Sponsor/year: Faculty of Science, Engineering and the Built Environment, 2016-17.

Project leads: Robyn Everist, Dr Janet Watson, Wendy Paulusz.

Aims: Provide teaching and professional staff with practical tips and support to develop more inclusive teaching and curriculum.

Underpinning theories/literature:

• Effective teaching and support of students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds: Practical advice for teaching staff (PDF 1.14MB): key research with recommendations for teaching LSES students.
• Universal Design for Learning: website explaining UDL, with examples.

• Relevance: The workshop’s objectives and content had been decided in consultation between the facilitators and the Associate Head of School, to maximise its relevance. Facilitators analysed feedback from each session and adjusted the format and content of the next session accordingly.
• Research-based, practical content: The workshop content reflected research on effective strategies to meet the needs of LSES students and other equity groups, but emphasised practical ways in which teachers could develop more inclusive curriculum and teaching methods.
• Discussion time: Participants were encouraged to reflect during the workshop on issues that were important to their own practice, and given time to share ideas and experiences of effective techniques with their colleagues.
• Involvement of ongoing and sessional staff: In the workshops that focused on New and Sessional staff, the sessional staff were paid for their time to attend the workshops, as it was noted that often sessional staff have to volunteer their time to complete professional development.
• Rich resources: Participants were given ongoing access to a rich online self-help resource that was customised to the Deakin context to continue to build their skills and knowledge in inclusive teaching after the workshop.

• Participant satisfaction: Post-workshop feedback surveys were conducted for the first workshop targeting New and Sessional staff. At this first workshop there were 17 attendees and all completed informal feedback responses at the end of the workshop, then 10 attendees also completed a Survey Monkey evaluation (comprising eight questions; see Useful resources). Survey respondents indicated strong satisfaction with the workshops: 90–100% agreed or strongly agreed to all questions, i.e. that the workshop met expectations; content was relevant, they would recommend the workshop, the format was appropriate, and the information was stimulating. Feedback themes included that more workshops on inclusive teaching would be useful; that participants had learnt a lot of useful techniques and information about inclusivity from each other and the presenters; and that the learning environment had been supportive and stimulating.
• Stimulus for major curriculum changes: The workshops provided impetus and confidence for a subsequent major curriculum overhaul to embed literacies in two Architecture units over the next few trimesters.
• Follow-up workshops: In response to workshop feedback, more sessional professional development sessions have been scheduled for the School each year.

• Inclusive Teaching Toolkit flyer (DOCX 845KB)
• Inclusive Teaching Toolkit flyer (PDF 986KB)
• Inclusive Teaching Checklist (DOCX 375KB)
• SEBE Inclusive Teaching Workshop (PPT 2MB)
• Teaching Diverse Learner Workshop (PPT 522KB): generic presentation suitable for all faculties
• Post workshop feedback survey questions (DOCX 14KB)