Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR courses
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Facilitating Inclusion
Facilitating Inclusion
Why facilitate inclusion?
Creating an inclusive classroom environment helps engage and motivate all students while ensuring that as many as possible benefit from your teaching (Sanger, 2020). Inclusion not only supports learning but also equips students with the skills they need to thrive in a complex, interconnected world (“Step into your students' shoes,” 2024).
In many fields, class discussions often touch on topics related to the diverse identities of students. However, insensitive remarks during these discussions can compromise social safety (“Hot moments: Navigating,” 2024). To foster a safe and open environment where every student feels comfortable participating, it’s important to acknowledge and address how classroom dynamics can mirror broader social inequalities. As educators, it’s our responsibility to create a space where diverse viewpoints are welcomed, and where moments of intellectual discomfort can lead to valuable learning experiences (“Hot moments: Navigating,” 2024).
5 key points about facilitating inclusion in in-person or online classes
- Establish a Safe and Respectful Learning Environment: Create a space where all students feel comfortable expressing their opinions, and where mutual respect is upheld. Ensure that racism, discrimination, or any form of bias are not tolerated (“Hot moments: Navigating,” 2024).
- Communicate Openly About Inclusion:Engage in open, honest conversations with your students about inclusion, even if the topic feels uncomfortable. Avoiding these discussions can create more discomfort and misunderstanding (“TLC spring event,” 2023).
- Prioritise Student Needs for Optimal Learning: Instead of focusing on specific student challenges, concentrate on what will best support the learning process for all students. For example, describe visual content aloud during class, provide course materials in various formats (visual, auditory, text), and share lecture notes in advance to accommodate different learning preferences (“TLC spring event,” 2023).
- Make Accommodations for Specific Learning Needs: some students will need and be entitled to accommodations like receiving lecture slides or notes before the lecture giving them time to prepare and process text. Often such accommodations would be helpful for all students.
- Integrate questioning strategies like Think, Pair Share: this approach takes the pressure off individuals having to respond to questions in class and instead allocates time for reflection, discussion and shared responses. Negotiating meaning with a partner, is also a powerful cognitive approach.
Facilitating inclusion in practice
Including exchange students
Janni Alrum Jørgensen (SDU) teaches civil engineering at SDU. Her courses are often attended by exchange students, and she has implemented some simple strategies to facilitate inclusion. You can watch Janni’s short video where she explains her approaches.
- Create a Safe Learning Environment: Foster a classroom atmosphere where students feel comfortable and respected. This can be achieved by adjusting your pace, not taking comments personally, setting clear rules and boundaries, and recognizing that not all sensitive topics require immediate discussion. Be aware of your own responses, encourage active listening to all perspectives, design reflective writing tasks, and follow up with students regularly (“TLC spring event,” 2023).
- Understand Students' Backgrounds: Take proactive steps to learn about your students' prior educational experiences and backgrounds. Collect information individually, or adjust your communication style to consider diverse perspectives, ensuring your teaching is inclusive (Sanger, 2020).
- Promote a Growth Mindset: Show confidence in each student's potential to succeed and emphasize the importance of a growth mindset. Reinforce the idea that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work (Sanger, 2020).
- Be Clear About Expectations: Some students may not be familiar with the "unwritten rules" of higher education. Make your expectations and strategies for success explicit to ensure all students have a clear understanding of how to succeed in your course (Sanger, 2020).
- Diversify Teaching Methods: Use a variety of teaching techniques and formats, including verbal, visual, and textual approaches, to accommodate different learning styles. Encourage peer-to-peer learning to enhance collaboration and understanding (Sanger, 2020).
- Use Inclusive Assessments: Adopt diverse assessment methods to give all students a chance to shine, as students from different educational backgrounds may excel in different types of assessments (Sanger, 2020).
- Avoid Bias in Teaching Methods: Be mindful not to project your own learning preferences or professional goals onto your students. Recognize that different students learn in different ways, and adapt your teaching accordingly (Sanger, 2020).
- Diversify Course Content: Make an effort to represent diverse perspectives in your syllabus and course materials. Proactively diversifying content helps students feel included and fosters a sense of belonging (Sanger, 2020).
- Acknowledge Your Influence: Recognize the impact you have as an educator in making students feel socially included. Your actions and attitudes can significantly influence their sense of belonging in the classroom (Sanger, 2020).
- Apply Universal Design for Learning (UDL): UDL is a teaching approach designed to meet the needs and abilities of all learners by removing unnecessary barriers in the learning process, allowing for greater accessibility and inclusivity (“TLC spring event,” 2023).
