The active involvement and engagement of learners is central in providing an enhanced experience to achieve continuous improvement. Based on the Learner Involvement Strategy (2013), learners’ voices should always be heard during learning activities and be fully integrated throughout the process.
The benefits for learners are:
- a more enriched, well rounded, and responsive offer that empowers them to shape their own experiences
- improved learning outcomes
- their experiences are tailored according to their needs and objectives, ensuring success
- increased motivation to learn more
For teachers:
- increased participation, retention, progression, and achievement
- better quality of information through developing dialogue with learners
- allows for a more in-depth, rigorous evaluation that leads to an improved learning process based on learners’ remarks
- feedback from learners can be used to help decide priorities, make decisions about the educational content, and allocate resources
For the learner to become more engaged and involved, there are several techniques teachers can follow (Eredics, 2017):
- Invest in inclusive education. Make learners feel that everyone, regardless of their conditions or special needs, can feel welcomed and included (see Module 3 for more on this).
- Ensure that needed adjustments are made during learning so that learners are able to access the training materials and participate at the optimal level.
- Allow time for sharing. Provide learners the opportunity to talk about themselves, share their interests and experiences, and ask questions.
- Address challenges. People with disabilities face various problems, which sometimes create challenges to proper interaction and involvement in class. It is important for teachers to identify such challenges and act accordingly.
- Acknowledge all efforts. First, understand what motivates learners to keep learning for themselves, and then, give shout-outs for an improved performance or when goals are achieved (e.g. offer certificates).
Personalised Learning and Support
The main issue is to support all learners to engage effectively in the classroom. Below is a four-step process that can be applied by teachers in order to achieve this (Adapted from AITSL, 2020):
- Consult and collaborate
Getting to know the learners is the very first step to follow, and involves discovering their interests, aspirations, strengths, and ambitions. Maintaining a supportive role regarding their wants, through mentoring and consulting them, will help them become more involved in the various activities and be better prepared to engage in the anticipated tasks.
- Assess and identify needs
Equally important is to identify learners’ special needs, either these being difficulties in keeping up with the curriculum or the need to seek further assistance by a health professional as regards to their disabilities. Assessing learners’ deficits and introducing practices that are more inclusive are key to ensuring their meaningful involvement.
- Provide personalised adjustments
Making adjustments (i.e. “taking actions to enable students with disabilities to access and participate in education on the basis as other students” (AITSL, 2020)), will help teachers create a positive environment, where learning is achieved based on the functional capabilities of each learner. These adjustments can be applied individually or at the whole-classroom level, and may include adjusting the physical space of the classroom, using assistive technology (see more below), or preparing training materials with alternative visual and auditory elements to accommodate people with visual impairments and hearing loss.
- Monitor and review the impact of adjustments
If various adjustments are applied in educational settings, teachers should be encouraged to constantly monitor and review their effectiveness, to assess the progress made of each learner, and make potential changes to further enhance the learning process. Some monitoring practices include targeted interventions delivered to small groups or 1:1 feedback.
