Inclusive Teaching
April 2025
What?
Inclusive teaching refers to student-centered pedagogical approaches that purposefully embrace diversity and foster an environment in which all students feel valued and supported in their learning process. This practice directly aligns with UCLA’s strategic commitment to a culture of inclusive excellence that prepares students to succeed in an increasingly globalized world. Instructors who teach inclusively design course content, pedagogy, and classroom activities that acknowledge and address the diverse lived experiences and learning needs of all students. This approach integrates diverse course materials—such as videos, podcasts, and infographics—alongside traditional lectures, while incorporating active learning strategies to create a classroom climate that encourages participation from all students (Bouchey et al., 2021). Inclusive pedagogy also challenges the notion of deficit-based teaching, which focuses on what students lack instead of valuing every student’s perspectives and knowledge as an asset to the classroom. Adapting an inclusive teaching approach means intentionally designing instruction, curriculum, and learning environments that provide opportunities for all students to succeed (Sanger, 2020).
Inclusive teaching focuses on cultivating welcoming and supportive learning spaces in which students, regardless of their backgrounds, have access to quality educational experiences and materials. This pedagogical practice is especially important for students who are historically underrepresented in higher education, as it actively counters deficit-based models of education that often marginalize them. According to Howard (2003), inclusive teaching shifts the focus from perceived deficiencies to the unique assets that all students bring to the classroom. This approach recognizes that students from diverse backgrounds possess valuable cultural capital and experiences that can enrich the learning environment. By emphasizing these strengths, educators can create a more welcoming and inclusive classroom that mitigates differences in access and academic outcomes through thoughtful pedagogy. Instead of attributing academic success solely to individual effort or failure, inclusive educators work to address barriers by fostering learning conditions that support the achievement of all students (Reyes & Duran, 2021). As Sanger (2020) has articulated, inclusive pedagogy aims to embed equitable access and opportunities for success in classroom practices and curricula.
Below are some examples of inclusive teaching frameworks to consider and explore. These frameworks are linked by their shared commitment to equity, accessibility, and intentional design—all of which aim to foster the success of students from diverse backgrounds.
Culturally Responsive and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies
Culturally responsive and sustaining teaching emphasizes the importance of including students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning. While these frameworks are closely related and build upon each other, culturally responsive teaching aims to improve academic outcomes and engagement by bridging the gap between students’ home cultures and the school environment (Ladson-Billings, 1994). Culturally sustaining pedagogy responds to students’ cultures and also helps to ensure that these cultures are maintained, revitalized, and allowed to flourish within and beyond educational settings. It strives to create spaces where multiple cultural identities can coexist and thrive (Paris & Alim, 2014 and 2017).
Transparent Teaching
Transparent teaching involves making the learning process clear and understandable for students. This includes outlining learning objectives, assessment criteria, and instructional strategies. By being transparent, educators can help students understand the relevance of their learning, which can enhance motivation and engagement (Winkelmes et al., 2016).
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
UDL is a framework that guides the design of learning environments to support all learners, including students with disabilities. It promotes multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement with course materials that are meaningful and relevant to all learners. UDL principles encourage educators to proactively plan for differentiated learning needs to ensure that all students can access and participate in the curriculum (CAST, n.d.).
Why?
Fostering belonging in the classroom
Inclusive teaching empowers instructors to implement evidence-based practices that create a learning environment where all students feel respected, supported, and capable of reaching their full potential—all facets of a student’s sense of belonging. Strayhorn (2018) defines belonging as “students’ perceived social support on campus, a feeling or sensation of connectedness, and the experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected, valued by, and important to the campus community or others on campus such as faculty, staff, and peers.” When students feel they belong on campus and in their classrooms, they are more likely to actively engage in class discussions and work collaboratively with classmates (Yeager et al., 2016; Strayhorn, 2012). Students who feel they belong are resilient in their ability to cope with stress and adversity, leading to their overall mental health wellness (Gopalan & Brady, 2020). Studies by Walton & Cohen (2011) also indicate that belonging boosts student persistence and resilience and is especially impactful to students from groups historically underrepresented in higher education. Belongingness enables students to recognize that they remain valued members of the educational community despite the academic challenges they may encounter during their studies. The COVID-19 pandemic eroded students’ sense of belonging across higher education, disproportionately impacting groups such as first-generation students (Tice et al., 2021). A comparative research study by Moran-Soto et al. (2022) revealed STEM students faced a belonging crisis as the move to remote instruction separated them from their academic support and campus community. Fostering belonging post-pandemic is critical to reversing the deficit in belongingness as it directly impacts academic persistence and mental health.
