I’ve been writing a series of posts that spotlight the incredible instructors on our campus and the valuable insights they shared during our Annual Associate Instructor Orientation (highlights include STEM classrooms, active learning, and analysis). Today, I want to highlight Kevin Mudavadi and Selim Yavuz, who led a workshop titled, “Better Together! Personal Experiences, Empathy, and Boundaries in the Classroom.”
One of the “quick tips” they shared focused on addressing and challenging deficit thinking. This harmful mindset occurs when instructors attribute students’ struggles to internal deficits—such as a lack of motivation or abilities—rather than recognizing how institutional structures might be failing to support all students. (For a look at the variety of ways that researchers use the term deficit thinking, see Davis and Museus, 2019.)
Kevin and Selim shared some strategies for recognizing and dismantling these assumptions. They encouraged instructors to get to know students as individuals, give students a voice in the classroom, and promote a growth mindset (For more on growth mindset, be sure to check out Sarah P.’s blog post!). They also suggested embracing a strengths-based approach by focusing on students’ strengths. This can be done by highlighting student achievements, offering personalized support, and taking the time to celebrate each student achievements.
Their session was a great reminder of how shifting our mindset can help us value the strengths and potential of all students. If you want to read more about rejecting the deficit model in our classrooms, visit Aaminah’s longer blog post. A huge thank you to Selim and Kevin for sharing their teaching brilliance at our Associate Instructor Orientation and helping us all grow as educators!
Citations
Davis, Lori Patton and Samuel D. Museus, 2019. What is Deficit Thinking? An Analysis of Conceptualizations of Deficit Thinking and Implications for Scholarly Research. Currents 1(1).
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