 Next up, we'd like to introduce Rhonda Jensen. Rhonda is the Ann Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences and Research Director with the Institute of Human Development at Northern Arizona University. So Rhonda, happy to have you take it away. Thank you. It's like this when you get started in your multiple screens, like to get everything organized so I can see the chat and you will all at the same time. So yes, I am at Northern Arizona University at the Institute for Human Development. The Institute for Human Development is one of 67 university centers for people with developmental disabilities and other disabilities. We have been a UCEDD for roughly like 40 years. So we've been in this space a long time. Personally, what I'm gonna talk to you about today is based on work I've been doing through some National Science Foundation funding that falls under their includes initiative. So I am involved in the tapped into STEM Alliance as well as a lot of what I'm sharing today comes from our work through and includes planning grant. So let's get started. Our includes planning grant, we titled it Dynastem. Discover your neurodiverse advantage in STEM. So our planning grant was focused on undergraduate students who are neurodiverse. And like I said, it has been supported through the National Science Foundation funding, all of that. I very much echo the kudos to the prior presenters on covering so much in such great detail around identity and communication and language and what does neurodiversity mean and all of that. So that's great. So I am not going to go into it again. I don't really concur. And I think this is ongoing communication that I think is super helpful. I think it's necessary. And I think it sends a message of valuing all students. So we'll continue to do that. And the data I'm going to talk to you about I was gonna focus on the student perspectives. So we worked with Auburn University, University of Missouri Kansas City, University of Hawaii, Ohio State University, and all these partners and we gathered qualitative data. We talked to students about neurodiversity, what that means and doesn't mean to them. What does it mean in their STEM education? Perceptions, what works, what doesn't work? We talked to faculty. We talked to higher education leaders. We talked to professional leaders and professional organizations like AHEAD. I'm sure many of you are familiar with AHEAD and part of it. We talked to other support faculty on campuses like research librarians, disability support resources, other academic supports that exist on campuses. And what I'm gonna focus today though is predominantly on what students told us and what that means for conceptualizing what inclusive STEM teaching and learning and environments and instruction, what that all means. So as a general outline, I'm gonna give you a little more background on the research or guiding perspectives and assumptions behind how we've interpreted the results. List out some of the summary statements of what students told us. I wanna introduce this idea of next level inclusive STEM teaching and learning that kind of pulls together some wisdom, what came out of the data, but then also what we know about high quality inclusive learning environments and instruction. Include in that some recommendations and some reflection for you all who work directly with students. And then we have the discussion questions much like the prior session. So the major objectives is for you all in increasing your knowledge about how neurodiverse students perceive their learning, what they shared with us. And then take away with some strategies for supporting the success in STEM learning for neurodiverse students. So like I mentioned, we had a lot of interviews and in total we had about 45 interviews. But again, I'm focusing on what the neurodiverse students told us as far as neurodiversity and definition, we took the broadest sense. Our recruitment materials did use words like neurodiversity and a variety of other conditions. So it was a self-report that, yes, they experienced some of these conditions and they do have perspectives that they would like to share with us. And so underlying that, we did give some parameters to neurodiversity for recruitment purposes, for IRB purposes, but ultimately it was defined by the students, not by us. So here's some things on what they told us. Really needing specific and clear instructions, vagueness and applied steps. Steps, well, you were supposed to take it away from the prac course and add it to this course. Skipping over, not doing those, it's not skipping steps, being very specific and clear on what the expectations are. And maybe even airing on the side of being overly clear and specific, not making assumptions that students will be insulted because you told them too much, really be clear and specific in your instructions. Flexibility for self-guided learning. Now keep in mind these interviews occurred over the most recent year. You may have with the COVID impact on instruction, a lot of move to online learning where things may have not been in an online world. So in balancing all of that, there was a lot of self-guided learning, some happening intentional and some just kind of became the reaction to the COVID experience, maybe not as intentional, but in thinking about how can there be more flexibility built into everything for the self-guided learner? So we go back to that Dynastam mindset, discover your neurodiverse advantage in STEM in believing that students who are neurodiverse bring a different way of looking at things, a different approach to problem solving, a different lens, seeing something that others may not even see being there. Viva provide that flexibility for self-guided learning and allows a more constructivist approach for the students to guide their own learning processes rather than being locked in to a preset structure that runs the risk of not being a match and not letting that neurodiverse advantage really come through. A balance of the modalities of instruction from peer learning to hands-on to direct instruction and by direct instruction, that can be lecture. We didn't have students telling us, lecture is always bad, don't do that. Because that wasn't necessarily the case. Lecture as being the exclusive modality, though, was not welcome by the students. There needed to be something more applied and something more