Remediation remediates obstacles to inclusivity and mattering

Abstract

This personal narrative essay describes how I remediated my teaching by adding remediation opportunities after four quizzes into my Biological Bases of Behavior Psychology course. After discovering that students from marginalized identities (e.g., those of non-binary gender, those from underrepresented racial groups, those of lower socioeconomic status, and those with registered disabilities) performed most poorly on an initial assessment, I introduced remediation opportunities throughout the semester. This essay explains the various ways I crafted remediation experiences that reinforced learning of course material and prepared students for upcoming examinations. As a result of this change to my teaching approach, I observed modest improvements in overall learning in the course and more notable improvements in students’ sense of inclusion and mattering. I encourage instructors in higher education to consider implementing a similar strategy to better teach for inclusion in response to the increasing diversity in our college classrooms.