All 4 entries tagged Inclusion

Interrogating Spaces podcast

Interrogating Spaces examines ideas around inclusivity and attainment in Higher Education. Each episode explores democratic and decolonised teaching practices through dialogue with practitioners as well as staff and students from University of the Arts London.

Abigail Ball : 19 Aug 2024 09:39 |  Tags: Attainment Decolonising Democratic Inclusion |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

AI: Empowering Inclusive Education

Have a read of this post by Nalina Brahim-Said a student at the University of Bolton looking at inclusive education in the UK curriculum and integrating AI for SEN and neurodiversity:

https://nationalcentreforai.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2024/01/09/ai-empowering-inclusive-education/

Abigail Ball : 22 Jan 2024 09:00 |  Tags: AI Inclusion Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Blog 6: How inclusive is your assessment strategy?

By Leda Mirbahai (Warwick Medical School)

Assessments are a fundamental part of student experience - with students learning by doing, i.e. by engaging with assessment tasks and then, after submission through the feedback they receive on their performance and progress Internal and External Examiner often ensure that assessment strategies are reliable, effective, and accurate, however, whether they are inclusive is often overlooked.

Considering the diversity of our student population, it is clear that ‘one size fits all’ approach to assessment design and delivery is not an inclusive assessment strategy which links with diversification of our assessment approaches (a point that we will come back to shortly). The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), UK’s quality code for higher education, lists 10 guiding principles on expectations and practices for assessment which are:

1. Assessment methods and criteria are aligned to learning outcomes and teaching activities.
2. Assessment is reliable, consistent, fair and valid.
3. Assessment design is approached holistically.
4. Assessment is inclusive and equitable.
5. Assessment is explicit and transparent.
6. Assessment and feedback are purposeful and supports the learning process.
7. Assessment is timely.
8. Assessment is efficient and manageable.
9. Students are supported and prepared for assessment.
10. Assessment encourages academic integrity.

As mentioned, a criteria of good assessment ‘strategy’ is to be inclusive and equitable. If one really reflects on the 10 principles, they are all interlinked. For example, it is very difficult to demonstrate an assessment strategy that is inclusive where assessment loads are not manageable for our students or students don’t receive equitable level of support. With Toolkits such as ‘Embedding inclusive assessment reflective toolkit’, a project funded by QAA, becoming available we can reflect on the assessment strategy of our courses and programmes by considering how well we align to attributes of an inclusive assessment. The toolkit starts to encourage a triangulation critic of our assessment approaches by involving major stakeholders from students, academics and leaders in the process and asking some key reflective questions. Reflecting on the 9 attributes of inclusive assessment as mentioned by this toolkit, most questions are basically reflecting on the principles of good assessment, which in my view indicates that if your assessment aligns to the principles, it should promote inclusivity.

As an academic staff leading the assessment strategy for a new UG course at WMS, I have been involved in the planning and delivery of a course level assessment strategy. As the course is new, it has removed some of the challenges of trying to alter and adjust existing assessments for individual modules. This raises an important concept; assessment strategies should be seen at course/programme level. Going back to principles of good assessments, we need to demonstrate how our assessments map to course level, year level and module level learning outcomes as well as ensuring students are supported and prepared for assessments. This highlights the gradual building of our learner’s skills and knowledge in a spiral curriculum and enabling them to receive continuous feedback on their progress in a meaningful way. Learners need to be able to visualise and reflect on their progress across the programme and to achieve this, our assessments in one module (skills, attribute and knowledge) need to meaningfully build on the previous modules; hence programme level approach being more desirable.

Using diverse assessments is a great way of acknowledging that ‘one size fits all’ approach to assessment design and delivery is not an inclusive assessment strategy. However, this also doesn’t mean that we should sprinkle our assessment programmes with as many different modes of assessments possible. Introducing too many different modes of assessments that are not revisited or are not utilising or building on skills and knowledge of a learner would just add to the level of stress encountered by our learner as it means our students need to learn a new and unfamiliar assessment approach just to use it once! Therefore, diversification should be achieved in a meaningful way rather than just for the sack of introducing new assessment modes.

Finally, in my view one of the most important aspects of a good assessment strategy is continuous reflection and improvement. There is no fixed perfect assessment strategy as our learners and their requirements are constantly changing. An assessment strategy that is developed and never revised will soon become unfit for the purpose it was developed. I know this as I am already making a list of changes that we need to embed into our assessment strategy and the course is only 3 years old! So I leave you with one question. How inclusive is your assessment strategy?

References

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education (2018) UK Quality Code for Higher Education advice and guidance: Assessments.