to learning from your peers, sharing with your peers. I think a lot of times in that neurodiversity umbrella, we make assumptions that the social interactions are going to be a barrier, so we're not going to provide those types of things. When that is not necessarily true, we may be misinterpreting some of that and there is great value in the peer learning for the neurotropical peers who are learning a new way of perceiving the world as well as neurodiverse students and getting the broadest scope of what interpretations could be. So basically helping each other, so not just a lecture, or not just exclusively all group projects, having a balance, having choice, options to choose and not choose activities or steps. I think most students would agree that steps in place, even though if you've mastered it and you can skip over that step, would be preferred in it not to take up your time in unnecessary steps. So kind of like showing your work if you're doing a mathematical computation, there are some brains that can skip steps and still arrive at the right conclusion, but there are also those points of which you want to in a very visible metacognitive way see what those steps of learning are, but then get beyond it and allow students to choose their path to what they're learning, allow choice as much as possible. Visuals and graphics, not just text-based. And this can even be providing an opportunity for students to create their own visual and graphics that show what they've learned, demonstrate their learning, show gaps in their learning, understanding that those multiple modalities that text is not the only way, formulas are not the only way. The visuals and graphics can also be very effective for demonstrating learning and for asking questions about your learning. Opportunities to be creative, providing opportunities to think outside the box, allowing opportunities for students to propose. You know, I think I could really show you what I've learned in this way, being open to those types of conversations. Clear and logical applications to real-world STEM work. And I think this is true for a lot of our students and you get that question, well, I ever use this. Why does this matter? I'm going to do XYZ job, why do I need to know this? Having that grounding in why it is relevant and why it is important information and how it applies is actually essential to all learners of all age and all disability abilities all be above. Sensory stimuli focused on specific tasks. In the prior presentation, there was discussion in the chat and also by the presenters on the sensory stimuli. So they're going to be stimuli that's very much embedded into the learning, but how can you reduce the extra noise? And I'm using that in the broadest terms on whether it be visual distractions, auditory, physical, all varieties of ways of distractions. Can they be minimized? And not just for instructors in the classroom who are leading that learning environment, but then also recognizing that students may be able to reduce their own stimuli and to let that happen. So for example, if there are windows in the classroom and there could be blinds or something that there's a way to shut the windows and someone's in the middle of speaking, sharing information pertaining to the content, the student gets up to close the blinds, not stopping that student from doing so and looking at it as an interruption to sharing the information. Not intended as an interruption, but it's a reducing some of the extra stimuli so that student can pay better attention. And it actually could be beneficial for a lot of the other students in that learning environment as well. Physical space options for standing or sitting or reorientation in the space. That there is not one preset room arrangement that there can be options, there could be flexibility. And again, for where they are in the space, sitting, standing on the floor, on the table, does any of it really matter? Can it be a very open and welcoming environment for students to find space that is most conducive to their learning and clear social expectations? I kind of do this as bookends with the first one being specific and clear instructions. So teamwork, group project work is very common in STEM courses. And along with that, specific and clear instructions on what steps are, what choices are, what the expectations for learning are, but then also remembering to include the social instructions and the expectations. If you have group leaders, teach the leaders how to lead, it's a very important skill in their future of their STEM career, but also really important to showcasing successful learning within that teamwork or group assignment. So laying all of those out on what's expected socially as well as demonstrating learning through that group project. Okay, so what I'm proposing, so keeping in mind that list of what students told us about their style of learning, about where it matches when instruction in the learning environment matches and where it doesn't match. And then also they shared some perspectives of other students, other observations as they've made along the way. So when I'm proposing and I'm calling this the next level inclusive STEM learning, because in my experience, you don't always see these three pieces in the same conversation. However, I think as we go through it, you're gonna see a lot of overlap and a lot of logic on how these pieces all fit together. So one in, this is a pie chart and it's divided into three equal sections. One section being universal design for learning. And in the prior presentation, they talked about that. I think there was some mention of going more in depth and I don't know if they're referring to this presentation or another one. My plan is not to go as much into in depth about this one but to give an overall summary so you can see how the pieces all fit together. Increasingly, there are a lot of professional learning opportunities on campuses around universal design for learning. So I wasn't gonna go as a depth to here because I think faculty have a lot of access to that information. But in summary, looking at multiple methods of representation, so how you're getting the information, action and expression, how you're demonstrating and showing your learning and then engagement, being able to interact and afford to be a very interactive process of learning. So I'm gonna do a little bit about that