Designing inclusive class plans for cohorts with a high level of differentiation, with particular attention to accessibility needs of students who are neurodiverse or have learning differences

I teach groups of students with a lot of differentiation
- We need more accessible classes. Accessibility is also of personal importance to me.

anonymous mixed-method surveys – respect for students’ anonymity. Hoping for more sincere answers this way. Another method of collecting data directly would not allow for this.
non-invasive observation – to see the results of particular intervention – though I don’t fully trust my own observation as a way of evaluating the changes due to bias
another, shorter survey (maybe next week)

students seem to like project-based learning
they gave me good advice on how to improve classes and now seem to know better where to start.
Student feedback:
- clearer instructions, tasks split into smaller bits
- space for the students to learn at their own pace
- they like the live coding demos
- they think the coding demos should be at a slightly slower pace
- most students think the class is “the right amount of challenging” or “slightly too challenging” – I need to analyse how much time these students spend on the class
- they asked for the code being provided before the demo – I do not agree with that but put another intervention in place
- some students asked for more tasks to work with ready code – I introduced some of them
- the students struggle with language

I started splitting technical tasks into smaller bits with clearer instructions.
I started giving providing optional prompts for creative tasks
I tried to introduce more project-based learning, and gave the students who needed to complete the tasks at their own pace an option to participate based on a ready template
I slowed down during the coding demos and started checking in with students more frequently
I started sharing links to my live coding demos and saving them frequently so that the students can go to the code and catch up if they need to; they don’t have to wait till the end of the class
I started introducing more diverse tasks in response to the feedback (“understand, comment on and build on a piece of code”, “base your sketch on this template”), which allows for more advanced projects

a lot of the student feedback was my intuition but not enough time on an AL contract
if there is a high level of differentiation in the group, it is my job to make sure everyone learns the core content of the curriculum and that’s what I need to focus on in the lectures. Some students with more programming background will naturally be unhappy.
I’m most worried about a student who misses a lot of classes and did not complete the survey

we don’t have many classes with “standard structure” left this term
I’m teaching a continuation of this class next term and will apply the feedback, and do another iteration of the survey
I might be able to evaluate the results better after assessment
Another thing to focus on would be the language barrier.

Kwame’s feedback:

(references)

Marysia’s PGCert blog