A presentation from the HEA's Research Conference: Promoting Equity in Higher Education 2010.
How can we academically engage all of our students in meaningful learning within large and diverse groups? This was the key question driving the ESRC/TLRP funded research project 'Learning and teaching for social diversity and difference in HE'. Key findings from this project indicated that inclusive and academically engaging learning and teaching was more likely when teachers:
- Created safe classroom environments that encouraged students to articulate their thinking openly and where 'getting stuck' being uncertain and being different was seen positively;
- Adopted learning strategies that allowed students to bring their own experiences to bear on the subject matter;
- Connected subject matter with students' interests and aspirations e.g. by selecting or negotiating topics and activities relevant to students' (imagined) identities;
- Used resources humour and anecdotes relevant to the subject and sensitive to the social and cultural diversity of the group.
In this paper the author draws upon classroom video student and teacher interviews and other data from this project to illustrate these findings and to explore the complexities and challenges of teaching students from a wide range of social cultural and educational backgrounds. I also discuss the implications of these findings for academic development curriculum design and classroom practice with reference to the HEA commissioned Inclusive Learning and Teaching Research Synthesis (Hockings forthcoming).