but not as much. I wanna point out the other two pieces in this pie. So one of the pieces you see there is the trauma-informed setting and very nicely set the stage in the prior presentation and some of the conversation about how neurodiverse people do experience trauma due to a range of experiences and stigma bias, those kinds of things as well as other factors. And what I'm proposing is that taking a trauma-informed approach is very much like a universal design approach. That it's about for the greatest number of users, the greatest number of learners. It's not about knowing what someone's trauma history is. It's not about judging the severity of their trauma history if thinking something is worse or less worse than something else. And it's about recognizing that trauma is part of the human experience and that there are triggers of trauma, meaning that there may be something in the environment, something that said something that happens that causes our brains and our bodies to recall the emotions of the trauma in that moment. And that can be a very unanticipated experience. It can surprise us. It can surprise our students when that happens. And so setting up the learning environment from the syllabi to the actual environment to the various forms of instruction and how students can engage. If they can have a trauma-informed perspective, it's really going to promote the engagement of students. And those components of being trauma-informed in a very general fashion, this is used across social services as well as any sorts of learning environments are safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. And I'm gonna unpack each one of those in just a bit. And then the last piece of this pie that I'm throwing out there are adult learning principles. And there's a variety of literature on this and I've summarized it into three main parts of preparation, relevance, and reflection. And in some ways, this adult learning principles can be very logical to college faculty and in some ways, for some, it can be a change in mindset. So you're looking off going into college. So you have a traditional student, 19, 20, 21 years old and all of this, that often it becomes a continuation of high school, of the way instruction happened in high school and less of this shift into the students owning their own learning as adult learners. And I think in general, from what I hear from faculty and what I observed, we could all do, we all need a little bit of this mind shift that a 19 year old, 20, 21 year old, 22 year old can be owners of their learning and putting that responsibility on them. And when you do, you've created a lot of those conditions that they told us were beneficial as far as choice and self-guided and multiple ways of telling you what they've learned and so on. So before I unpack each one of those, I want you to think just a bit about a team or a group assignment that you often use and of course that you teach. And so refresh your memory and you could just jot these down on a post-it note or maybe have them on the top of your head. What are the steps to the assignment? What are the resources that are needed to complete the assignment? What are students expected to demonstrate in regard to the STEM content area as well as the social aspects of teamwork? How is feedback provided? What format is it provided? Where does it come from? Is it part of the grading process? Is it part of the grading process exclusively? Or are there other pieces where feedback happens? They are not part of the grading process. And then what is the measurement of learning? So I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna pause for like 30 seconds so you can jot those down if you'd like. So I'm gonna unpack each one of those. And as I mentioned, I'm gonna spend the least amount of time on universal design for learning. And there are a variety of ways that universal design for learning is described from the summary kind of three overarching umbrellas. And sometimes the terminology with those umbrellas can be a little different, but they kind of get at the same gist of it to a point of really identifying the very specific steps kind of taking the universal design as it was created for physical space and translating it into the learning space. So we're looking at representation. So information is shared in a variety of ways. And the common pieces across all of these elements that are a variety of modalities that there is not one set ways. And for a lot of folks, this can be challenging when they come to a particular content area or even to their discipline. When they think about, this is how I learned this content. So this is the best way to learn kind of breaking down that myth, breaking down that myth that this is how the subject is traditionally taught. So that's why I'll continue in that vein, breaking down that myth. So information is shared in a variety of ways that recognizing with our students that not just one way is going to resonate with them, whether it be text-based or graphic-based, whether it be something you listen to, something that you read. I think in our technology resources today, there are infinite possibilities for how information can be shared. The same way with action and expression, options for demonstrating learning. So like an example I used before, being open to a student's creative proposition on, hey, I could really demonstrate for you that I've learned this content in this way. It may not be articulated in your syllabi as one of the key components and one of the key methods of demonstrating their learning, but partnering with the student to come up with creative ways, making that options to all students. And then engagement. How do you interact with the information? That direct instruction modality of lecturing, why put it out there in students since they all lecture with bad, but note that they also wanted different ways of interacting, whether it was with peers, whether it was hands-on, that you have multiple ways to interact with the information and have it make sense to you. So something for you all to think about is you're reflecting on this application of universal design for learning and do you provide varied ways for students to access the course content? And I'm talking about all of the course content, not varied ways for this piece, but all of the rest of it is in a very structured way. Can you stretch yourself to