Investigating Inclusive Curriculum in Higher EducationMike Blamires @Mike_Blamires

Richard Millward’s Summary of Learning Theory

• Will depend on the meaning of the term?

• Different models represent different values and agendas

Factors contributing to inclusive education

Photo used under UK open government licence

The complexity of educational Inclusion

The term is open to confusion i.e.1. It is about learning in the same place on the same curriculum

as others (Bailey,1998)

2. Tomlinson’s(1997) view that it is not necessarily about being in the same place and curriculum

3. Booth & Ainscow’s view that it is not a state at all but an unending process of increasing participation

4. Thomas’s view that it about accepting all children

5. Sebba & Sachdev’s view that it about schools responding and restructuring their provision

6. Florien’s view that opportunity to participate in inclusion is about active involvement and choice and not something done to the disabled

(Lunt & Norwich,1999)

Two Research Fallacies•The ecological fallacy occurs when you make conclusions about individuals based only on analyses of group data•An exception fallacy is sort of the reverse of the ecological fallacy. It occurs when you reach a group conclusion on the basis of exceptional cases.

Confusion and Conflation ?

“It is important that the distinction between more specific disability and broader all encompassing meaning are not blurred.Different disadvantaged groups can have distinct identities related to their social and personal conditions and even may have multiple identities.”

Lunt & Norwich 1999

Photo used under UK open government licence

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)• is an educational framework based on

research in the learning sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, that guides the development of flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences.[1]

Curriculum,• as defined in the UDL literature, has four

parts: instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments.[5]

• UDL is intended to increase access to learning by reducing physical, cognitive, intellectual, and organizational barriers to learning, as well as other obstacles. UDL principles also lend themselves to implementing inclusionary practices in the classroom.

UDL framework:• Multiple means of representation to give

learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge,

• Multiple means of expression to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know, and

• Multiple means of engagement to tap into learners' interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to learn.[3][4]

Potential Sources• Beyond Prejudice: Inclusive learning in practice from the Learning and Skills

Development Agency offers strategic and practical pointers for the provision of an inclusive learning environment.

• DEMOS: Online Materials For Staff Disability Awareness (2002) is an online resource aimed at academic staff, and examines the issues faced by disabled students in higher education. Modification of examination and assessment arrangments are also discussed.

• Engineering Subject Centre Guide to Working with Disabled Students (2nd Edition June 2005) includes practical ideas and case studies.

• Premia resource base awareness and development materials are for everyone involved in making the research environment more accessible for disabled students.

• SCIPS (Strategies for the Creation of Inclusive Programmes of Study) database provides information to support academic staff in improving access to the curriculum for disabled students.

• SENDA compliance in Higher Education: an audit and guidance tool to accessible practice within the framework of teaching and learning 2002, including a useful section on assessment.

• Teachability (2000) offers information and resources for academic staff to help in the provision of an accessible curriculum.

• Techdis has relevant resources and references, including a database of information and products to assist disabled students and staff.

• University of Bristol Access Unit provides fact sheets for supporting disabled students.

• University of Wolverhampton - Learning, teaching and assessment: good practice guides for staff teaching d/Deaf students in art, design and communication and in science and engineering.

CategoriesFoucault’s toolbox

Surveillance

Subject & Power Relationships

Archaeology

Genealogy Ethics

The phenomena under scrutiny

The exercise of control possibly the inverse of ‘ethics’

The discourse – the statements that stand for truth

The exercise of power at a micro level

Ways in which individuals acquire new forms of activity

CategoriesCriteria for evaluating models and

approaches

Paradigm Aims Concepts and Premises

Viewpoint on the individual

Concept of difficulty, disaffection and/or disability

View of Diversity

Stakeholder Viewpoint

Learningpractice

Learning as doing

community

Learning as belonging

meaning

Learning as experience

identity

Learning as becoming

Components of a social model of learning (Etienne Wenger 1997)

Resilience after the Northbourne agenda

Evidence clusters around these areas;• Social Skills, Social Understanding, Self

efficacy coupled with values and a sense of purpose

• Good housing and recreational facilities• Educational Institutions that support high

expectations and have a structures that support positive behaviour and values

• Parents and community that support the aims of education

Risk factors are those that render and individual more likely to develop problems in the face of adversity Rutter 2000

Protective factors are those that act to protect an individual from developing a problem even in the face of adversity or risk factorsClarke & Clarke 2000

Family Factors: violence, abuse, neglect, discordant family relationships, being a young person who is being looked after outside the family, parental psychiatric illness, inconsistent or unclear discipline, parental criminality, death and loss, rejection by parents;

Family Factors: supportive relationships with adults, small family size, material resources such as adequate family income, clear and consistent discipline, support for education

Social Factors: poverty, economic crises, deprivation, homelessness, rejection by peers, being a member of a deviant peer group;

Social Factors: access to good educational facilities, wider support network, range of facilities available, positive policies in school for behaviour and attitudes, effective anti-bullying policies, good liaison between school and local communities

Factors in the child: low intelligence, chronic physical illness, hyperactivity, brain damage, communication difficulties, deafness, high alcohol use, drugs and substance abuse, academic failure, premature / under age sexual activity.

Factors in the child: a sense of mastery, participation in activities, sports and outside interests, being a member of a non-deviant peer group, even temperament, positive self esteem and intelligence or good social skills, religious affiliation

Dilemmas of difference

If you treat someone differently they may lose out...but if you treat them the same they may also lose out

Clark, Dyson & Millward (1998)

Photo used under UK open government licence

Dilemmas of Inclusion in In Higher Education

Declaring a need or a difference or conforming to perceptions of expected norms

Entry requirements versus inclusive ethos

Appropriateness of Assessment and personalisation (quality) of feedback versus the pressure of numbers and turn around time

Overcoming barriers to learning versus traditions of assessment and professional requirements applied by external gate keepers to a profession.