Embedding inclusive assessment-Reflective toolkit (2022), a QAA funded project. Developing a Set of Inclusive Assessment Design Attributes for use Across the Higher Education Sector (qaa.ac.uk)

This is the 6th blog in our diverse assessment series. Previous blogs can be found here:

Blog 1: Launch of the learning circle (Isabel Fischer & Leda Mirbahai): https://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/wjett/entry/interested_in_diverse/

Blog 2: Creative projects and the ‘state of play’ in diverse assessments (Lewis Beer): https://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/wjett/entry/creative_projects_and/

Blog 3: Student experience of assessments (Molly Fowler): https://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/wjett/entry/a_student_perspective/

Blog 4: Assessment Strategy – one year after starting the learning circle (Isabel Fischer & Leda Mirbahai): https://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/wjett/entry/one_year_on/

Blog 5: Learnings and suggestions based on implementing diverse assessments in the foundation year at Warwick (Lucy Ryland): https://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/wjett/entry/learnings_suggestions_based/

Join the Diverse Assessment Learning Circle: If you would like to join the learning circle please contact the co-leads: Leda Mirbahai, Warwick Medical School (WMS) (Leda.Mirbahai@warwick.ac.uk) and Isabel Fischer, Warwick Business School (WBS) (Isabel.Fischer@wbs.ac.uk). This LC is open to non-WIHEA members.

Abigail Ball : 20 Feb 2023 09:38 |  Tags: Assessment Inclusion Leda Mirbaha Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Describe successful models for inclusion in your subject area – Charlie

It is essential for all teachers, including Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teachers, to recognise that every class is comprised of a group of unique individuals. A significant challenge for teachers is to meet the different needs of each of these students, who may vary with respect to gender, social class, special educational need and disability (SEND), interests, self-esteem, ethnic, cultural and linguistic background, family situation, motivation, ability, previous attainment and numerous other factors.

An advantage of an MFL classroom with respect to these individual differences is that students are encouraged to talk about themselves and their interests, hobbies, families and experiences in the target language, and so this can present the teacher with many opportunities to take an interest in and value what each individual student has to say about him or herself, thus modelling an inclusive approach. Discussions about festivals and cultural practices in other countries and differences between the target language and other languages can also lead to interesting contributions from students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and can give the teacher an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of the class. This links to Teachers' Standard 1: Set high expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils: establish a safe and stimulating environment for pupils, rooted in mutual respect, and demonstrate consistently the positive attitudes, values and behaviour which are expected of pupils. Teachers can also ensure that resources featuring pictures of people reflect the diverse mix of the student cohort that they are teaching.

“Inclusion” within the literature on education is often used as a specific reference to the inclusion of SEND students. In her paper on foreign language learning and inclusion, McColl (2015) argues that it is essential for pupils with SEND to be given equal access to the curriculum, including MFL, even if they struggle with proficiency in their own language. This is, she argues, because the teaching of languages is also about the teaching of other cultures and acceptance of other ways of life and beliefs. McColl also argues that some students, for example those with autism, may only gain a clear understanding of what it is to be British and living in Britain through being taught about the existence of other countries and Britain’s global context. In this way McColl is advocating a fully inclusive model of MFL teaching.

Working with pupils with SEND can present significant challenges for a class teacher as these pupils can have very different and specific needs. One three-part research-based model of inclusion presented by the Institutes of Education at London and Exeter proposed that approaches should 1) help all but be modified to remove barriers for those with SEND, 2) be drawn from specialist studies of the subject being taught and 3) use insights from disability-specific knowledge (Peacey, 2016). One way to combine these elements in MFL is to ensure that the languages teacher combines his/her expert knowledge of the subject, pedagogical knowledge and knowledge of the students with the expertise of SEND colleagues within the school. The teacher should ensure that they obtain all available information on their students, including those with and without SEND, plan for appropriate differentiation, make any adjustments required by students and draw on any support available from SEND colleagues to ensure that the needs of all students are met to the best of the teacher’s ability.

Evidence demonstrates that I put in place specific strategies to meet the needs of my autistic learners. This links to Teachers' Standard 5: 5 Adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils: have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs; those of high ability; those with English as an additional language; those with disabilities. I engage with staff within the SEND department of my school to support these students to the best of my ability and at times they support these learners in lessons. This is in line with Teachers' Standard 8: Fulfil wider professional responsibilities: deploy support staff effectively.

Inclusion within an MFL classroom can present significant challenges for language teachers. However, inclusive models of teaching can also present opportunities to celebrate diversity and give equal access to the benefits of learning languages to all students.

References

McColl, H. (2005). Foreign Language Learning and Inclusion: Who? Why? What? - and How? Support for Learning Journal, 20 (3), pp.103-108.

Peacey, N. (2016). An Introduction to Inclusion, Special Educational Needs and Disability. In: Capel, S., Leask, M, and Younie, S., eds. Learning to Teach in the Secondary School: A Companion to School Experience. 7th Edition. London: Routledge, pp. 302-324.

Abigail Ball : 26 Nov 2018 08:26 |  Tags: Inclusion Models |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem