1. The document summarizes key points from a meeting about recognizing student diversity in the college classroom. It discusses how students have different attitudes, motivations, and needs and how instructors should group students and design courses to minimize negative impacts. 2. It also discusses a reading about a student named Eric's experience in an introductory physics class, noting issues like the professor not explaining solutions well and focusing only on content delivery rather than fostering discussion. 3. The reading concludes that classroom culture needs changes like more intellectual overview, historical context, less condescending pedagogy, more discussion and dissent, and more community.

1. 1 collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

2. The College Classroom Meeting 8:
They’re not dumb, they’re different
November 17 and 19, 2015
Peter Newbury, Ph.D.
Center for EngagedTeaching, UC San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
Unless otherwise noted, content is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Non Commercial 3.0 License.

3. Eric:
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu3
To prevent this from happening,what would you consider first?
A) how people learn
B) learning outcomes
C) assessment
D) choice of instructional strategies
E) fixed/growth mindset
The lack of community, together with the lack of interchange
between the professor and the students combines to produce a
totally passive classroom experience. (p. 25)

4. collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu4
build on
students’ diversity
to enhance learning
do something
about negative impacts
when they occur
recognize the impact of
student diversity on their learning
experiences and success
design and deliver
the course to minimize
negative impacts of diversity

5. Recognizing students’ diversity
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu5
The cards at each table represent 10 people in Eric’s
physics class.
Sort the cards into groups according to the
attitudes, motivations, needs, etc.
these people bring to the class.
Rules:
1) there must be more than one group of cards
2) there must be less than ten groups
3) use the whiteboard to label and annotate your groups

6. Today, you are instructors, not students.
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1. Try to identify the cause or origin of the problem, using
your knowledge of
 How People Learn  Learning Outcomes  Assessment
 instructional strategies  Fixed/Growth Mindset  Other
2. What would you do about it? Start your response with
 “When I’m the instructor…”
 “If this was *my* class…”

7. Eric:
7
[My classmates] will have had no training in working collectively.
In fact, their experience will have taught them to fear cooperation,
and that another person’s intellectual achievement will be
detrimental their own.
(p. 24)
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu
 How People Learn  Learning Outcomes Assessment
 instructional strategies  Fixed/Growth Mindset  Other

8. The instructor was not particularly good at explaining why he did
what he did to solve the problems, nor did he have any real
patience for people who wanted explanations. (p.20)
The first day of class disappointed Eric
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu8
 How People Learn  Learning Outcomes Assessment
 instructional strategies  Fixed/Growth Mindset  Other

9. Building on students’ diversity
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu9
Sort the cards into groups according to choices and
actions you will make to create a positive learning
experience for these people.
Rules:
1) there must be more than
one group of cards
2) there must be less than
ten groups
3) use the whiteboard to label and annotate your groups
Or use aVenn diagram and
populate the overlapping
regions with the people

10. Eric:
10
I still get the feeling that unlike a humanities course, here the
professor is the keeper of the information, the one who knows all
the answers.This does little to propagate discussion or dissent.
(p. 21)
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu
* *

11. Tobias’ conclusions:
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But as least as important as content…will be changes in the
“classroom culture”
 more attention to an intellectual overview
 more context (even history) in the presentation of physical
models
 less condescending pedagogy
 differently challenging examinations
 more discussion, more “dissent” (even if artificially
constructed)
 more community in the classroom
(p. 31)

12. References
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1. Tobias, S. (1990). They’re Not Dumb,They’re Different:Stalking the SecondTier.
Tuscon,AZ: Research Corporation.

13. Eric’s professor:
13
I assume the students in [introductory physics] are pre-
professionals who have already decided on a career in science and
are in class to lean problem-solving techniques that will be
required of them in their careers. (p. 30)
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu
*
 How People Learn  Learning Outcomes Assessment
 instructional strategies  Fixed/Growth Mindset  Other