Module 4 towards an inclusive learning curriculum

This programme has been funded with
support from the European Commission
M4:
Towards an
Inclusive Learning
Curriculum
A guide for VET Teachers
and Trainers to help you to
get started with
Embedding Inclusive
Learning into your
Curriculum.

AIM | ACCESSIBILITY & INCLUSION FOR MIRGRANTS
This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency and the
European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein."
ACCESSIBILITY &INCLUSION FOR MIGRANTS
CURRICULUM
Who will benefit from this course?
Vocational Education and Training staff including:
• Managers
• Teachers, Trainers and Mentors
• Administration and Communications Staff
Module Legend
Activity
Resource
Migrant/Refugee
Insight
Best Practice

This programme has been funded with support from the
European Commission. The author is solely responsible for this
publication (communication) and the Commission accepts no
responsibility for any use that may be made of the information
contained therein.
EMBEDDING INCLUSIVE LEARNING INTO
CURRICULUM01
INCLUSIVE PEDAGOGIES AND APPROACHES
02
UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR INCLUSIVE
TEACHING AND TRAINING03
STRATAGIES TO EMBRACE LINGUISTIC
DIVERSITY04
REFERENCES/SOURCES
05
Why study this module?
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

01 EMBEDDING
INCLUSIVE
LEARNING INTO
CURRICULUM

Making Curriculum more Inclusive – what to consider…
Diverse classrooms require different didactic and pedagogic approaches to
support the learning of all students and this is particularly relevant in
teaching and engaging migrant students.
Schools and teachers committed to diversity and inclusion need to have
knowledge of the use of teaching materials, methods and types of
instruction designed for diverse classrooms.

Making Curriculum more Inclusive – what to consider…
The following factors should be considered when making teaching
practices more inclusive:
• Potential barriers to learning that a student might face. (See Module 1)
• Materials used (textbooks, lecture notes etc.).
• Method of delivery (lectures, tutorials, PowerPoint slides, videos etc.).
• Method of assessment.
There are a number of adjustments that can be made to the structure of a course to
make it more inclusive.

Electronic Materials are more
Accessible
Course materials should be designed so they
can be produced in a completely accessible
format.
Materials that can be accessed digitally and on-
line will be more accessible to a wider range of
migrant students. Having them online also
makes them accessible outside class which is
important for students who might be
struggling.

Provide Learning Materials in
Advance
Lecture notes/PowerPoint slides should be
available in advance of the lecture and ideally in
an electronic format.
Provide reading lists in advance to facilitate early
reading and planning.
Indicate the most important books on a reading
list and direct migrant students to key points in
their readings.

Structured lessons make learning
easier and familiar
Structured lessons act as a guide for both the
teacher and migrant student. Top tips:
• Provide an overview when introducing a new
topic so migrant students know what to expect
– highlight the main argument and key points.
• Provide a list of new terms and vocabulary,
giving explanations where necessary.
• Provide a summary at the end of a
lecture/topic.

Tailoring Learning to Students
Needs
Some migrant students may require extra time to
complete assignments. This should be pre-agreed
with the student and a new deadline should be
set for the assignment.
Some students with particular issues (e.g. fatigue
difficulties) may tire easily and may require rest
breaks during lectures or class tests.
Some migrant students may find it difficult to
work in a group. Alternative ways of completing
group assignments may need to be considered.

Embracing Diversity as a rich
Learning Resource
Teachers provide opportunities for learners to
learn about global developments of significance
to the world and to their lives.
To promote a multicultural community, students
should be encouraged to engage in experiences
and activities during which they learn about
other cultures in a non-judgemental manner and
learn to importance of intercultural sensitivity,
respect, and appreciation.

02 INCLUSIVE
PEDAGOGIES AND
APPROACHES

1) LEARNER CENTRED PEDAGOGIES
Learner-centered teaching is particularly suited
to migrant learners and is an approach to
teaching that is increasingly being encouraged
in education. Learner-centered teachers do not
employ a single teaching method.
This approach emphasizes a variety of different
types of methods that focus on what the
students are learning, it changes the role of the
teachers from a provider of information to
facilitating student learning.

BEST Practice: Making your Curriculum more Learner
Centred
• Include active learning activities in which students solve
problems, answer questions, formulate questions of their own,
discuss, explain, debate, or brainstorm during class
• Encourage cooperative learning in which students work in
teams on problems and projects under conditions that assure
both positive interdependence and individual accountability
• Present students with challenges (questions or problems) and
then encourage them to learn the course material in the
context of addressing the challenges. Inductive methods
include inquiry-based learning, case-based instruction,
problem-based learning, project-based learning, discovery
learning, and just-in-time teaching.