At UCLA, undergraduate students report experiencing a strong sense of belonging and feeling valued as integral members of the academic community. According to the 2024 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES), 85% of undergraduate students reported some level of agreement with the statement that they feel a sense of belonging at the institutional level. Additionally, 76% of respondents indicated that they felt valued as individuals by the university. Similarly, 85% and 84% of graduate students surveyed in 2023 at least “somewhat agree” that they belong at UCLA and their graduate programs, respectively. While these findings highlight the university’s commitment to inclusion, around 15% of all students report feeling a lack of belonging or perceive that they are not valued by the institution. This means that in a class of 200 undergraduates, at least 30 students feel alienated from the university, their instructor, or their peers, underscoring the ongoing need for inclusive teaching practices.
Addressing the Hidden Curriculum
The hidden curriculum refers to the implicit values, norms, and rules that students are expected to learn informally—such as navigating institutional bureaucracy, understanding academic culture, or developing professional networks—that are not explicitly taught but are crucial for college success (Margolis et al., 2001). Those from more academically connected backgrounds—such as families with college experience—are more likely to be exposed to these norms early on, through informal guidance or mentorship, positioning them to thrive better in these institutions because they already understand how to navigate these implicit expectations. In contrast, students unaware of these conventions may not even recognize they exist, much less know how to leverage them for greater success (Gable, 2021). This is true especially for first-generation students, who are left to navigate these unspoken rules on their own without familial or institutional guidance, compounding the many challenges they already face in higher education, such as financial burdens, cultural and social alienation, and limited access to support networks (Castillo-Montoya & Ives, 2021). Prioritizing inclusivity in our teaching practice can help address the disparities wrought by the hidden curriculum and mitigate its negative impact on students.
Cultivating a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset—the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort and persistence—encourages students to view challenges as opportunities for personal and academic growth rather than as insurmountable obstacles (Dweck, 2006). Inclusive teaching practices enhance this mindset by creating a supportive environment where students feel safe to take risks and embrace challenges without the fear of failure or judgment. By emphasizing effort, resilience, and the belief that abilities can be developed through practice, it encourages students to embrace challenges and view mistakes as opportunities to learn. When students perceive their learning environment as inclusive, they are more likely to engage in exploratory behaviors that lead to greater academic resilience and success (Jacquart et al., 2019).
Mitigating Stereotype Threat
Stereotype threat, as described by Steele and Aronson (1995), refers to the anxiety individuals may experience when they fear confirming negative stereotypes about their social identity group. This phenomenon can lead to decreased academic performance and hinder students’ confidence in their ability to succeed. Inclusive teaching creates a supportive classroom culture that can help alleviate the pressures associated with stereotype threat, allowing students to focus on their learning rather than their identities. In their meta-analysis of stereotype threat interventions in higher education, Liu et al. (2021) found that a combination of approaches can effectively mitigate stereotype threat and empower students to thrive academically and personally. These approaches include belief-based interventions, which help shift students’ beliefs about negative stereotypes by emphasizing overlapping experiences and challenges faced by all students, and resilience-based strategies, which promote a growth mindset among students.
How?
Inclusive teaching requires educators to develop self-awareness, empathy, and a belief in every student’s potential (Howard, 2021). This approach demands a growth mindset, as it is an iterative process grounded in reflection, adaptation, and lifelong learning (Jacquart et al., 2019). This process begins with self-awareness. Educators must be willing to reflect on their biases, assumptions, and teaching methods to recognize areas where they may unintentionally exclude or disadvantage students. A growth mindset encourages instructors to view this reflection as an opportunity for growth rather than a critique of their abilities.
To start integrating inclusive teaching techniques, instructors can begin with small, manageable interventions that require minimal planning and effort, gradually progressing to more comprehensive approaches, such as a full course redesign. This section offers a sample of evidence-based inclusive teaching strategies that can be implemented at any point in the term with a relatively short amount of planning time. Use this as a starting point towards greater adoption of inclusive teaching practices into your pedagogy.
Establish Community Agreements
Co-creating community agreements to establish norms for classroom engagement with students is a strategy that promotes inclusion and student belonging. Community agreements can encourage thoughtful and empathetic engagement among students and between students and instructors by creating a structure for self-awareness and self-reflection, communication, and mutual understanding. Community agreements that are shaped collectively and adapted to the dynamics of the group foster a sense of agency and belonging for students. Generally, it is best to establish community agreements at the start of the term, revisiting them when needed to reestablish norms throughout the term. It is, however, never too late to establish guidelines for classroom engagement, especially before any activities where students are asked to work collaboratively or through charged course content or in case of instructional disruptions. Use this template from UCLA’s Teaching and Learning Center as a starting point to establish a set of community agreements with your students.
