Transcript Document

Developing an inclusive curriculum
for ALL our students
Mick Healey
University of Gloucestershire, UK
[email protected].
“The changes needed to sustain the expanded
and diversified student cohort require a
sophisticated whole-of-organisation approach
and response, and not just change at the
individual academic level.”
(Budge 2010: 7)
Inclusion and inclusive curriculum
Part of diversification and expansion of HE agenda
in Australia, as move towards universal system of
HE:
• Dawkins reforms (late 1980s).
• Bradley Report recommendations (2008).
“In response to the reshaping of higher education,
there is a need for institutions to fully embrace
inclusive learning and teaching practices to
accommodate the needs of all students”
(Budge, 2010: 5).
Inclusion and inclusive curriculum
Agendas
• Widening participation – low SEGs
• International recruitment – cultural
differences
• Equality and equity - age, disability, gender,
race, religion and sexual orientation
Macquarie diversity and inclusion
Our learning and teaching values.
“We have established a new set of learning
and teaching values, principles and priorities.
These include conducting ourselves ethically,
and with honesty, integrity and objectivity;
valuing difference and being tolerant; and by
promoting diversity, equity, social justice, and
inclusiveness.”
http://www.mq.edu.au/learning.html
Macquarie diversity and inclusion
Assessment Procedure.
“Assessment must abide by Macquarie University
statements about equity and inclusiveness. They
must reflect a positive value related to diversity
among students in relation to process and content.
Certain modes of assessment may privilege some
students and disadvantage others. Every attempt
must be made to identify and rectify any unintended
negative consequences in the assessment design
and processes.”
Brief biography
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HE Consultant and Researcher,
Economic geographer and Director Centre for Active Learning,
Emeritus Professor, University of Gloucestershire,
Director of Centre for Active Learning (2005-10),
National Teaching Fellow and Senior Fellow HE Academy,
Research interests – R&T links, SoTL, active learning,
student experience of disability,
Director of two HEFCE projects on ‘Supporting the learning
of disabled students’ (Geography Discipline Network),
Co-Director of ESRC TLRP Project Team on ‘Enhancing the
quality and outcomes of disabled students’ learning in
higher education’,
Hon Prof University of Queensland, Visiting Prof Edinburgh
Napier University and University of Wales Newport.
Your experience
One minute each way:
In pairs you each have ONE minute to tell
your partner about either an experience
you have had or a story about making
the curriculum more inclusive.
The job of your partner is to listen
sympathetically, but not interrupt.
2 mins
Structure
1. Nature of inclusion and inclusive
curricula.
2. Examples of institutional initiatives to
make the curriculum more inclusive.
3. The experience of disabled students of
curricula and reasonable adjustments.
4. Principles and practice of inclusive
and engaged learning and teaching.
Inclusion and inclusive curriculum
Policy and legislative agendas.
“Moving these agendas ‘from the margins to the
mainstream’ (Thomas et al., 2005) remains a
significant challenge. It necessitates a shift away
from supporting specific student groups through a
discrete set of policies …, towards equity
considerations being embedded within all
functions of the institution and treated as an
ongoing process of quality enhancement.”
May and Bridger (2010: 6).
Inclusion and inclusive curriculum
“By ‘inclusion’ we mean the enabling of full and
equitable participation in and progression through
higher education for all prospective and existing
students” (HE Academy 2009).
“Inclusive curriculum design … involves the design,
planning and evaluation of programmes, courses and
modules not only in terms of their learning outcomes,
content, pedagogy and assessment but also in ways
in which they engage and include the needs, interests
and aspirations of all students” (Hockings 2010: 15).
Edinburgh Napier diversity and inclusion
“This means getting away from the traditional view that if we 'treat
everyone the same' we will somehow have promoted equality.
Edinburgh Napier University believes that true 'equality of
opportunity' can only be achieved if we do not treat everyone the
same. This is what we mean by equality (or, more correctly,
equity).”
“Society is made up of individuals and everyone's needs are
different. So, it stands to reason that the way we treat a student or
member of staff with a disability is going to be different from the
way we treat someone without a disability in order to achieve
equality of outcome. Recognising this difference, and making
appropriate adjustments to the way we do things, is the 'diversity'
part of our definition of 'equality and diversity'.”
