Enhancing Inclusive Instruction

By Veronica Womack, Associate Director of High-Impact Teaching

Enhancing Inclusive Instruction (2024) centers the voices of students of diverse backgrounds, captured through surveys and interviews, to explore how instructors can approach equitable, inclusive teaching. I was excited to read this recently published book due to my familiarity with lead author Tracie Addy’s scholarship on inclusive teaching and mentorship. After disseminating our recently updated Northwestern Principles of Inclusive Teaching, I have been thinking about the Searle Center’s mechanisms for outreach and the ways in which my fellow educational developers and I can best support instructors’ efforts to implement their inclusive teaching goals.

While reading this book, I was drawn to the authors’ conversations about specific ways instructors can utilize Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs), like the Searle Center, to assess their inclusive teaching practices. This review zeroes in on the opportunities for instructors to partner with CTLs as they reflect on their practices (Chapter 5), use observational feedback (Chapter 6), and measure and share outcomes related to inclusive teaching (Chapter 7).

Starting to Reflect on Your Practice

Reflective practices allow for the development of new knowledge, skills, and dispositions, which can be employed in future teaching to improve its effectiveness. Chapter five discusses the process and benefits of several reflective processes, including journaling, utilizing teaching inventories, and investigating literature. The authors conclude by discussing the value of both informal and structured discussions with colleagues and educational developers in acquiring ideas, information, and perspectives which enrich one’s reflection on their teaching.

The authors find CTLs especially useful for their ability to bring together members from across campus, broadening the pool of colleagues instructors interact with and leading to expanded networks, new perspectives, and important conversations that may not arise in narrower contexts. These multi-perspective, interdisciplinary exchanges are a hallmark of CTLs. At the Searle Center, we foster instructor learning communities and host professional development events that encourage collaboration and shared strategies for inclusive teaching.

Using Observational Feedback

Observation is a powerful method for obtaining feedback on inclusive teaching practices. Chapter six demonstrates how low-stakes, observational feedback can help instructors strengthen their use of inclusive teaching strategies and identify opportunities for further implementation. The authors highlight formative classroom observations conducted by educational developers as a way for instructors to receive formative feedback and to develop or renew their inclusive teaching goals. One tool to consider is the Protocol for Advancing Inclusive Teaching Efforts (PAITE), which offers formative, data-informed feedback on a range of observable inclusive practices. Classroom observation services are also a good way for instructors to connect with campus educational developers and build partnerships with CTLs.

Measuring and Sharing Outcomes

Chapter six explores the formal measurement of outcomes related to inclusive teaching as “next-level engagement.” The authors argue that outcomes—both those that focus on student outcomes and instructor growth—are important to measure because they prompt continuous improvement and provide evidence in support of inclusive teaching practices.

Instructors can seek support from educational developers when designing such assessment projects and when conducting, presenting, and publishing studies that inform their fields about the positive outcomes of equity work. They recommend attending a conference or joining a network, such as the POD Network’s special interest group on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning or ISOTL. The authors also note that, at some institutions like Northwestern, educational developers play key roles in supporting departments/programs with assessment for curricular change and accreditation purposes.

Conclusion

The reflection questions and student quotes interspersed throughout the manuscript spark the creativity and commitment needed to bolster student success and instructor vitality. To illustrate, one of the students interviewed shared a positive experience in a STEM laboratory course:

"The professor who was teaching it had taught for a long time, but something that I really respected about them is that they were really focused on continuing to experiment in a good way with how they structured their class, and how they would manage their preps for their class. And one time I came to lab a little bit early, and they were there sort of setting up the lab, and I asked them, “Hey, how is this lab going to work?” And they ended up saying, “Well, I’m trying this for the first time. Do you want to just walk through it and see if it sounds like a good class?” and I was like, “Sure.” So they ended up explaining to me like everything that we would do that day, and they would sort of tell me like the pitfalls that they’re worried about, and apparently they had done this in a different lab one time. ... And then, like genuinely asking me like, “Do you think this is gonna work?” “Do you like this plan?” “Do you think that I should change it in one way or another?” And that was really cool. I feel like that was a pretty inclusive way to like, you know. They knew that I was interested in sort of experimentation in a classroom, and trying to figure out what might work for the students" (p. 4).

—A public university student who identifies as White and non-binary

In this example, we see an inclusive educator modeling lifelong learning through openness and experimentation, invited and valued the student’s perspective, and building community through intentional course design. These are powerful reminders of why inclusive teaching matters and how the Searle Center can serve as a catalyst for reflection, feedback, and measurable impact.

Published Tuesday, January 13, 2026.