Every student brings unique strengths, needs and experiences into the classroom. Inclusive teaching gives all your students the best possible opportunities to thrive and engage in your lessons. This is crucial for both their wellbeing and academic success.
Inclusive teaching is teaching that gives all students the best possible chance of playing an active and equal role in the classroom. Inclusive teaching is essential for the students’ wellbeing and learning outcomes, and thus for their ability to complete their university education (Ulriksen 2014).
Every student brings unique strengths, needs and experiences into the classroom. Some students may have additional needs or disabilities that you need to take into account. Thankfully, many of the approaches used to accommodate these needs benefit all students – because they help everyone to play an active and equal role in the learning space.
A key aspect of inclusive teaching is about creating a clear structure in your lessons (Meyer 2005). Students need an overview, predictability and coherence when you’re teaching. This means that, as a teacher, you should be clear in both your oral and written communication – and that, when planning your course, you should ensure consistency between your objectives and methods to create a logical connection between the activities for the students. You can achieve this by building a clear course structure in Brightspace
Good preparation is the key to ensuring that your students can participate in your classes in the best possible way. The advice below will help you prepare your course to accommodate the students’ different strengths, needs and experiences.
| Make a course handbook | Making a course handbook is a good way to clarify the structure and goals of the course. Here is an example of how to make an inclusive course handbook. |
| Give students the material in good time | Having access to reading lists, timetables, texts and other relevant material well in advance can help students prepare. If you have students with hearing impairments, they should be given time to have any audio files transcribed as part of the special education support (SPS) scheme. |
| Use a variety of formats | Use and combine a variety of formats in the students’ preparation, such as images, audio files and videos. Reading a vast amount of text can be demanding for some students. |
| Support your students’ reading | Support your students' reading by producing a guide in which you briefly explain what the texts are, how they relate to each other and the topic, and what order they should be read in. You can also guide students' reading by giving them reading questions. This helps them to focus and prepare better for class. Here is a suggestion for how you can formulate reading questions to help students prepare. |
| Give students a choice | Support different ways of learning by giving students some choice. For example, they can choose between:
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| Use accessible and searchable texts | Students with dyslexia and visual impairments in particular need to be able to mark, search and copy text – and most importantly to have text read aloud with a screen reader. They cannot do this if the PDF is scanned as an image, so use original and digital literature from the AU Library or other libraries instead. You can use the accessibility checker to ensure that all your texts in Brightspace are accessible. If you have students with visual impairments, you can send them materials and slides well in advance so they can better engage with the material in class. |
| Make sure that all videos have subtitles. | Students with hearing impairments in particular need all video material to be subtitled. Make sure that you only refer to videos that are already subtitled and that you subtitle any videos you have made using Panopto. |
| Consider recording your classes | In some cases, you may want to consider recording your classes so that students can watch them again, perhaps as part of their exam preparation. Some students have a documented need to record their classes as audio or video. It is their responsibility to make the recording, but they must inform you and any fellow students in advance. |
Once you’ve planned your course and learning activities with inclusion in mind, it is your job to put your plans into action – or to change them along the way if a situation arises that requires you to adjust your outline. Here is some advice to help you communicate your plans to your students, get them on board, and encourage them to play an active role in the classroom.
| Repeat key points from the previous session | To create a common thread in your teaching, summarise the important points from the previous session and link them to the topic of the current session. Involve the students in this if possible. |
| Make an agenda | Visualise and explain the purpose and plan. By explaining – and preferably also showing – what will happen in each session and why, you give the students an overview and create predictability, which helps you to align your expectations. Revisit the agenda regularly. Return to the agenda several times during the session so that the students can also keep track of where they are on the plan. Consider writing your agenda on the board or on a slide. Finish the session by summarising what you’ve done. By doing so, you can also make it clear if you didn’t manage to cover everything on the agenda and explain how you intend to catch up. |
| Give clear instructions | It is important to give clear instructions so that students know what they should do and for how long. This helps them to get started and focus on the activity. Give instructions both verbally and in writing so that students can refer to them while working. |
| Summarise the key points | To consolidate the day’s learning, summarise the key points with your students. Ask your students to get involved or make a quiz for the students to answer either individually or in pairs. |
| Signpost the next session | If you finish the session by outlining what will happen in the next session, and what the students need to prepare before then, you create cohesion in your course and give the students an overview by linking the content of each class. |
| Accommodate individual learning needs | Some students have individual learning needs to help them succeed in a classroom or exam setting. For example, they may need to sit by themselves or to take an extra break. These small adjustments can have a big impact on their learning. Students with hearing impairments often rely on lipreading, so it's important to speak clearly facing the students. Students with visual impairments or dyslexia may need you to explain what you’ve written on the board. |
| Make room for personal assistants and assistive technology | Students with visual impairments or physical disabilities are allowed to bring a personal assistant to class, and students with hearing impairments are permitted to bring a sign language interpreter. Other students may be allowed to bring assistive technology such as a microphone, service animal or reading/writing technology. |
If you’d like to find out more about how to prepare and teach inclusive lessons, encourage active participation and remove potential barriers, you can take inspiration from the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (https://udloncampus.cast.org/home).