Argument
Developing an inclusive curriculum is about:
a)
Designing effective and varied learning, teaching
and assessment practices for all students.
b) Focusing on learner differences not learner
difficulties.
c) Valuing and working with differences to enrich
learning for all.
d) Making adjustments which are good teaching and
learning practices to benefit all students.
How far do you agree with these views and how far do they
follow from your interpretation of the research evidence?
Argument
Teaching for diversity in its entirety “includes
the selection of course content and material,
design of the classroom setting and teaching
material, communication with students, and the
role of the teachers” (Otten, 2003: 20).
The emphasis should be on:
- “teaching all students better” (Budge 2010: 6)
- “culturally relevant pedagogy” (LadsonBillings (1995: 159)
Flinders Culturally Diverse and Inclusive
Practice Website (CDIP)
“Culture is the basis of what people ‘take for granted’ or
what they notice about others but is largely invisible to
themselves. The invisibility of culture in educational
settings can have unintended consequences.
Despite the best of intentions, teachers and students
might be unaware that what they say, do or teach in the
classroom could seem strange or offensive to others.
Sometimes doing what seems ‘normal’ means
unintentionally excluding others from participating
fully.”
http://www.flinders.edu.au/cdip/cdip_toolkit/
Flinders Culturally Diverse and Inclusive
Practice Website (CDIP)
“If the lecturer does not answer a student’s
questions in class but asks the other
students what they think, in my country
we would think that teacher is poorly
qualified or lazy. But in Australia this way
of not giving the answer … is common in
our class, even when the Professor is our
teacher.”
(3rd year Botany student from Thailand cited in
Ballard & Clanchy, 1991: 1).
Infusing the curriculum with health and
wellness issues at Georgetown University
• Focuses on teaching of the whole student by bringing
health and wellness issues into the classroom in a way
that encourages student knowledge gain, as well as
self reflection on their own attitudes and behaviours.
• Georgetown faculty link academic course content with
wellness topics through readings, presentations,
discussions led by campus health professionals, and
reflective writing assignments.
• Since its inception in 2005, over 3000 students have
been taught in 100 courses by 40 faculty from 20
different departments.
http://cndls.georgetown.edu/engelhard/
Institutional initiatives to develop
inclusive policies and practices
In pairs please discuss whether and how
the ideas of infusing the curriculum at
Georgetown are relevant to Macquarie
3 minutes
Disability studies
“We believe that the claim that everyone is
impaired, not just ‘disabled people’, is a farreaching and important insight into human
experience, with major implications for medical
and social intervention in the twenty-first
century.”
(Shakespeare and Watson 2002: 25)
The experience of disabled students
•
Despite growth of interest in the topic, the voice of
disabled students, with a few exceptions (e.g. Riddell et
al. 2002), has hardly been heard, beyond the anecdotal.
•
Will draw on longitudinal interviews with 31 disabled
students across the four universities about their
experiences of learning and assessment.
•
Supplement it with findings from a) two surveys at one
of the universities: a survey of 178 disabled students;
and a survey of 548 disabled and non-disabled
students; and b) a survey of disabled students studying
GEES subjects in six universities.
Listening to students
Statistically in a class of 200 students in
UK higher education there will be 11
students who have declared a disability.
Would you know who they are?
It is likely that at least another 11 students in
the room have an impairment, but have not
declared it.
The nature of disability
‘a physical or mental impairment which has a
substantial and long-term adverse effect on his
or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day
activities.’
Disability and Discrimination Act (1995).
5.4% of all undergraduates (121,085) in the UK
self-assessed themselves as having a disability
in 2003/04.
The actual proportion may be closer to 10%.
