Increasing Student Engagement & Success Across Institutions with Adaptive Teaching & AI Strategies
Fri 6/5 • 11AM - 12PM PDT
Pritzker 1531
This session introduces adaptive equity-oriented pedagogy (AEP). AEP adapts evidence-based practices (e.g., grading for equity, AI, formative assessments, UDL) to address barriers to student learning. Research studies show that, compared to active learning courses, instructors applying AEP increase average achievement by over a letter grade for all students. AEP also supports positive psychosocial outcomes (e.g., motivation, sense of self-efficacy, sense of community) across disciplines and college contexts. This session highlights strategies that instructors have used to adjust teaching, address equity barriers to learning, and increase achievement in over a dozen courses. It also shares findings on how AEP-Al supported greater student engagement and success across college courses.
Presenter Bio: Andrew Estrada Phuong is an assistant professor in the Department of Education Studies at UC San Diego. He earned a master’s degree from Harvard and a PhD from UC Berkeley. His research examines how adaptive equity-oriented pedagogies (AEP), artificial intelligence, and professional development improve student achievement and positive psychosocial outcomes such as motivation, sense of self-efficacy, belonging, and reduced stereotype threat.
In over a dozen STEM courses in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, and Statistics, his work has demonstrated that AEP-based professional development increased instructors’ equitable teaching competencies. Instructors have leveraged these competencies to improve their students’ success at scale.
He has taught STEM pedagogy courses and co-developed award-winning, campus-wide programs that supported instructors, staff, and managers in using AEP to improve learner success at scale. His work has been recognized with the Teaching Effectiveness Award, the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Team Award, the 2024 Robert J. Menges New Researcher Award from the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Faculty Teaching, Evaluation, and Development SIG, and the POD Network’s 2025 Robert J. Menges Award. His work was featured in Times Higher Education, and UC San Diego Today called him “The Teaching Transformer.”