provide variety of ways across your course? There are the variety of ways of working with the content, kind of that roll up your sleeves and dig in and get more information. And again, our technology resources really provided infinite number of ways, varied ways for showing what they have learned. How can they best demonstrate that? It's something that helps some of our students who may feel like text is not their best way, but hey, they could present what they were learning, they could talk about it, they could graphically represent it. Perhaps they could do an illustration, could be a multi-frame cartoon that's demonstrating their learning, keeping that very open and then varied ways of practicing new skills. So with that, I'm gonna segue into the trauma-informed setting. And because we've had this conversation this morning about this, I'm gonna spend just a little more time here. So as we're talking about, like in the universal design for learning, the multiple modalities of things that fit how people learn, also with the multiple modalities, allow options that students will feel is safe. So in STEM, in scientific discovery, we know that sometimes not every experiment works. Sometimes it fails and we learn from that and we test our next hypothesis. So with all students, with neurodiverse students, being able to take the risks needs to be safe. So is risk taking communicated, articulated to students as an acceptable form of STEM learning? When students are showing you and demonstrating to you what they've learned, when they don't have it quite right, is that part of the learning trajectory in that is safe. Also with the whole safety aspect, like my example with the blinds and the sensory information, depending on we've done some work with veterans, so post-traumatic stress and those kinds of things, allowing students choice on where they sit, how they're oriented to the other students, maybe ways of helping them stay in a safe space so that they can be readily able to engage in the learning that's happening and not be so focused on the protective factors that kick in. Trustworthiness, dependable follow-through. Do what you say you're going to do when you're syllabus. We talked about clear and specific instructions that you would hear to the clear and specific instructions. But then I give the example of negotiating with students when they have a creative way to demonstrate their learning, bring that to the forefront as part of the communication with all the students in that course. So adjustments to the syllabi, adjustments to expectation are made together. They are not surprises. So being trustworthy. Choice, options for engagement. Not assuming that a student just wants to get out of something, but there may be other lying factors that are guiding that student to ask for not doing that step, not doing it in that way, or better yet providing options for how it is done so students can choose the safe route. Collaboration, students want to learn from each other and creating that safe space for that to happen without judgment, that they're learning as part of their teamwork. We give each other feedback. It's not about saying, I did it right and you did it wrong. We're learning together and giving each other feedback. So that collaboration. And then this last one empowerment, leading with being strength-spaced. And the example I was saying echoing made together. You are learning together. You are teaching together with your students in that space. So providing opportunity for leadership. If there is that option to negotiate some of the methods of things like in that universal design for learning space, you do it together empowering teachers and empowering your students and valuing their input into the learning process. So some reflection questions to think about kind of opportunities you provide students to try out new ideas and hypothesis without risk of a low grade or scrutiny from their peers. Do you adhere to your course plans or necessary changes explained to the students or better yet decided with the students? Offering opportunities for students to make choices about their learning, promoting peer-to-peer learning and mutually reinforcing activities. It's a win-win for everyone when you engage in it. Advise students from a strengths first perspective, right? So not leading with the deficit. Well, what you weren't able to do or what you aren't showing yet is this, but leading that conversation from a strengths-based perspective and providing opportunities for all students to showcase that there are various forms of leadership and that all students can be a leader in that learning space. So a comment into the biggest barrier to implementing flexibility are the your credit requirements imposed by my institution. And we find that sometimes with particular STEM fields that there are imposed traditions imposed, this is how we always do this or this has to be done in this certain way because it leads to this kind of licensure or because this licensure exam won't allow you to have this resource available when you take it. So therefore I can't allow those resources to take it. I want to say yes, that those things are very real and struggle and I know our disability resource office works very closely with those disciplines to problem solve, not to necessarily accept that this is the only way that this could be done but can we look at it other ways and maybe even perhaps try it in a very small pilot without in the same way not asking the institution to take a risk being trauma-informed with your institution to really show champions on how it can work. Yes, that's good advice speaking to how it ties to the learning objectives and the assessments, you just keep it coming back to there and that's kind of your mutually decided upon goal if for students to learn these things but they're also then while promoting there can be different pathways to get to that point. Unpacking the adult learning principles. So as I said, there are a variety of ways that these are listed out and I'm summarizing into the preparation piece which is plan, introduce and illustrate, the relevance piece, so why does this matter? So application of it and practice of it and then reflection, self-assessment and goal setting. So in the plan, introduce and illustrate is very much like at the beginning of this presentation I told you what we were going to go through. I set