1. Unconscious Bias is at Work in Our Classrooms

2. Action Steps
Students
Teachers
Why it Matters
Self assessment

3. Take the Gender and Science IAT

4. What is Project Implicit?
Yale University, 1998
Now at Harvard, Virginia & Washington Universities
2003 – took off with research grant from National Institute of Mental Health
millions of people have taken these tests since 1998
Now averaging 15,000 per week

5. Examples of IAT test topics:
Gender
Religion
Native American
Arab-Muslim
Skin-tone
Weapons
Disability
Race
Gay-Straight
Age (young-old)
Presidents
Asian-European

6. Why does it matter? Form Buddy Groups
Come up with a definition in 15 words or less: “Unconscious bias is……”
What does it have to do with your classroom?
Time: 7 minutes

7. We receive 11 million bits of information every moment.
We can only consciously process 40 bits.

8. What Causes Societal Bias?
We all have shortcuts, “schemas” that help us make sense of the world.
But our shortcuts sometimes make us misinterpret or miss things.
That’s unconscious bias.
Unconscious bias results from “schemas.” Schemas are necessary to live; everyone has them. We need them to make sense of information and to function, they let us pay attention to only select information. But they can also cause us to miss or misinterpret certain things, leading to unconscious bias.

9. Unconscious bias is…
Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness.
Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing. 
The positions we hold about others that are influenced by past experiences, forming filters that cause conclusions to be reached, about groups or ethnicities, by ways other than through active thought or reasoning.

12.
Photo:

13. Categories leading to possible unconscious bias
Example pulled from Cisco – goes through our filters and we respond to different things in different ways due to our biases.

14. The author wrote the book “Blink” because people judged him differently when he changed his hair. When hair changed he started to get: Speeding tickets, Pulled over in airport security lines, Ambushed on the sidewalk by a team of police,
Malcolm Gladwell

15. Societal Bias Starts Young

16. Study after study…… Resumes: John vs Jane Teacher evaluations Grading
Blind Orchestra Auditions
Emergency Medical Care
Letters of recommendation

17. Examples of Implicit Bias and Unconscious Bias:
Resumes with ethnic sounding names pushed down in the selection for interviews.
Asian candidates given priority positions requiring math and science.
Women more frequently interrupted in business meetings.
Some team members, who arrive late to a meeting, are welcomed and given a brief update on what transpired prior to their arrival. Other team members, based on a racial, gender, generational or other differences, receive only a fleeting glance from the leader, subtly conveying a message of admonishment with no welcome or update offered.
Girls are not good at math or computer science

18. Unconscious Bias
We know that unconscious biases are particularly present in organizations/professions or classes dominated by a single group (e.g., tech, elementary teaching, computer science classes, nursing, etc.)

19. Bias Microinequities A feeling of being devalued​ Lower self-esteem​
Decreased morale​
A sense that you’re not being listened to​
​Decrease in speaking/sharing ideas​
Decrease in taking risks​
Decrease in productivity ​
Lower grades​
Poor retention​

20. Awareness is An Important First Step

21. Summary: Key IAT Trends*
07/16/96
Summary: Key IAT Trends
Implicit biases are pervasive.
People are often unaware of their implicit biases.
Implicit biases predict behavior.
People differ in levels of implicit bias.
Educational attainment makes no difference with respect to implicit biases. * ##

22. IMPLICIT ATTITUDES
IMPLICIT STEREOTYPES
Arts and Humanities
Home over career

23. How might these filters/unconscious biases impact your classroom
How might these filters/unconscious biases impact your classroom? Could be teacher behaviors. Could be peer to peer behaviors
Jot down your ideas – 3 minutes
Buddy Group sharing – 7 minutes
Share in large group

25. Case Study Read the scenario Respond to the following questions:
What is the issue?
How might the person be feeling?
What might be the outcome if nothing changes?
How could you intervene to be a “Champion of Inclusion?”

26. You control your classroom culture: your circles of power and influence
Creating Inclusive Classroom Card Decks – bring your questions tomorrow!

28. Review: What is an inclusive classroom?
A place where every student feels they have the option to speak and be heard.
..inspires everyone to engage in problem solving and share their ideas with each other.
Every student feels included
students feel that their contributions and perspectives are equally valued and respected.
if someone in the lab is noninclusive, others actively engage to challenge the negative behavior.
FYI, these samples are taken from their survey responses… they will appear when you click if you want to use them after pulling a couple of responses from the group.

29. The challenge for us all….
….is to ensure that the classroom climate and curriculum is supportive and responsive to all students.

30. Google Video about Unconscious Bias

31. Resources
Understanding Implicit Bias: What Educators Should Know
Unconscious Work — Making the Unconscious Conscious
Google 4 minute YouTube video about unconscious bias
2-3 minute videos to teach about implicit bias
and wcqDQIEMMuXadwy90YxN2Qb4SrXT (YouTube version with Colleen Lewis)