Resources
Building Equitable Classroom Environments:
An Evidence-Based Community of Practice Approach
Guide #1: Decision Guide: When designing a Community of Practice, the first step is to figure out the type of CoP you will be nurturing, and the logistics you will put in place to help achieve your goals. You can think of this as figuring out the “5 Ws” of your CoP—Who, What, Where, When, and Why. This resource will help you think through these five questions.
Guide #2: Scope & Sequence Guide and Delivery Guide: This guide will support you as you plan the content that will be covered in your CoP (i.e., your “Scope & Sequence”) and how your CoP team will engage with that content in your work together (i.e., your “Delivery Guide”). The guide will describe the purpose of a Scope & Sequence and Delivery Guide, and provide key questions and tips to consider as you design your own CoP to meet the goals and needs of your community of learners.
Guide #3: Facilitation Guide: This resource provides support around facilitation to leaders of Communities of Practice to foster meaningful relationships and productive conversations within your CoP. We provide suggestions for building community, encouraging open and safe communication, and supporting colleagues as they grapple with challenging material in your CoP.
Community of Practice Guides
This collection of resources provides a framework for designing and developing a Community of Practice (CoP) that supports groups of instructors as they adapt and use Equity Accelerator’s proven classroom practices in their own contexts. Drawing on empirical-evidence from the fields of social psychology, educational psychology, and brain science, our field-tested practice guides include practical approaches instructors can use in their courses to promote engagement, increase equity in students’ experiences of their learning environments, support academic success, and reduce academic outcome gaps by group membership.
Growth Culture Classroom Practices Library: The Growth Culture Classroom Practices Library, created as part of the Student Experience Project, is a collection of evidence-based, field-tested resource guides outlining practical approaches that instructors can use in their courses to promote engagement, increase equity in students’ experiences of their learning environments, and support academic success.
Dashboard Sample: A dashboard (see Guide #2) is a living document that you update each time you meet with your team, and serves as a hub for all the materials utilized during and between each meeting. This document provides one example of how you could structure your dashboard.
Sample Scope & Sequence: As described in detail in Guide #2, the purpose of a CoP Scope & Sequence is to identify high-level learning objectives and expand them into session objectives and related content modules that build on one another over time. This sample, from an EA-led CoP, illustrates the level of detail and what is contained in a Scope & Sequence.
Sample Delivery Guide: As described in detail in Guide #2, the purpose of a CoP Delivery Guide is to clarify what you’ll be doing to engage with the content, how long activities will last, framing for activities, as well as basic logistical details. This sample, from an EA-led CoP, illustrates the level of detail and what is contained in a Delivery Guide.
Scope & Sequence Template: When you are ready to develop a Scope & Sequence for your own Community of Practice (see Guide #2), this template can support you in building this document.
Delivery Guide Template: When you are ready to build your own Delivery Guide (see Guide #2), you can use this template to help get you started.
Community Questions Document: A community questions document (see Guide #2) can be a valuable place to capture your team’s questions about your Community of Practice. In this document, team members can record any questions that they have, including those that support them in understanding the session content, connect ideas across sessions, and bridge session discussions and their own practice. In this example document, we include a description and norms that your team may adapt for your own CoP.
Requesting Feedback from Students about Your Evolving Practice: This resource from Guide #3 provides suggestions for how to solicit candid (and anonymous) feedback from your students about your practice, make sense of the feedback that they provide, and share your learnings back with your students to further foster growth mindset, belonging, and equity.
Building Reflection into Your Community of Practice: This resource from Guide #3 provides suggestions for how to build reflection into your Community of Practice work in order to capture insights and accelerate learning. Specifically, it highlights particularly valuable moments to seek reflection, key ingredients to consider when designing reflection opportunities, and sample reflection prompts.
Samples & Resources
This section includes samples, templates, and other resources to support CoP teams as they reflect, adapt, and implement the ideas presented in the above guides into their own classroom practice. These resources are referenced directly in the above guides; we recommend that you refer to the guides for more details as you use these resources.
