Starting Where You Are: A Teachers’ Exchange on Inclusive Design for Learning

Lisa Elfring currently serves as Associate Vice Provost of Instruction and Assessment at the University of Arizona, co-leading the University Center for Assessment, Teaching, and Technology (UCATT). She is a continuing Specialist in Biology Education in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Her training and teaching interests lie in molecular genetics and cell/developmental biology, and her scholarship focuses on developing supports for instructors as they use active-learning strategies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classrooms and developing holistic frameworks and tools for evaluation of teaching. In 25 years at the University of Arizona, Lisa has taught a wide variety of courses for nearly 10,000 biology majors, graduate students, teachers-in-training, working teachers, and medical students.

In this interactive session, I will summarize how interactions with students, colleagues, and support units changed my assumptions and practices around accessible learning experiences. Participants will share their own experiences with supporting diverse learners, and we will learn together about the campus initiatives and support units that can help instructors understand and apply principles of universal design to improve the student experience and student learning.

Among academics of my generation, and especially for those of us trained in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), it was common for folks to have secured faculty positions despite having no formal preparation in teaching, learning, or other skills critical to their success as teachers. When I turned my career focus away from biology research and toward teaching, I started with good intentions and strong commitment, but very little practical background or knowledge about how exactly to do the job I was hired to do: teaching biology to all the students who came to my classes so they could move forward in their academic journeys. The responsibility still rocks me if I think too hard about it.

Throughout my years at the University of Arizona, I have been fortunate to find generous colleagues in units across campus who helped me in my (ongoing) efforts to design relevant, engaging, accessible, and inclusive learning experiences. In this session, I’ll summarize how interactions with students, colleagues, and support units changed my assumptions and practices around accessible learning experiences. Participants will share their own experiences with supporting diverse learners, and we will learn together about the campus initiatives and support units that can help instructors understand and apply principles of universal design to improve the student experience and student learning.

Please register to join this virtual event right here.