The nature of disability
Self-assessed disabilities by UK higher education
students all years, 2003/04
%
Dyslexia
41.3
Unseen disabilities (e.g. epilepsy, diabetes, asthma) 20.1
Multiple disabilities
9.9
Deaf/Hearing impairment
5.1
Mental health difficulties
4.4
Wheel-chair user/Mobility difficulties
4.1
Blind/partially sighted
2.8
Personal care support
0.2
‘Other disabilities’
12.3
Source: NDT (2005)
Barriers related to modes of teaching
Disability-related barriers
Lectures
Laboratories / practicals
Other on campus classes
Fieldwork – residential
Fieldwork – non-residential
Fieldwork – Independent
Off-campus sessions
Using IT facilities
HEI GEES
%
%
44
22
21
17
54
25
29
19
19
43
17
Barriers related to modes of teaching
What conclusions do you
draw from the responses from
the GEES students about the
disability-related barriers that
they have impacted on their
learning in:
a) Lectures (Fig 1, p3),
b) Independent fieldwork (e.g.
associated with
dissertation) (Fig 2 p3)?
Barriers related to modes of assessment
Disability-related barriers
HEI GEES
%
%
Examinations
30
Written examinations
62
Multiple choice / other exams
45
Coursework
34
63
Oral presentations
12
37
Barriers related to modes of teaching
What conclusions do
you draw from the
responses from the
GEES students about
the disability-related
barriers which have
affected their
experience of different
types of assessment
(Fig 3 p4)?
Reasonable adjustments - need
Legislation in the UK puts a duty
on universities and colleges to
make reasonable adjustments in
advance for the needs of disabled
students and to produce
disability equality statements.
All staff, academic and support,
have a responsibility for
providing a learning environment
in which disabled students are
not disadvantaged.
Reasonable adjustments - experiences
Wide variation in the experience of the students
in the reasonable adjustments made to learning,
teaching and assessment (LTA) suggests there
are differences in how the legislation is
interpreted.
Such findings help to explain why this is an area
which features strongly in the cases brought
against higher education institutions under the
legislation in Australia and emerging case law in
the UK (Adams and Brown 2002).
Reasonable adjustments - argument
It is invidious to treat disabled students as a
separate category; rather they fall along a
continuum of learner differences and share
with other higher education students similar
challenges and difficulties; sometimes the
barriers are more severe for them, but
sometimes they are not.
Reasonable adjustments - approaches
Assimilate - special arrangements made for particular
disabled students to help them cope e.g. provision of
hearing loops; handouts in Braille; extra time in exams;
stickers for students with dyslexia.
Alternative arrangements - provided for particular
students e.g. a virtual fieldcourse for a student with a
mobility impairment; a viva is provided to test the same
learning outcomes as a written assessment.
Inclusive - all students are provided with adjustments
e.g. handouts before lectures; alternative assessments
designed to test the same learning outcomes.
Reasonable adjustments - assimilate
Daisy (Heritage & Tourism, visual & dyslexia) went
on a fieldtrip without a note taker.
“The lecturer said to certain people to take notes for that
day for me but I never actually got round to pushing them
to give them to me so I kind of ended up with my own hand
written notes and a few gaps.”
Jean (education, dyslexia) - extra time in exams
“I have this label … you are treated a bit different, which is
good because you think … I do need extra time in exams
… but I am aware … of people saying to me ‘Oh I didn’t see
you in the exam hall’.”
Reasonable adjustments - alternative
Andrew (education, cerebral palsy) was
provided with an alternative fieldwork exercise.
“Obviously there was a lot of stuff I couldn’t do
because of my legs and whatever. The river study was
one particular thing. They accommodated me really
well. They just said ‘you don’t need to do that’ but
Sheila, one of the assistants, she took me in the van
and we went to a visitor centre and I evaluated the
usefulness of the visitor centre. I was doing
something, although it was different to the rest of
them, I wasn’t just sitting in a cabin with my feet up.”
Reasonable adjustments - inclusive
Brandon (engineering, dyslexia), along with all
the other students on his course, gets lots of
handouts in advance which means he does not
need his note taker.
“I can listen to the lecture and remember. We get lots
of handouts and notes, which is good for me because
rather than look at my notes I can look at theirs. In
maths they gave us a CD at the beginning of the year
and that has all the notes for the whole year, exam
questions and answers.”
Variation in LTA experiences
Jean (education dyslexia) had different
experiences with different lecturers.
“If she put an overhead up in a lecture theatre or a
workshop … she would … do it paragraph by paragraph
… and she would read it out as well … so I would get it
audibly and visually.”