2) STORYTELLING AS A
PEDAGOGIC STRATEGY
Storytelling is one of the most powerful methods
of communication. In education, stories can
humanize experience and lead to deeper
learning/understanding.
Storytelling offers us the opportunity to connect
to like-minded characters, or see the world
literally from within someone else’s skin. Stories
touch our emotions and make us laugh, cry, and
get angry—a sharp contrast to a basic
presentation!

• Share your own personal stories and insights : This builds a strong connection between
you and your migrant students, letting them know that you can relate to them, and vice
versa. Use stories as introductions: Begin class with an interesting story, but one that is
relevant to the lecture’s focus.
• Tell stories to engage reluctant learners: Through telling stories, you make life and
learning more relevant, giving reluctant learners a better angle of engagement.
• Have migrant students tell their own stories: Allow students to write, illustrate, and tell
their own tales in essays, video blogs, discussions and argumentation. The way you
incorporate this may vary depending on your curricular goals, but it is essential that
learners understand how to tell a good story and how this relates to effectively
accomplishing an objective.
• .
BEST Practice: How to bring Storytelling into your Classroom

3) INTERGROUP EMPATHY AS A
PEDAGOGIC STRATEGY
Empathy is a process that allows one person to
know, feel, and understand the internal states of
another person, and respond accordingly.
In the classroom, role playing can help
participants to think in different ways and to look
at issues from a new angle.
The benefits of empathy in education include
building positive classroom culture, strengthening
community, and preparing students to be leaders
in their own communities.

• Build Empathy Through Class Rules: Routines and procedures enable students to
understand the class expectations. How are they supposed to act toward other
students?
• Start or End the day with Gratitude Statements: Learners each say a gratitude
statement. This builds empathy by emphasizing family and cultural traditions that are
held by various students in the class, enabling them to take the perspective of others
and experiencing gratitude for others
• Turn Challenges into Opportunities to build Empathy: Seize the opportunity to teach
students how express the challenges they face, then take the perspective of others
alongside their own views to find a solution.
BEST Practice: How to bring empathy into your classroom

4) DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION
Differentiated Instruction involves providing
different levels or instructional techniques for
different individual students.
Differentiation is the practice of modifying and
adapting materials, content, student projects and
products, and assessment to meet the learning
needs of students. In a differentiated classroom,
teachers recognize that all students are different
and require varied teaching methods to be
successful in school.

• Introduce Tiered Activities: these are a series of related tasks of varying complexity.
Tiered assignments involve all learners being focussed on the same content or
curriculum objective but the process and/or product will vary according to the student’s
readiness or ability
• Technology in the Classroom: It is a flexible tool that can facilitate the teacher to design
a differentiated learning environment. Differentiating using technology requires that
teachers think about hardware, software and web resources that support the teaching
and learning while meeting the learning needs and styles of individual students
• Varied questioning: In general, teachers should use a combination of closed questions
which demand simple one word answers and open questions which promote higher
order thinking and which invite more elaborate responses.
BEST Practice: How to bring Differentiated Instruction into
your classroom

5) HUMOUR AS AN INCLUSIVE
PEDAGOGIC TOOL
Teaching experience has shown that humour
helps keeping students interested and
motivated. Humour and laughter can also help
less sociable students in classes to participate
with the group, to feel a part of the peer group,
join class activities and group work without
feeling exposed or vulnerable.
This is of particular importance in a multicultural
classroom to foster communication and
interaction.
“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.”
Victor Borge

• Build creative and humorous thinking by showing cartoons and picture without
captions and asking students to create them -- individually, in pair-shares, or small
groups.
• Laugh at yourself -- when you do something silly or wrong, mention it and laugh at it.
• Look for appropriate humour quotes and post them and encourage your students to do
the same. Keep a quotable quotes bulletin board or corner in your room --
• Ask students to build humour into assignments -- that will start a conversation about
what it funny, how they know something is funny, why different people find some things
funny but some things are funny to almost everyone.
BEST Practice: How to bring Humour into your Classroom

03 UNIVERSAL
DESIGN FOR INCLUSIVE
TEACHING AND TRAINING

What is Universal Design?
Traditional Curriculum Design starts by developing and planning activities on the basis of
an “average” student with additional individualized actions then carried out to respond
to the needs of specific students or groups. On the flipside
Universal design focuses on the diversity of needs of all students from the
very beginning and taking these into consideration from he start
learning process and the curriculum development.

