Inclusive teaching
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Inclusive teaching means recognising, accommodating and meeting the learning needs of all your students. It means acknowledging that your students have a range of individual learning needs and are members of diverse communities: a student with a disabling medical condition may also have English as an additional language and be a single parent. Inclusive teaching avoids pigeonholing students into specific groups with predictable and fixed approaches to learning.
Inclusive teaching
- takes a coherent approach which is anticipatory and proactive
- has a strategy for delivering equal opportunities and diversity policies
- involves the whole institution
- matches provision to student needs
- incorporates regular reflection, review and refinement of strategies and methods that actively involve disabled students.
Experience has demonstrated that adjustments made for disabled students can often benefit all students. Inclusive teaching is good teaching. For example, when reviewing how to describe a diagram to a blind student, it might become apparent that there is a better way to present the information for all students.
In making your teaching inclusive you reassess the material you use in your teaching and the way in which it is delivered and assessed.
Providers should place learners in the best possible learning environment for their needs, whatever those needs may be. Several strategies may be required to ensure that the specific needs of an individual are met. Providers should devise a comprehensive strategy to tackle every aspect of an individual learner’s need – this may become complex and is a growing challenge for providers who have to cater to an increasingly diverse population of learners.
Why does inclusive teaching matter?
- Inclusive teaching is more likely to be good teaching.
- We live in a diverse society: education should reflect, promote and facilitate this.
- More and more disabled people are entering higher education.
- The DDA requires universities not to discriminate, and to provide equality of opportunity for disabled students.
- Disabled students are increasingly aware of their rights and less prepared to accept inadequate provision.
- Although provision for disabled students has dramatically improved in recent years, it is still patchy, under-resourced and inconsistent.
This comprehensive section on inclusive teaching begins by introducing the concept of Universal Design for Learning and relates it to academic practice in higher education.
Further resources
- Beyond Prejudice: Inclusive learning in practice from the Learning and Skills Development Agency offers strategic and practical pointers for the provision of an inclusive learning environment.
- DEMOS: Online Materials For Staff Disability Awareness (2002) is an online resource aimed at academic staff, and examines the issues faced by disabled students in higher education. Modification of examination and assessment arrangments are also discussed.
- Engineering Subject Centre Guide to Working with Disabled Students (2nd Edition June 2005) includes practical ideas and case studies.
- Premia resource base awareness and development materials are for everyone involved in making the research environment more accessible for disabled students.
- SCIPS (Strategies for the Creation of Inclusive Programmes of Study) database provides information to support academic staff in improving access to the curriculum for disabled students.
- SENDA compliance in Higher Education: an audit and guidance tool to accessible practice within the framework of teaching and learning 2002, including a useful section on assessment.
- Teachability (2000) offers information and resources for academic staff to help in the provision of an accessible curriculum.
- Techdis has relevant resources and references, including a database of information and products to assist disabled students and staff.
- University of Bristol Access Unit provides fact sheets for supporting disabled students.
- University of Wolverhampton - Learning, teaching and assessment: good practice guides for staff teaching d/Deaf students in art, design and communication and in science and engineering.
