Inclusive teaching and assessment

'Inclusive teaching' means teaching practices that accommodate the diverse range of needs, experience and learning styles of your students. This diversity may relate to:

• disability
• race
• socioeconomic status
• gender
• language
• ethnicity
• religion
• sexuality
• geographic location
• work and family responsibilities.

Inclusive teaching practices do not lower academic standards. Rather, they are practices that help all students to learn. Such practices:

• recognise that students are individuals with different strengths and needs
• apply multiple strategies to cater for differences in learning styles.

If a curriculum is as accessible as possible, only small adjustments will need to be made for individual student needs, such as disability.

General strategies for curriculum design may include:

• considering the diversity of your students’ experiences when planning the curriculum
• acknowledging and challenging your own assumptions, biases and experiences
• ensuring course requirements are clear so students know what is expected of them
• using a variety of teaching and assessment methods and offering some flexibility with these.

Delivery and assessment strategies may include:

• providing reading lists before classes start
• providing written notes with material you are covering in class
• physically arranging yourself and the students in the classroom so that all people can communicate easily
• giving students opportunities to preview, review, and practise
• providing feedback.

Email: drcentre@deakin.edu.au

Contact the DRC on your campus