14 | JADE
HELEN MILLWARD
with equal opportunities for learning. In addition, without ensuring collaborative engagement with students from diverse backgrounds it would be difficult to understand the diverse needs of the student population upon any given topic.
In a similar vein, the use of an inclusive curriculum design can promote further learning. By taking into account the students’ educational, cultural and social backgrounds, a teaching practitioner may be able to include additional context upon the subject in question which could expand student learning while making the topic more relevant for other students. This inclusion would provide benefits in understanding for both home and international students while aligning with the need to‘ promote positive relationships and to improve the quality of our working lives’( Keele University: 2), through improved communication between both students, and students and teaching practitioners. This in turn, would help to‘ Support the development of an integrated community, in which the needs, customs and traditions of all are valued and respected’( Keele University: 10).
Conclusions and recommendations
This paper has explored the uses of technological tools for engagement in relation to an increasingly diversified student population within the University classroom. While the discussion within this paper is a clear indicator of the need for ever evolving approaches to teaching and learning, we must also consider the necessity of an increasingly inclusive curriculum design in response to an ever-more diverse student population. As such, Universities need to become more proactive in determining how to make teaching and learning an inclusive and productive experience for all students regardless of issues of diversity. As the race equality tool kit suggests;‘ Learning and teaching in a classroom has come to reflect a world that is now characterised by globalisation. Learning and teaching frameworks should now be able to meet the needs and requirements of a diverse student population in terms of ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic diversity.’( www. universitiesscotland. ac. uk / raceequalitytoolkit accessed 10 / 12 / 14).
In addition, the use of technological tools as an aid to student understanding has been explored through a critical incident occurring within the author’ s own teaching practices. In connection to the discussion of the social and medical models of disability, the need for the availability and signposting to students of a translation tool for their use would greatly benefit understanding and engagement through reducing barriers to learning; for example