1. Practitioners’ Perspectives: Teaching in the Context of Diversity Teresa Elmes, Library Liaison Manager Sonya Lipczynska, Library Liaison Manager Anna Mountford-Zimdars, Lecturer in Higher Education, King’s College London

2. Context: PGCAP programme  Two years part-time  Compulsory for new lecturers  Optional for others with teaching responsibilities  Intake: 240 (2013), 140 (2014)  Core first year course, two option modules in second year  Assessment and Feedback, Curriculum Design, Technology Enhanced Learning, Employability, Laboratory Teaching, Leadership and Management, & Teaching in the context of diversity (since 2013)

3. Diversity Module  Learning objectives:  introduce participants to the context of higher education  facilitate informed reflections that enhance practice  Delivery  five seminars, 3 hours each (now changed)  Written assessment, 2500 word reflective essay or review (now changed)  Graded (0-100) (now changed to pass/fail)  Year 1 (2013) and 2 (2014) each around 24 participants  Year 3 (2015) around 45 participants (2 runs), 10 Brilliant Club tutors

4. The Special Issue  King’s College in-house journal HERN-J  1x annual standard issue, this is an additional special issue  Best essays from year 1 and 2  8 essays selected, four reflections, four reviews  Additional feedback and peer-reviewing  Additional section on ‘top tips’ for practice to make pieces more useful for others  Accessibility  Content accessibility  Design, pictures  Online version, large print  ….room for further improvement?

5. Teresa Elmes: My topic Higher Education admissions & success: What is the value of cultural capital?

6. Impact on admissions  Decision to apply  Choice of institution, course & qualification  Application process  Entrance tests  Interviews

7. Impact on student experience  Orientation  Culture  Communication with tutors  Understanding the Student role  Expectation of support & resources

8. Changing my practice  Reassess value of Library induction  Awareness of environment  Promotion of voluntary Library classes  Use of language  Being explicit in instruction  Self reflection....

9. Sonya Lipczynska  My topic: Adopting inclusive strategies to reach students with non-disclosed disabilities

10. ‘Invisible disability’  Not all disabilities are visible  Epilepsy  Partial vision  Mental/learning/behavioural disorders  Easy to impose an identity of ‘wellness’ on a student if no visible markers are present

11. Why students may not disclose  We rely on students to disclose their disabilities to accommodate their needs. However—  Desire to integrate/not to be treated differently  Poor initial disclosure experience  Fear of stigmatism All these factors may mean that affected students remain silent

12. Inclusive practices  A method of delivering live teaching, and learning materials which reach all participants  No need for students to disclose unless they choose to  Proactive rather than reactive  Promotes equality in the classroom as far as possible

13. Teaching materials  Create a ‘toolkit’ of materials in a variety of formats  Print  E-learning  Material set up to be re-formatted if required  Ensure that the students have access to this toolkit prior to the session so they can manage the resources according to their needs and learning style

14. ‘Live’ teaching  Consider your ‘script’. Do you use colloquialisms, abbreviations or other constructions which could be hard to understand?  Rewrite in simple, instructional English  Make sure you are speaking clearly  Create a range of in-class activities which cover different learning styles and potential difficulties  Peer support through group work  Live polling and feedback  Hands-on individual activities – e.g. worksheet or online task

15. Above all…  Be friendly, approachable and encouraging  Create activities and materials which are helpful for all students – any changes should be unobtrusive  Don’t make assumptions about the students’ understanding or difficulties or single out individual students  Do make clear that students can ask for help, and when those periods are during the class

16. Other Articles  …peer-labelling  …minimal diversity  …student carers  …unseen disabilities  Top Tips Online version: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/learningteaching/kli/research/her n/hernjvol9.pdf http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/learningteaching/kli/research/her n/hernjvol9.pdf Large Print version: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/learningteaching/kli/research/her n/HERN-J-Accessible.pdf