IMPLEMENTING INCLUSIVE DESIGN FOR LEARNING IN INTRODUCTORY GEOLOGY LABS: INSIGHTS FROM THE BRIDGE PILOT STUDY

Improving inclusion of students with diverse abilities in geoscience is a critical and largely unaddressed challenge. For addressing this challenge, the Building & Researching Inclusively Designed Geoscience Education (BRIDGE) pilot study provides foundational insights into implementing Inclusive Design for Learning (IDL) in introductory geology labs. As an expansion of universal design for learning, IDL provides a framework for opening up and adapting classroom interaction systems, minimizing barriers through– promoting perception, engagement, expression, and accommodation for diverse learners. Translation of such a framework from principles to practice has yet to be empirically explored. As a collaboration between geology and science education graduate students, this design-based research (DBR) pilot study characterizes our contexts for identifying processes of collectively applying IDL to lab design as well as individually enacting design in TA labs. This presentation will highlight local supports and constraints to IDL implementation processes for informing current practice and future research. I will discuss results of systems-based analysis, which emphasize needs for enhanced training, sustained support, and collaborative communication among TAs as well as between TAs and the course instructor. Together with significantly clarifying the IDL framework, I describe how our emerging implementation process provides structured flexibility for applying IDL to lab designs. Individualized implementation variations based on teaching strengths and student needs provide insights specific to TA lab contexts. These differences attest to strength of IDL in providing both sufficient structure for collaboration and flexibility for adapting to various contexts. Viewing these IDL variations across contexts as well as BRIDGE efforts as a whole within the existing introductory geology system elucidates constraints for future minimization and supports for further building and researching inclusively designed geoscience education.