Recent years have brought a growing awareness of the fact that diverse ways of sensing and thinking, including those associated with autism, ADHD, or dyslexia, have been essential to societal, scientific, and technological advancement, especially within academia.
At the same time, research has shown that neurodivergent students have not been given the best conditions to contribute and develop within higher education, that the divide between neurotypical and neurodivergent students is widening, and that teachers are often overwhelmed with the task of facilitating a classroom that is more diverse than ever.
This project focuses on exploring experiences in which teaching in neurodiverse classrooms has led to successful collaboration, co-creation, and learning, while also developing activities and frameworks to further support all students, regardless of neurotype, in thriving and developing both as individuals and in teams.
This project relies on a participatory design, involving a neurodiverse group of academics and educational developers, bringing their own experiences and motivations for creating neuroinclusive university classrooms.
The group will use co-creative design activities and conduct qualitative investigations of their own and others’ experiences to explore and adapt community-building and collaboration-enhancing activities for use in neurodiverse classrooms.
The project aims to support university teachers in the task of creating a thriving community of diverse learners. It will document the design and application of concrete activities and frameworks, facilitating collaboration in neurodiverse classrooms in higher education, and it will establish a new foundation for teacher consultation provided by the CED, with a focus on neurodiversity-related opportunities and challenges.
