Over the weekend, HEPI published a blog on where universities go from here.
This blog was kindly authored by Lewis Eves, Teaching Associate at the University of Nottingham.
Neuroinclusivity is increasingly important in Higher Education. A recent survey shows that 22% of UK students have a neurodivergent diagnosis (e.g. ADHD or Autism), with up to 28% identifying as neurodivergent in some way. This constitutes an overrepresentation of neurodivergence among students compared to the general population, of which only 15-20% are diagnosed as neurodivergent.
Meanwhile neurodivergent disclosure rates among academic staff are significantly lower. In 2023, only 1.8% of academic staff disclosed a neurodivergent condition.
It’s unsurprising that neurodivergent people would be underrepresented in academia. Academia is structured around neurotypical behaviours, activities and thought processes that are intuitive for those whose brain functions conform to the collective standard.
As such, academia privileges ways of working that are difficult for neurodivergent people to navigate. The need to excel in, and constantly switch between, research, teaching and administrative tasks poses challenges for neurodivergent staff. This discourages neurodivergent people from pursuing careers in academia. Meanwhile, those who do pursue academia express fear and anxiety that disclosing their neurodivergence might negatively impact their careers.
The growing gap between the number of neurodivergent academics and students poses a challenge for higher education. How is a traditionally neurotypical environment, lacking in lived experience of neurodivergence, going to adapt to the learning needs of an increasingly neurodivergent community?
Neuroinclusive teaching
As a neurodivergent academic, I often reflect on the challenges I faced as a student. I use this lived experience to inform my teaching practice, employing various techniques and measures to support the learning of neurodivergent students.
Inductive Teaching
Teaching in Higher Education is mostly deductive. A top-down approach that focusses on teaching staff telling students what is important to know, providing examples and testing students’ understanding.
This is something that I struggled with as a student, and is something that my neurodivergent students have shared that they struggle with too. I suspect the issue is that the way a neurotypical teacher links ideas and concepts to real-world examples is not as intuitive for neurodivergent students. Neurodivergence means that brains link and connect information differently.
To address this, I employ inductive approaches in my teaching. This involves focussing first on examples, preferably examples from students’ lived experience, and using these examples to discuss and learn key ideas and concepts. This enables students to connect examples and concepts in a way that is intuitive for them. It is also a more collaborative learning process, promoting discussion and sharing of ideas that I find benefits both neurodivergent and neurotypical students.
Structure
Secondary and further education are highly structured learning environments, with students’ learning time being timetabled and supervised. Higher education, however, is much less structured. Some subjects have very few timetabled sessions, with a significant emphasis on independent study.
Many students struggle with this transition into a less structured learning environment. However, this sudden drop in structure is something that neurodivergent students particularly struggle with. It was something that I struggled with as a student, and now that I teach, it is one of the more common topics that my neurodivergent students wish to discuss with me.
To help address this issue, I support the structuring of students’ independent study. One method I use is hosting regular study workshops in which students can complete their assignments. I facilitate these using techniques like body doubling. This is a productivity technique commonly used by those with ADHD, which relies on the natural rhythms of productivity in shared workspaces to encourage focus. All students are welcome, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, especially from neurodivergent students.
Neuroinclusive policy
In my experience of teaching in higher education, there are opportunities to develop teaching practice to better support the increasing number of neurodivergent students. In my experience of teaching in higher education, there are opportunities to develop teaching practice to better support the increasing number of neurodivergent students. However, this will need to be done sector-wide, which will require supportive and effective policymaking.
These policies should promote teaching and learning practices that make learning environments more accessible, equitable and inclusive. These require co-creation with the neurodivergent community, who are underrepresented in academia. Accordingly, for policy to promote neuroinclusive teaching and learning for students, it must also promote academic neuroinclusion.
Achieving this will require a decoupling of academic performance monitoring and career progression from neurotypical behaviours. This will help address barriers to disclosure and empower neurodivergent academics to more effectively inform teaching and learning practices based on their lived experience.
Research and guidance from UCL lists numerous suggestions that could be incorporated into broader policy. This includes:
- Promoting greater flexibility and accessibility in research, focussing on the depth of contributions rather than the breadth of activity neurotypical scholars may engage in.
- Challenging the culture of ‘publish-or-perish’ that privileges quick publication, recognising the value of slower, high-quality research that alleviates pressure on both neurodivergent and neurotypical researchers.
Changes like these will take time. However, if the higher education sector is serious about creating a neuroinclusive environment and effectively supporting the growing demographic of neurodivergent students, we need to take these steps.