“She moves into the group as overheads are swishing
on and off, she is talking about something else which is
so important that I am supposed to be taking it down
and I am a bit like … ‘what do you want me to do?’”
Variation in LTA experiences
Two students with the same disability may
have widely different experiences.
“I’m good at oral presentations but sometimes
misspell on OHPs” (Dyslexia).
“I hate oral presentations because it is very difficult
for me to converse my ideas out aloud and this is not
to do with confidence but speech problems”
(Dyslexia).
LTA experiences
This suggests that devising general policies
may not meet the specific needs of individuals.
However, making numerous individuallytailored adjustments is not sustainable; though
may be essential in a minority of cases.
What is required is an inclusive approach which
removes the distinction between teaching and
assessing disabled and non-disabled students.
LTA experiences of disabled and nondisabled students
Agree/Strongly agree
% Dis Non-Dis
I have had physical difficulties with writing
I have had difficulty with literacy skills
I have had difficulty in taking notes
I have had difficulties with the amount of time
I require to complete assignments
It’s easy to know the standard of work
expected
I have had difficulties with participation in
group work
I have had difficulties with oral presentations
29
54
55
5
17
24
55
39
51
43
19
28
29
33
LTA experiences
Using a catch-all category ‘disabled students’
is problematic.
The findings show that for most part disabled
students have similar experiences to nondisabled students of learning and assessment.
However, disability-related barriers have had a
significant impact on their experiences of
learning and assessment in a minority of
situations.
LTA experiences
The main beneficiaries of disability legislation
may be the non-disabled students because
most of the adjustments, such as well-prepared
handouts, instructions given in writing as well
as verbally, notes put on-line, and variety and
flexibility in forms of assessment, are simply
good teaching and learning practices which
benefit all students.
LTA experiences
“One unintended consequence of
this (disability) legislation is that as
departments and institutions
introduce more flexible learning and
alternative ways of assessment for
disabled students, demand is likely
to rise for giving greater flexibility for
all students.
Disability legislation may prove to be
a Trojan horse and in a decade, the
learning experiences of all students
may be the subject of greater
negotiation” (Healey 2003: 26).
Designing inclusive teaching and
learning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl-ril9_Jus
Talk to your neighbour:
When was the last time you found yourself in the
minority at a social or educational event?
Designing inclusive teaching and
learning
Please work in pairs.
One should read:
• Ten ways to design modules for
accessibility (pp7-8)
The other should read:
• Tips for designing culturally inclusive
learning and teaching (p9)
Tell each other at least ONE interesting idea.
5 mins
Reflections on developing an inclusive curriculum
“no single curricular mode can achieve
universality and serve all students equally. …
classes must be built to work towards contingent
universality of serving the students that are
actually there.”
Bruch (2003: 99) cited by Hockings (2010: 19)
Principles of inclusive & engaging L&T
• Creating safe inclusive spaces,
Getting to know students,
Setting ground rules,
• Developing strategies for sharing and
generating knowledge:
Creating flexible, student-centred activities,
Encouraging students to articulate their
thinking openly,
Being uncertain, making mistakes and being
different is OK.
Principles of inclusive & engaging L&T
• Connecting with students’ lives:
Selecting / negotiating topics and activities
relevant to students’ lives, backgrounds and
(imagined/future) identities.
• Being aware:
Adapting plans to address emerging interests.
Hockings (2010)
Developing an inclusive curriculum for ALL students
If we want to achieve equality of
opportunity for all students, instead of
classifying people by their age, class,
disability, gender, nationality, race,
religion and sexual orientation, we
might do better to focus instead on
their individual learning needs and
entitlements.
Reflections on developing an inclusive curriculum
In groups of threes and fours discuss what
actions you intend to take which have been
stimulated by today’s discussions.
5 mins
Reflections on developing an inclusive curriculum
“To
embed widening participation and
equality could arguably be not about
doing different things, rather it involves
doing things differently.”
May and Bridger (2010: 9)
See: Continuum model of equality and
widening participation (Fig 5 p5).
Developing an inclusive
curriculum for ALL our students
THE END
Thank You