Inclusive teaching creates space for all students to participate actively and equally, and it helps to prevent certain types of discrimination. However, research shows that students from minority groups may still experience discrimination in the classroom and curriculum, and that they often experience lower levels of wellbeing – partly due to how discrimination weakens their sense of belonging. (1; 2)
Discrimination is often rooted in unexamined biases, which we all possess to varying degrees. At universities, this kind of discrimination is often related to ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion or social background. (3)
Some types of discrimination are easy to spot, like when somebody patronises or stereotypes somebody else. But other types are more subtle – so subtle that only those affected notice. These are called microaggressions (4) and can be divided into:
Micro-assaults – deliberately hurtful jokes or remarks that target a person’s identity.
Micro-insults – remarks disguised as compliments, such as expressing surprise at a student’s strong language skills based on their ethnicity.
Micro-invalidations – comments that deny someone’s lived experience of discrimination, such as ‘I don’t see colour’.
While not intended to be hurtful, over time these comments can affect students’ sense of belonging. (5)
This is where you, as an educator, can make a difference by fostering an inclusive learning environment and avoiding a discriminatory communication style or behaviour in the classroom. It’s not about being afraid to make mistakes, but about being interested, practising inclusive communication, and learning how to challenge discriminatory behaviour respectfully – whether you witness it in others or notice it in yourself.
How can I design activities that include all my students?
How can I create a clear structure and communicate this to my students?
How can I use technologies, modalities and assistive technology to support my students’ different needs during classroom teaching, group work and exams?
What types of unexamined bias are present in my classroom?
References in the text:
Freire, D. S., & Hurd, N. M. (2023). Discrimination and Mental Health Outcomes Among Underrepresented College Students: The Role of Sense of Belonging at Predominantly White Institutions. Emerging Adulthood, 11(3), 654-668. https://doi.org/10.1177/21676968231166967.
Jochman, J. C., Cheadle, J. E., Goosby, B. J., Tomaso, C., Kozikowski, C., & Nelson, T. (2019). Mental Health Outcomes of Discrimination among College Students on a Predominately White Campus: A Prospective Study. Socius, 5. https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023119842728
Lincoln, Y. S., & Stanley, C. A. (2021). The Faces of Institutionalized Discrimination and Systemic Oppression in Higher Education: Uncovering the Lived Experience of Bias and Procedural Inequity. Qualitative Inquiry, 27(10), 1233-1245. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004211026892
Sue D. W., Capodilupo C. M., Torino G. C., Bucceri J. M., Holder A. M., Nadal K. L., Esquilin M. E. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for counseling. American Psychologist, 62, 271–286.
Suárez-Orozco, C., Casanova, S., Martin, M., Katsiaficas, D., Cuellar, V., Smith, N. A., & Dias, S. I. (2015). Toxic Rain in Class: Classroom Interpersonal Microaggressions. Educational Researcher, 44(3), 151–160. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24571251
The content has been developed by Katrin Heimann, Karen Louise Møller, and Simone Brendstrup from the Centre for Educational Development in collaboration with the Counselling and Support Centre and the Student Guidance Office (VEST).
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Write to the editorial team behind AU Educate if you have questions about the content or need guidance on your teaching from one of the many skilled professionals at the Centre for Educational Development.
