Michigan State Scholar Developing App to Allow Teachers to Analyze Classroom Bias

Niral Shah, assistant professor of teacher education at Michigan State University, is developing a new web-based application that will allow teachers to monitor and analyze their own classroom interactions with an eye on reducing racial and other biases.

The Equity Quantified in Participation (EQUIP) program will record classroom interactions between teachers and students. The program will then analyze the data to see if these interactions are different based on the student’s race, ethnicity, or gender.

Dr. Shah says that “teachers don’t currently have a way of getting concrete data on how implicit bias might be affecting their practice. We hope to explore how quantitative analytics generated by EQUIP — alongside data on students’ subjective experiences of equity and bias — can support teachers in making their teaching practice more equitable over time.”

Dr. Shah hopes that once completed the application will be used in teacher preparation programs and professional development workshops to enable teachers to understand how bias can creep into their interactions with students. By understanding the process, teachers will be able to address and hopefully eliminate any bias.