Week 4: A toolkit for inclusive teaching and learning

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5. Bringing it all together

In this course you have considered who might be excluded and ways of thinking about inclusive education. You have examined learner-centred education as a policy response to calls for more inclusive teaching and adapted the ‘minimum criteria’ into a practical tool which you can use to support your active teaching. You have reflected on what active learning and teaching look like in the classroom, and developed a toolkit consisting of resources to support inclusive teaching and now have an understanding the importance of reflection in improving practice. In this final activity of the course before the end-of-course quiz, you will be asked to make a plan of how you will incorporate and implement your learning on this course in your professional role.

At the end of Week 1 you heard Daniel explaining his vision for inclusive teaching and learning. The aim of this course has been to help you understand how that vision might be realised and to highlight the importance of gradual change which brings small improvements: over time, the small changes will become significant.

Activity 4.7 Action planning for inclusive teaching and learning

Allow approximately 1 hour for this activity.

  1. Go back through the notes you have made and file anything you have downloaded so that you can access the information whenever you require.
  2. Go back to the mind map you made at the start and think about the reasons why a student might feel excluded and the things that all teachers can do to support them. Now redraw your mind map and add an extra layer to the outside, highlighting the things all teachers can do to prevent children feeling excluded.
  3. Note down three things that you will do in the coming weeks to develop your practice as an inclusive teacher.
  4. Note down three aspects of your practice that you are particularly keen to develop further.
  5. Make a brief Week 4 forum post in which you explain how this course has affected your view of inclusion and what you will do differently in the future to make your teaching more learner-centred.