In July I had to talk about and ground in literature, how I would make my teaching practice more inclusive and accommodate a range of student needs, lecturers in my case. Below is the video of my presentation with my audio narration redacted - still not keen on hearing my own voice, like many, but I have genuine pure fear. I could have made this a more accessible and visual presentation by nature of the topic itself, however I wanted to emphasise the depth and meaning of the content. I had another challenge of keeping to limits on such a big topic, which was no more than 8 minutes in narration limit - it came out as 7 minutes 37 seconds.
"Thank you, Daniel, for your submitting your Inclusive Practice Assessment. This is a good submission and you have done particularly well in applying the chosen scenarios to your own context making for an interesting and personal submission– well done!
Strengths
- You have provided a strong introduction, where you have defined Inclusivity. Good links made here to the NTU strategy and the wider educational context.
- This assessment has been well aligned to your own practice making for a well contextualised piece.
- A range of appropriate strategies have been identified making clear links to the specific needs of the students.
- This assessment has been well supported by literature which has been appropriately cited throughout the presentation.
- You have done well to communicate the importance of collaboration within other colleagues/teams across NTU.
- I really liked your closing remarks which further supported to evidence your commitment to meeting the needs of your students by delivering inclusive teaching practices.
- Well done on meeting the time requirements of this assessment – which is always a challenge!
Areas for development
- This assessment would have been enhanced by identifying specific considerations/ challenges faced by the demographics in each scenario – you have done this for the mature students, but it would have been useful to clearly communicate these for the other 2 scenarios.
- I’m being a bit picky here but consider having less text on your slides and using these more as a prompt for your discussion.
- Consider highlighting an area that you would like to focus on/ learn more about going forward – this will evidence a commitment to ongoing development within your delivery of inclusive teaching practices.
Video transcript:
Slide 1
Hi, I am Daniel Scott-Purdy and this is my formative assessment on inclusive practice.
Slide 2
The following slides will discuss each demographic, 2 mature students, one of whom has a sight impairment, 8 students from a vocational background and 1 transgender student. On how I’d make my identified session more inclusive to support and accommodate those student needs.
Slide 3
Firstly, I think it is good to define what is meant by inclusive practice and the importance of it, and to ground this presentation and the suggestions within it.
The first quote is from Advance HE which sums up this topic and more broadly. With emphasis on the words barriers and access.
I recognise that there is a national legislative requirement, The Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination, harassment and victimisation of individual’s protected characteristics. Academics should legally and morally give students with identified disabilities, identical or equivalent opportunities to learn and be assessed as like their peers.
NTU is strategically committed to sustaining an inclusive learning and working environment. Which is driven by it’s Success for All strategic objective.
Slide 4
In the context of my role, my discipline is in the sphere of technology enhanced learning. My students are lecturers in healthcare, where the majority are mature and are new to teaching, having come directly from clinical vocational backgrounds.
The H5P Retreat is a typical workshop I deliver in the dedicated space and time to explore and apply an educational technology; a user-friendly eLearning authoring tool available via NOW. As usual I ground the workshop in the what and why supported by relevant literature and then moving onto practical skills development. Giving adequate time for lecturers to get more hands-on with the technology in making their own rich online interactive activities and resources.
Slide 5
NTU identifies mature students as 21+ years of age and recognises their needs may differ to those of students aged between 18-21. NTU have a variety of services offered by the Disability and Inclusion Services team. As well as broader resources and programmes in place to support these types of students.
Whilst supported in a nursing context, financial insecurity, family support, educational challenges and technological capability are highlighted as key challenges. As my students are adult lecturers who now have different circumstances, some of these might not pose as challenges, but mostly likely in different degrees and forms. Therefore, it is important for me to acknowledge these as they may influence attendance and engagement of participation throughout. Maintaining a flexible but supportive learning environment.
As I would not receive an Access Statement for a mature student with a visual impairment. This relies on me knowing my students and asking in advance on how I can best accommodate their needs. This may include assistive technologies such as zooming/magnified content and keyboard navigation. As well as giving learning materials in advance and if requested, in a different file type to aid screen readers and text to speech, as well as improved alt text on images, font sizes, type faces and colour contrast. Due to the nature of our healthcare curriculum, I give trigger warnings where applicable.
I have the unique opportunity to educate lecturers on how they can make their online learning materials more accessible. As well as highlighting guidance and resources available centrally in NOW and signposting to what H5P content types have been enabled and comply with national and local accessibility regulations.
I have obtained much feedback from a variety of my teaching, However, these two quotes demonstrate my ability to be inclusive towards mature students with specific physical and mental needs. Our Course Development Workers are or have been healthcare service users, and as part of this I may need to address those needs. A further quote from my teaching philosophy formative assessment highlights this skill.
Slide 6
As mentioned previously, most of our lecturers have come directly from clinical vocational and possibly BTEC backgrounds – which I can relate to from my own background. Meaning there is emphasis on the skills and behaviours of a job. Which can connect to learning on the job in apprenticeships.
From my experience of learning and working. Further Education is generally more practical and gives more support and guidance. Higher Education is generally more critical and directed independent learning. However, our lecturers can be a combination of both and are often visual and kinaesthetic learners coming from clinical practice. Therefore, in my workshops I adopt experiential learning that is grounded in my teaching philosophy. Achieving a balance of conceptual and abstract information with pragmatic learning tasks related to their roles. Giving meaningful tasks and concrete examples to make learning transition a lot easier for them to relate and apply. Linking this to Laurillard’s 6 learning types, particularly practice and production. I could revisit the flipped learning approach I did in an earlier pilot to set the scene outside the workshop, and make the build aspect of the workshop more collaborative.
Subsequently lecturers have busy workloads and time is a crucial factor for them attending my staff development initiatives. As well as keeping theory succinct and practical, especially how it aligns to our curriculum. Developing digital literacies, skills and capabilities is a strategic objective for our department, and therefore such opportunities like this develop digital learning design skills, whilst keeping our curriculum innovative and competitive. Feedback tells me the more practical the better – which suits the visual and kinaesthetic nature of our curriculum.
Slide 7
As a gay man of the LGBTQ+ community, I am naturally in support of those that identify as transgender. Gendered Intelligence offers a definition of what is meant by transgender. “People may use the term ‘trans’ to describe themselves if their own sense of gender (their gender identity) does not match or sit easily with the gender they were assumed to have based on the sex they were assigned at birth.”
Having conducted some research, I feel I am better informed to support trans and gender diverse students.
Where relevant to include in my staff development initiatives and digital curriculum work, here are some headline practical actions that I can implement:
- “Avoiding assumptions about gender, sexual orientation
- Overcoming binary understandings of gender [appreciate nuances and use of inclusive language by not implying there are only two genders]
- Including trans and gender-diverse voices [personas, stories and intentional use of multimedia in online learning materials]
- Approaching debates about gender
- Respecting confidentiality
- Using chosen names
- Asking for and using pronouns
- Supporting transitioning students
- Keeping informed and up-to-date
- Challenging transphobic language and behaviour”
Slide 8
Just a few closing remarks to conclude the presentation.
Approachability as demonstrated through my feedback, goes a long way and is an essential quality, as with empathy, to being an effective educator.
Having a great understanding of identifying and removing barriers is key. Knowing your students and their needs will inform what changes you need to make, along with asking them what you could change to make them feel more comfortable.
Keeping abreast of digital accessibility requirements and assistive technologies should you need to deploy them.
Always know where to get expert help and support as this topic is very specialist and we’re not all experts in it, hence why we have dedicated teams and individuals to support us.
Slide 9
Thank you for listening. Here is the literature I have engaged with and used.
