Inclusive Practices
Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement
Middlesex University
Contacts:
• Art & Design: John Parkinson
[email protected]
• Media & Performing Arts:
Katerina Loukopoulou, [email protected]
TWO PARTS
1. An Overview of the Current State of
debates about Inclusivity
- The ‘3 Steps Beyond’ approach
2. Workbook for the Self/Team Assessment
Toolkit
PART ONE
How do YOU conceive the notion of
inclusivity?
Please add your own conception / association below:
How do YOU conceive the notion of
inclusivity?
Points by workshop participants so far (Sept-Nov 2016).
• Legal / Regulatory Framework – 2010 Equality Act
• Praxis – equality in the classroom As a way to help all students engage with the course equally
• Ethical /moral principles
• Socio-political understanding - Social Justice
• Exclusion-Inclusion --- Yin and Yang
Policy Drivers
• DSA Changes - 2016
(DSA=Disabled Students Allowance)
• Widening Participation and Social Mobility
(Higher Education Bill, 2016-17)
• Equality Act 2010
Current State of Play:
3 Steps Beyond
1. Beyond “normative” approaches
2. Beyond the “deficit model”
3. Beyond “pathologizing” the
individual student
Diversity
- neither to be problematised
(e.g. “difference” framed as a “problem” /
“challenge” / “issue” )
- nor to be over-celebrated
(e.g. projected as something “exotic”)
Parallel and equal focus on TWO parameters:
a) the individual’s needs
b) the whole group
Social Model of Inclusivity
(Note: the diagram and the report below relate to disability) –
But this model may apply to all other groups that might have been traditionally
‘excluded’ e.g. consider how this model may apply to mature or part-time students,
etc; You may replace the term ‘medical model’ with ‘deficit model’
Social Model of Disability - useful background is available here:
https://www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2015/05/FactSheets_TheSocialModel_14thSept2015.pdf
Universal Design Vs
Retrofitting
How could this apply
to curriculum design?
Universal Design
Retrofitting
Universal Design for Learning
(UDL)
UDL is an educational approach based on three primary
principles:
- multiple means of representation of information
- multiple means of student action and expression
- and multiple means of student engagement
http://udloncampus.cast.org/page/udl_landing
Further
Training
Reading
and
Viewing
Training: Middlesex Online Courses
• Middlesex, Inclusive Teaching and Learning Resources
& Quizzes
http://mdx.mrooms.net/course/view.php?id=6383&section=0
• Middlesex Diversity in the Workplace Online Course – for all staff,
esp. new staff
http://mdx.mrooms.net/course/view.php?id=1474&section=2
click on: Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Online
KEY Reading
Hockings, C (2010) Inclusive learning and teaching in higher
education: a synthesis of research
www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/inclusive_teaching_
and_learning_in_he_synthesis_200410_0.pdf
Examples from the University of
Plymouth
University of Plymouth’s FAQ and resources on
inclusivity:
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/your-university/teaching-and-learning/inclusivity/inclusiveteaching-and-learning-faqs
• Watch any of the videos from this weblink:
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/your-university/teaching-and-learning/inclusivity/inclusivity-studentexperiences
take notes on how the students of each group
perceive matters of inclusion and exclusion:
CAPE’s Compilation of Useful Resources
on Inclusivity
Designing an Inclusive Programme
http://mdx.mrooms.net/mod/book/view.php?id
=156354&chapterid=10303
Further Viewing
Why is my Curriculum White?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dscx4h2l-Pk
Watch this Video, produced by UCL (University College
London)’s Union as a response to the NUS report Race for
Equality Report
www.nus.org.uk/PageFiles/12350/NUS_Race_for_Equality_web.pdf
Take Notes of:
-Examples of diversity
-Suggestions about Curriculum Innovations that will enhance
inclusive learning and teaching
PART 2
Self/Team-Evaluation
Toolkit
for Inclusive Learning and
Teaching
CAPE at Middlesex has adapted a Toolkit on inclusivity written
by Chantler; Else, P., Inns, J., Jackson, V ., Madriaga, M.,
Martin, M., Nind,R.,Turner, P., and Tylsley, A . at Sheffield
Hallam University
The full version of this Toolkit is available here:
http://tinyurl.com/inclusivitytoolkit
What follows is a workbook with the key principles that can
be used to record discussions with teams.
Final responses should preferably be compiled and submitted
at this online Qualtrics form:
http://bit.ly/mdxinclusivecurriculum_form
For each of the following principles, note down examples by
drawing on:
- your current practice
- your discipline’s conventions
- other colleagues’ practice
- areas that you would like to change – Action points
Share your workbook with colleagues and your team and use
it as the basis for personal development and team planning
Please note:
the examples listed in red draw on workshop discussions at
Middlesex and work in progress. All Faculties and
Departments are currently consulting their staff.
Steps
•Before teaching
•During teaching
•Assessment
•Quality assurance
Before Teaching
3 underlying principles
1. Staff make arrangements to deliver teaching and learning
which is accessible and inclusive.
2. Academic staff work with central services to facilitate
individualised support mechanisms.
3. Teaching, learning and assessment are designed in such a
way as to allow for multiple means of delivery and
engagement.
Discussion: 10 Jan 2017
Problem-solving pedagogies / independent learning
Presentation-based / project-based assessment
Action: To explore how above approaches could be transferred to all
levels of undergrads study?
Ambitious / challenging scenarios/aspiration on behalf of students
Building in more choice / more independent study / Foundation model?
Millennial problem? - problem of resistance from a specific generation of
students?
Tension re: before and after teaching / how to develop in class strategies
to address issues in class while they are unfolding
Interventionist approach / guerrilla type of teaching? / disruptive
learning approach?
Classroom issues - rooms fit for purpose?
Too wide the range of English language competencies – Can peer-support
be used in a more integrated and consistent way?
Discussion 10th Jan. 2017
Need for different university structures?
What are the parameters that academics can set? Levels of Agency?
How can the university accommodate a wide range of needs within predetermined structures?
Action:
Freedom/ Flexibility for Students to be able to set their own Independent Learning Outcomes?
Use of Apps?
Could graduate skills be adapted to become more inclusive?
Scheduling / Timetabling – is there an inclusive approach? E.g. students working part-time;
commuter students
Field trips? – beyond the formalities - how can we expect what students can do?
Can super-detailed description of a task/activity make it more inclusive or restrain its
potential?
During Teaching
3 Underlying Principles
1. The classroom pedagogies encompass a variety of
teaching strategies, activities and methods to
accommodate a range of learning preferences.
2. Students are given access to teaching and
learning delivery which is accessible and inclusive.
3. Academic staff work with central services to
implement individualised support mechanisms.
Current Practice and Action Points
Here record points from team meetings
Assessment
3 underlying principles
1. Assessment methods are sufficiently diverse to
accommodate a range of learning preferences, to
assess a range of learning outcomes and to
develop a range of skills.
2. Assessment methodologies are appropriate for
the stated learning outcomes and must allow for
reasonable adjustments.
3. Assessment of competence standards have been
thoroughly considered to ensure inclusive
assessment can be implemented.
Current Practice and Action Points
Here record points from team meetings
Quality Assurance
3 Underlying Principles
1. The programme has quality assurance procedures that
capture the voice of a range of students (e.g. disabled;
mature; international).
2. Validation processes facilitate inclusive curriculum design.
3. The curriculum is designed and delivered in a manner that
respects that everyone learns in different ways and that
learning outcomes can be achieved in many ways
Current Practice and Action Points
Here record points from team meetings