Consider Using Inclusive Language
Create course materials and communicate with students in a way that acknowledges their diverse lived experiences and avoids assumptions about students’ backgrounds or identities (Sue et al., 2019). For example, consider replacing terms like “he/she” with “they” or rephrasing sentences to avoid gender assumptions. Instead of saying “each student should submit his or her assignment,” consider saying “each student should submit their assignment.” Acknowledging and using students’ pronouns is also a way to signal an inclusive classroom environment. Sending out a brief survey or questionnaire at the beginning of the quarter is a great way to ask students about their pronouns, as well as other information like name pronunciation or accessibility requirements, that can help you get to know all your students and their individual needs better.
Build Opportunities for Student Feedback
Soliciting feedback from students throughout the quarter allows instructors to make timely adjustments to better support student learning as it happens. Using mid-quarter surveys, for example, can help you better understand your students’ grasp of course concepts so that you can make adjustments to your teaching strategy based on what students find most challenging. Use exit tickets at the end of the class to solicit feedback by asking students to turn in a response to a short question about a specific lesson. Exit ticket prompts such as “what was unclear from today’s lesson” or “what is the biggest takeaway for you from the lecture” allow you to quickly assess areas of confusion and address them immediately. Anonymous online polls using iClicker are especially helpful for collecting anonymous feedback for courses with large class sizes. No matter which feedback tool you employ, it is important to share with students overarching themes that emerge from their responses and to let them know if and how you will adjust the curriculum moving forward. While some student feedback may be valuable for refining future iterations of your course, it may not be feasible to implement during the current term. In such cases, communicate this caveat to students and explain how their input will contribute to enhancing the course for future cohorts.
Foster a Collaborative Learning Environment
Using collaborative learning techniques fosters a sense of community and shared responsibility by encouraging students to work together, share ideas, and learn from one another. Collaborative learning activities where students must rely on each other’s contributions to succeed enhances academic outcomes, facilitates retention and deeper understanding of course materials, helps students develop critical thinking and improve social skills, and fosters student belonging by actively involving students in the learning process (Johnson, et al, 2014). The jigsaw method, where each student is tasked with studying a specific segment of a broader subject and then sharing their knowledge with the rest of their group, is a prime example of collaborative learning strategy (Aronson & Patnoe, 2011). For longer-term group projects, careful planning is essential to ensure inclusive and equal participation. Form groups composed of students with diverse perspectives and lived experiences or allow self-selection with guidelines that promote inclusion (Freeman & Greenacre, 2011; Hernandez, 2002). Establish and rotate roles and provide resources and regular check-ins to address challenges like language barriers (Hernandez, 2002).
When evaluating collaborative projects, criterion-referenced grading, which uses rubrics aligned with course learning objectives to assess both individual and group contributions, provides a more equitable and effective approach to evaluating collaborative work (Barkley et al., 2014). Unlike norm-referenced grading (e.g., grading on a curve), which pits students against one another by tying success to relative performance, criterion-referenced assessment evaluates students against explicit standards rather than peer comparisons (Sadler, 2010). This method avoids creating artificial hierarchies, ensures transparency in evaluation, and supports collaborative learning by allowing all students to succeed if they meet the established criteria. By emphasizing proficiency over competition, criterion-referenced grading fosters cooperation and reduces adversarial dynamics in group work (Sadler, 2010).
Use Multiple Instructional Modalities
Research shows that multimodal teaching, where course content is presented in various formats, improves student engagement, retention, and performance by addressing the varied ways students process information (Rose et al., 2006). Using multiple modes for delivering course content also ensures that students with disabilities have equal access to those materials. For example, providing outline notes and a copy of lecture slides enables students to review information presented at their own pace. Using videos, infographics, and podcasts to supplement lectures is a good way to diversify course content delivery. You might also consider leveraging technology such as Bruin Learn discussion boards or Google Docs for collaborative group work to engage students who may be hesitant to speak up in class (Johnson et al., 2014). Finally, offering multiple ways for students to demonstrate their learning, such as through presentations, creative projects, debates, or video essays, allows students to showcase their strengths and talents while helping reduce the barriers for those who struggle with traditional assessment techniques like papers and timed exams (Sambell et al., 2013).
Citing This Guide
Teaching and Learning Center (TLC). (2025). Inclusive Teaching. Teaching and Learning Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved [today’s date].
Additional Resources
Leveraging Mid-Quarter Student Feedback Teaching Guide: This TLC Teaching Guide provides information on how to incorporate student feedback into your pedagogy.
Fostering and Sustaining Student Belonging: Teaching bulletin from the TLC exploring the importance of belonging and showcasing actionable strategies to foster a sense of belonging both before and during the academic term.
Guide to Group Work: Resource from the University of Illinois Chicago with information on and best practices for setting up group work activities.
Group Work in the Classroom: Examples of small group work activities from the University of Waterloo.
Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast: Podcast from Teaching in Higher Ed tackles a breadth of pedagogical topics, including advice and strategies for inclusive teaching.
References
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