Essays aren't for everybody, and some students and teachers would like to see more flexible and creative approaches to learning to support those who are neurodivergent.
Former students Bella and Austin are calling for more flexible learning, and say a revised approach would have helped them when they were at school. One of their former teachers has prepared a paper recommending schools allow students to pick their topics and assessment formats.
A support organisation says there is a need for a holistic re-imagining of the education system, and that teachers should be supported to allow that to occur.Bella, 18, was diagnosed with autism during high school and adapted her behaviour to fit in. "For my masking, I would kind of change my personality or the way that I would behave — with what I would say, or how I would say things," she said. Bella attended a public school in South Australia well known for its inclusion of neurodivergent students. But rigid assessment approaches — such as essays, and audio or other multimedia formats — meant she could not always demonstrate her knowledge of a subject. "There are so many grades I got that I was like, 'Oh, I really understood that topic, I just couldn't do it in that mode'," she said. Bella said greater flexibility in assessment formats would help neurodivergent students "get a better education". Classmate Austin Boath, who also has autism, said an "individualised education" was better than a "standardised" approach. "Everyone is different and for neurodivergent students, it's not just one-size-fits-all. Different people may prefer different modes of work," he said.Austin, who has always been interested in planes, said being given freedom to choose his research topics would have improved his learning experience, but his teachers often tried to "get him off the flight trackers" and into work that "had nothing to do with planes". "Seeing as now I'm actually studying to become an aviation professional and fly planes, it would have been great to have some work where I could have chosen to do a physics assignment about planes and vectors," he said. "The school system is quite outdated in the fact that it feels more like a factory production line, where you all have to produce this same result."Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that, of the 106,600 young people with autism who were attending school or another educational institution in 2018, 77.7 per cent reported experiencing difficulty at their place of learning.Graham Forbes, who taught both Bella and Austin, recently submitted a master's dissertation, about the experiences of autistic students, in which he found that mainstream school support could feel "stigmatising". "Unfortunately, what we do in the main in supporting our neurodivergent students is we focus on their weaknesses," he said.His paper recommends a more flexible approach to learning, in which students could pick their topics and the assessment format. "There are many ways you can present information … and there are many ways you can be assessed on how you've absorbed and understood and engaged — and we can present those options in a normal teaching process," he said."You can choose the way you want to look at the second world war. You could choose to look at — what's the role of women?" he said. "But then you can also choose how you want to represent that. So, it could be through a series of written papers, it could be a series of articles, it could be a newspaper, it could be a series of videos." Mr Forbes said tailoring learning in accordance with students' strengths and passions would be of benefit to everyone in the classroom. "It's very valuable for the neurodivergent students, but it's equally valuable for everybody else," he said. "You're going to engage the student, because it's something they are interested in — but you're going to enable them to engage through their strengths, not through their weaknesses."While some Australian schools are making strides towards inclusive education, advocates such as David Tonge, from Victorian support organisation Amaze, said that was far from the norm. "We do hear that a lot of autistic students are really struggling to access mainstream school. We hear this day in, day out," Mr Tonge said.While Mr Tonge welcomed the idea of more flexible approaches to learning, he noted they would require more "time and energy" from teachers who are "quite overstretched". He said that, instead of throwing "more teachers and money" into schools, a sustainable solution would involve a holistic re-imagining of the education system."It's fundamentally very, very important that inclusive education is front and centre of mind in all educational contexts," he said. "After all, it's a basic human right that every child and young person has access to a safe educational environment."Photo shows A teen girl sitting in front of a pink wall The PM pulled out a mystery statistic when defending a partial ban on gambling ads. It's left experts stumpedPhoto shows Medicinal cannabis vialPhoto shows A boy in a special bicycle next to two girls cycling and a woman pointing. Behind people on bikesPhoto shows A young mum with brown hair taking a selfie with her young son, who has long blonde hairThe PM pulled out a mystery statistic when defending a partial ban on gambling ads. It's left experts stumpedA two-decade age gap hasn't got in the way of this couple's happiness, but stigma has threatened to
Education School Student Children Autism Autistic Class Teacher Learning Experience Assignment Assessment Topic Writing
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