By Jett Palmer, Allison Theobold
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Group work is a powerful pedagogical framework used by educators in classes to enrich student learning. As advocated by the GAISE guidelines, group work serves as an accessible way to incorporate active learning into a statistics course. However, research has shown that unstructured collaborations can be subject to inequitable interactions and contribute to disparities of power and status (Johnson, 2002; Langer-Osuna, 2011; 2016). Fortunately, there exists a pedagogical framework designed to address the issue of inequitable group collaborations. Complex Instruction supports equitable participation by all students within a group by (1) teaching via “group-worthy” tasks, (2) defining norms and roles for members of the group, and (3) attending to the status of individuals through group accountability (Cohen and Lotan, 1997). In this beyond session, we discuss methods for exploring how pedagogical methods, such as Complex Instruction, are associated with aspects of students’ social identities (e.g., disciplinary identity).