<aside> 💡 As a result of facilitating connections between the subject matter of an online or hybrid course and learners’ prior knowledge and experiences, learners will feel empowered to form meaningful connections and transfer knowledge between course content and their diverse backgrounds and experiences.
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Facilitate Connections between Subject Matter and Learners’ Prior Knowledge and Experience is a DEI practice that helps learners to form connections between course content and their own diverse backgrounds and experiences, in order to meet them where they are and allow them to build on their prior knowledge. (Prior knowledge refers to a learner’s experiences that provide a context for the information, no matter how limited, a learner has at the start of learning a new topic.)
All learners can benefit from this practice, however, those who have traditionally been excluded from higher education will benefit the most. Learners who are considered first-generation in higher ed, for example, may not have been exposed to as many advanced-degree topics as those who are not first-generation, and so can benefit from the opportunity to build bridges between their knowledge/experiences and a particular topic. (Hurtado, 2005).
Eva Figueroa, Lauren Stikeleather