.
By practicing paradox, we design courses and assignments that are flexible enough to guide all students to successfully meet our learning outcomes. Just as no two bridges will be the same, practicing paradox will look different from instructor to instructor, and maybe even from class to class. Ultimately, the goal is to get our students from point A to point B, rain or shine.
Flexibility does not mean sacrificing rigor. In fact, rigor - or the expectation that all students can meet academic standards - is a key component of a truly inclusive classroom when it is purposeful and transparent. Instead of making a course hard for the sake of being hard, “learning is most rigorous when students are actively learning meaningful content with higher-order thinking at the appropriate level of expectations within a given context” (Draeger et al., 2013).
As instructors, we can empower students to learn and succeed by communicating our high expectations and providing them with the tools and resources to meet them.
Draeger, J., del Prado Hill, P., Hunter, L. R., & Mahler, R. (2013). The anatomy of academic rigor: The story of one institutional journey. Innovative Higher Education, 38(4), 267-279.
Transparent teaching methods help students understand how and why they are learning course content in particular ways. Learn more at https://tilthighered.com/transparency
Working with students to create agreed-upon guidelines for a course and discussing what contributes to and detracts from inclusive learning environments contributes to sense of belonging among students and facilitate students’ ability to engage productively with one another across their differences.
By engaging students in discussions around policies and guidelines, they have the opportunity to think critically about their own learning preferences and motivations. You don’t need to turn your entire syllabus over to your class, but the more say students have in a policy, the more buy-in they’ll have.
Areas that lend themselves well to co-creation include
Many students prioritize grades over learning, resulting in undue stress and anxiety. By reconsidering their approaches to grading, instructors can encourage small, steady gains throughout the semester and shift the focus to learning outcomes. Here are some strategies:
“Not all college students figure out on their own the reasons why assignments and homework are structured as they are, how to approach the required work, how the work benefits their learning, how to monitor if they are working effectively, and if they are working in a way that will meet the teacher's goals.
“Failing to provide this kind of clarity will perpetuate the disadvantages for underserved students and the advantages for more traditional students, who often have an easier time decoding the hows and whys of academic work.”
– Mary-Ann Winkelmes
Transparency in Teaching and Learning