out the objectives for our time together so you could kind of prepare your mind and then this is what this is gonna be about. And then before I was unpacking what these three components are I asked you to think about in your real world scenario a team assignment, a group assignment so that you could start to think about how these plug in to your instruction. So that was my preparation for you all. The relevance application and the practice providing examples of real world. How does this happen? Why does this matter? What will be the difference if I do this? Yes, it's a layer of convincing but it's very important to adult learning to be able to ground it and our experiences because we've definitely learned from our years of experiences. And then also those reflection questions that I've put along the way to think about how this applies to your context. Often we can go to a webinar or training and it all sounds great. And then we come away and go, wait how is that gonna apply in my world? If you can engage your audience, engage the students on how it's gonna happen in the real world while they're learning it it locks in a little better. It gives it some glue, some stickiness to the learning. And then the self-assessment and goal setting it's presuming that students can be assessment capable learners. And we talk about that in our K-12 education but I think it applies in our adult learning too. I know whether or not I got it. I have a sense of that. I have a sense of what my gaps are engaging with students in that conversation. Where are your gaps? Now what are you gonna be your next steps? And you can see how the circles back to the student request for that self-guided learning. And so in some cases with your students you'll need to prepare them to be self-guided learners. There's a wee novel. They come from a high school tradition which may have been more sit and get, learn it cause you're supposed to and kind of move on to there to them owning their learning path. So what is it gonna take for them to learn it and what are their next steps? What additional resources do you need? So thinking about, do you provide clear introductions and illustrations of what is to be learned? Are you prepping their brains for the learning experience? Do you provide descriptions of why and how the content is relevant and how it is used in real world settings? Why does it matter? How might they use this? Do you provide opportunities for students to self-assess the mastery of their content? I'm not just talking about a test in a grade but providing those opportunities whether they be within the course, I mean within a session, after a session, after a unit, a self-checkout, where are you in this? You know, as the leader of this instruction I'd like everyone to be here but maybe we're not all here. Where are we with that? It's gonna inform your instruction of what you need to review but then also making that transparent to the student so they can start plotting what their next steps are and then do you provide guidance for students regarding next steps in their learning based on their self-assessment? Additional resources, refresh, look back at this, some added technology that might support their variety of ways. I'm gonna show you the graphic again. So those three pieces of the pie, the universal design for learning, the trauma-informed setting and then adult learning principles. And I'm hoping that you can see these connected and you can kind of throw in the chat on ways you see these are connected and kind of move us to that next level of inclusive STEM learning. My next slide are the discussion questions. So as far as our timing, we have like four minutes. If folks wanna throw things in the chat to discuss with each other, questions for me, questions for each other. Regarding learning objectives, tying the varying modalities. That's a question. I'm not sure what the question is or maybe it's to everyone in the group. Choice and relevance are connected. Yeah, emphasizing why is this important to me? The speakers don't do that, the audience will not engage. And often we'll go into a training setting with adults and we know we need to do that but we don't do that part, right? When it comes to courses, we just don't, we look at the student is different. Does anybody have any comments regarding the trauma informed practices as it applies in the courses? I know there was some discussion about that in the previous session and even in our breakout a little bit about that. I have a scrolls in the chat. Thank you for the reminder. Yeah, I can read it cause I wrote it out cause I thought it was important. Yeah. In creating assignments in campus it's good to check multiple boxes. The trauma informed aspect is so important for neurodivergent students being programmed to master neurodivergent traits to fit into neurotypical society is a daily trauma. Rhonda, did you see the last comment in regards to number four? I'd like some more training in alternative methods. I'm going to assess student learning specifically in a math setting. Yes, and Natalia, thank you for that last word popped right up there. Value authentic selves and asking our students to become rather than themselves to be successful and of course, very true. So assessment in the math setting. Does, you know, those of you who are, we have other math faculty here who could provide some other concrete as opposed to mine are going to be a little more hypothetical. Natalia, you're in math. Do you have, you don't have a suggestion for alternative methods of assessment in math? Oh, okay. Sounds like we need to have another seminar. It does. Take your name down, Natalia. It does. I think that that would be a discussion all into itself and thinking about the applied aspects in math settings and whether or not the math instruction is about mechanics, mathematic mechanics, and then how you can tie that into real-world applications or if it's mathematics like building a bridge, you know, that can very much have the visual and tangible and those kinds of experience when the math works and it doesn't work. And Natalia, if you'd like to send just some information we could pull that into the proceedings as well and people might like to see it there as well. All right. We are at 11 or five. Rhonda, thank you so much. And thank you in particular for modeling your approach in your presentation. I think that's terrific.