1. Developing an Inclusive Curriculum for All Students Mick Healey HE Consultant and Researcher www.mickhealey.ac.ukwww.mickhealey.ac.uk; mhealey@glos.ac.uk.mhealey@glos.ac.uk “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)

2. 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).

3. Inclusion and inclusive curriculum Agendas Widening participation – low SEGs International recruitment – cultural differences Equality and equity - age, disability, gender, race, religion and sexual orientation

4. 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, inclusive curriculum, 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’, Visiting Prof Edinburgh Napier University and University of Wales Newport and Hon Prof University of Queensland. Brief biography

5. Structure 1.Nature of inclusion and inclusive curricula. 2.The experience of disabled students of curricula and reasonable adjustments. 3.Enhancing interaction between domestic and international students. 4.Principles and practice of inclusive and engaged learning and teaching.

6. Designing inclusive teaching and learning Talk to your neighbour: When was the last time you found yourself in the minority at a social or educational event?

7. 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'.”

8. 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/

9. 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).

10. Argument Developing an inclusive curriculum is about: a)Designing effective and varied learning, teaching and assessment practices for all students. b)Focusing on learning differences not the difficulties they face (e.g. due to their disability). 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?

11. Developing an inclusive curriculum for all “We believe that the claim that everyone is impaired, not just ‘disabled people’, is a far- reaching and important insight into human experience, with major implications for medical and social intervention in the twenty-first century.” (Shakespeare and Watson 2002: 25)

12. 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.

13. Statistically in a class of 100 undergraduate students in UK higher education there will be 8 students who have declared a disability. Would you know who they are? It is likely that at least another 8 students in the room have an impairment, but have not declared it. Listening to students

14. HEIGEES Disability-related barriers% Lectures4454 Laboratories / practicals25 Other on campus classes2229 Fieldwork – residential19 Fieldwork – non-residential19 Fieldwork – Independent43 Off-campus sessions21 Using IT facilities1717 Barriers related to modes of teaching

15. 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 teaching

16. HEIGEES Disability-related barriers% Examinations30 Written examinations62 Multiple choice / other exams45 Coursework3463 Oral presentations1237 Barriers related to modes of assessment

17. 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)? Barriers related to modes of teaching

18. 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.

19. 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 - argument

20. 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 - approaches

21. 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’.”

22. 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 - alternative

23. 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.”

24. 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

25. 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). Variation in LTA experiences

26. This suggests that devising general policies may not meet the specific needs of individuals. However, making numerous individually- tailored 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

27. Agree/Strongly agree % Dis Non-Dis I have had physical difficulties with writing 29 5 I have had difficulty with literacy skills 54 17 I have had difficulty in taking notes 55 24 I have had difficulties with the amount of time I require to complete assignments 55 39 It’s easy to know the standard of work expected 51 43 I have had difficulties with participation in group work 19 29 I have had difficulties with oral presentations 28 33 LTA experiences of disabled and non- disabled students

28. Using a catch-all category ‘disabled students’ is problematic. The findings show that for most part disabled students have similar experiences to non- disabled 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

29. 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

30. “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). LTA experiences

31. Enhancing interaction between domestic and international students CommonGround Video 5-10min. www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/research/projectsites/enhancing_interact.html

32. Enhancing interaction between domestic and international students “From both the students’ and staffs’ perspectives, interaction among students form diverse backgrounds potentially leads to: increased awareness and understanding of different perspectives; better preparation for the workplace; improved English language skills of international students; and a greater feeling of belonging.” Arkoudis et al. (2010: 6)

33. Enhancing interaction between domestic and international students Interaction for Learning Framework: 1 Planning interaction 2 Creating environments for interaction 3 Supporting interaction 4 Engaging with subject knowledge 5 Developing reflexive processes 6 Fostering communities of learners

34. Enhancing interaction between domestic and international students In groups of three: The 1 st should read dimensions 1 and 2 pp8-9 The 2 nd should read dimensions 3 and 4 pp10-11 The 3 rd should read dimensions 5 and 6 pp12-13 Exchange one key idea / example from each dimension with each other 8 mins

35. ‘Western’ Critical thinking Independent learning Student-centred learning Adversarial stance Argumentative learners Achievement of the individual Constructing new knowledge ‘Deep’ learners seeking meaning ‘’ ‘Confucian’ Follow the Master Dependence on the teacher Respect for the teacher Harmony Passive learners Achievement of the group Respect for historical texts ‘Surface’ or rote learners Source: Ryan & Carol, 2010

36. Partial and biased Much of the evidence produced for the way Chinese students behave in classroom settings has been drawn from reports and perceptions by Western instructors, thus filtered through their own values, expectations and standards’ Clark and Grieves, 2006 p. 60 As much variation within as between Source: Ryan & Carol, 2010

37. Designing inclusive teaching and learning Please work in pairs. One should read: Ten ways to design modules for accessibility (pp14-15) The other should read: Tips for designing culturally inclusive learning and teaching (p16) Tell each other at least ONE interesting idea. 5 mins

38. Principles of inclusive & engaging L&T In what ways has the Business School teacher in the following video clip attempted to make her class on human resources inclusive? How appropriate would these strategies be in your context?

39. 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.

40. THE END For more pictures of Tess see: www.mickhealey.co.uk