Links to resources for facilitating inclusion
for in-person classes:
- https://medewerker.uva.nl/binaries/content/assets/medewerkersites/uva-medewerkers/tlc/teacher_guideline_international_conflict_situations.pdf
- https://multinclude.eu/activities/detect/multinclude-cases/
- https://sop.washington.edu/about/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/resources/glossary-of-terms/
- Diversity and Inclusion in Global Higher Education, Sanger & Gleason (2020)
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-15-1628-3 - Cozart, Stacey and Hurford, Donna (2022) ‘DUT Guide: Inclusive online teaching and learning: Examples from HE teachers during the COVID-19 Lockdown’ Dansk Universitetspædagogisk Tidsskrift. Årgang 17 nr. 32 / 2020. Available at
https://dun-net.dk/media/2187227/dut32_cozart_and_hurford_inclusive_online_teaching_and_learning.pdf - Hurford, Donna (February 2022) Including all students – Centre for Teaching and Learning newsletter. This newsletter offers a range of resources by SDU Student Services, international study support colleagues and a wide range of strategies for adapting course design, teaching and learning activities to enable all students to experience inclusive learning. Available at
https://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/institutter_centre/c_unipaedagogik/liste_nyheder/nyhedsbrev_februar_2022
for online classes:
- https://multinclude.eu/activities/detect/multinclude-cases/
References
Hockings, C. (2010) Inclusive learning and teaching in higher education: a synthesis of research. Available at:
https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/hea/private/inclusive_teaching_and_learning_in_he_synthesis_200410_0_1568037026.pdf
Hot moments: Navigating difficult moments in the classroom. (2024, May 14). UvA Teaching and Learning Centres (TLC).
https://tlc.uva.nl/en/article/discussie-en-inclusie-moeilijke-momenten-in-de-les/?faculty=55
Sanger, C. S. (2020). Inclusive pedagogy and universal design approaches for diverse learning environments. Diversity and inclusion in global higher education: Lessons from across Asia, 31-71.
Step into your students shoes: FNWI. (2024, July 17). UvA Teaching and Learning Centres (TLC).
https://tlc.uva.nl/en/article/inclusive-teaching/
Tips to create a safe learning environment. (2023, November 23). UvA Teaching and Learning Centres (TLC).
https://tlc.uva.nl/en/article/tips-to-create-a-safe-learning-environment/
TLC spring event: Inclusivity. (2023, June 13). UvA Teaching and Learning Centres (TLC).
https://tlc.uva.nl/en/article/tlc-spring-event-inclusivity/
Intercultural Classroom
Author(s)
This resource sheet has been co-written or written by
- Jacqui Edwards (UvA)
- Imme Roosje (UvA)
- Janni Alrum Jørgensen (SDU)
- Donna Hurford (SDU)
Related Resource Sheets
Next steps
If you need further support with developing your course, please contact your local teaching support unit.
If you need further information on offering your course for EPICUR, please contact your EPICUR institutional coordinator.
Local teaching support units
EPICUR Institutional Coordinators
Adam Mickiewicz University
Karolina Choczaj
karmench@amu.edu.pl
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nikos Kouloussis
nikoul@agro.auth.gr
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Michael Zacherle
zacherle@kit.edu
University of Amsterdam
Tiffany Boersma
t.a.boersma@uva.nl
Universität Freiburg
Charlotte Langowski
charlotte.langowski@zv.uni-freiburg.de
Université de Haute-Alsace
Léa Ziri
lea.ziri@uha.fr
Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
Nicolas Fries
nicolas.fries@boku.ac.at
University of Southern Denmark
Ida Thøstesen
ilt@sdu.dk
University of Strasbourg
Pascale Nachez
pnachez@unistra.fr
Further use as OER explicitly permitted:
This Resource Sheet within the Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses was created by Jacqui Edwards, Imme Roosje, University of Amsterdam, and Janni Alrum Jørgensen and Donna Hurford, University of Southern Denmark.
Please attribute according to TASLL rule as follows: Facilitating Inclusion (Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses), by Jacqui Edwards, Imme Roosje, University of Amsterdam, and Janni Alrum Jørgensen and Donna Hurford, University of Southern Denmark. Any icons included are protected by copyright, © The Noun Project, used with permission.
License: This work and its contents are – unless otherwise stated – licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 .
Last edited: 23. Jun 2025, 09:05, Hutz-Nierhoff, Dorthe [dh1076@rz.uni-freiburg.de]