WATCH ….What is Universal Design for Learning?
https://www.youtub
e.com/watch?v=AG
Q_7K35ysA

Principles of Universal Design for
Learning (UDL)
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a set of
principles for curriculum development that give
all individuals equal opportunities to learn.
The UDL guidelines are based on the idea that
there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ or ‘average’
student, that all students learn differently and
that to successfully teach for all students, we
have to introduce greater flexibility in to
teaching and learning practice.

UDL Principle 1: Multiple Means of
Engagement
Engagement is at the core of all learning
experiences. If we want students to learn, we
have to foster both attention and commitment
by providing students with authentic,
meaningful experiences in learning. This is all
the more prevalent for migrant students who
need access to opportunities that help them
connect their own cultural backgrounds to new
learning activities, as well as access to their
peers to foster collaboration and community.

Best Practice: Providing options to engage migrant students in your
classroom
• Provide lecture outlines online that students can annotate during class
• Break large assignments into components so that students can receive regular
feedback to minimize or correct errors
• Provide frequent opportunities for assessment and learner input
• Where it is possible, use circular seating arrangements during discussion to allow
students to see one another's faces
• Offer choices of content and tools to provide diverse learners with the opportunity
to engage in learning that is most meaningful and motivating to them

UDL Principle 2: Multiple Means
of Representation
The second UDL principle is based on the fact
that learners differ in the ways that they perceive
and comprehend information.
For example, those with language or cultural
differences, sensory issues or learning challenges
require different ways of accessing content other
than printed text.

Best Practice: How to provide options (represent material in many
ways) in your classroom
• Provide students with materials in multiple formats;
• Use style sheets for Word documents so they are more easily navigated by screen
readers.
• Consider using a variety of strategies during lecture periods including problem-solving,
discussion, hands-on exercises, interactivity, presentations, etc.;
• Present information in three different ways: i.e. complementary formats such as text,
graphics, audio, and video--or at the very least, provide digital equivalents of hardcopy
handouts;
• Use online resources so students can access materials in electronic formats as needed

UDL Principle 3: Multiple Means
of Expression
It is not enough to comprehend information if
there is no way to express it. Migrant students
differ in the ways that they can navigate a
learning environment and express what they
know.
Provide multiple and flexible means of
expression to provide students alternatives for
demonstrating what they have learned.

Best Practice: How to provide options multiple means of expression
in your classroom
• Provide multiple options for student response. Use a variety of evaluation methods to
allow migrant students to express what they know in multiple ways. Include quizzes, case
studies, model building, and oral presentation rather than just traditional tests and a
final exam.
• Provide migrant students the opportunity to choose which type of assignment they
would like to complete, for example, you may choose one of the following evaluation
methods: a poster presentation, research report or creating a video.
• Encourage use of technologies to ensure students accurately express their
understanding

04 EMBRACING
LINGUISTIC
DIVERSITY

Embracing Linguistic Diversity in
the Classroom
There are pedagogical approaches that allow the
different languages present in a classroom to be
taken into account.
Teachers should cultivate their classrooms to
become plurilingual spaces by using multilingual
signs to decorate the walls and including bilingual
books in the library.
Languages and cultures should be considered in terms of
collective resources and placed on an equal footing.

How to embrace Linguistic Diversity into your classroom
• Speak their language: Consider
adopting your students’ vernaculars
and speech patterns, by doing so you
will embrace their linguistic diversity
and create a friendly rapport that
advances learning.

References/Sources
• https://www.nuigalway.ie/disability/staff-support/inclusive-teaching/
• https://www.ahead.ie/udl-framework
• https://www.languagemagazine.com/2018/03/09/why-udl-matters-for-english-language-learners/
• https://ssbp.mycampus.ca/www_ains_dc/Introduction8.html
• http://www.teachhub.com/storytelling-classroom-teaching-strategy
• https://befearlessbekind.hasbro.com/wp-
content/uploads/pdf/Ashoka_empathy_toolkit_fromRulesofKindness.pdf
• https://iet.open.ac.uk/file/innovating-pedagogy-2017.pdf
• http://oxfordre.com/education/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-
148
• http://www.edu.xunta.gal/centros/cpicruce/system/files/Learnercentred.pdf
• https://cndls.georgetown.edu/inclusive-pedagogy/
• https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2017/09/08/advice-embracing-linguistic-diversity-classroom-essay

This programme has been funded with
support from the European Commission

Module 4 towards an inclusive learning curriculum

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Module 4 towards an inclusive learning curriculum

Similar to Module 4 towards an inclusive learning curriculum (20)

More from caniceconsulting

More from caniceconsulting (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Module 4 towards an inclusive learning curriculum