Coaching Academics as Learners for Inclusive Teaching in Optimal Networks

Faculty inclusive student-centred pedagogical competences and academic competence-building is often neglected or underdeveloped in higher education institutes. This project studied this topic in contexts and developed tools for faulty to develop needs to adapt as they need to become responsible for cultivating an inclusive and equity-driven learning environment where all students can succeed academically. This project established collaboration between various European universities and exchange of good practices, tried-and-tested design of a competence-based hands-on equity-driven faculty development training course that combine new educational technologies, inclusive strategies and process-oriented interventions. This was achieved by utilizing alternative equity-driven processes that are not trainer-centred but that allow faculty member growth through interaction, engagement, peer-observations, peer coaching, peer-feedback, self-reflection, and self-evaluation. As a result, participating faculty in the COALITION project experienced first-hand how engagement, diverse input re-presentation, and supportive environments are built in order to establish a sustainable, inclusive, and equity-driven learning higher education environment.

The COALITION objectives were: - to map and analyse faculty members’ needs and competences for incorporating inclusive teaching in HE. - to create an active community of practice for academics' development as inclusive educators . - to develop an educational inclusive pedagogy package of resources, exercises and interactive activities for faculty members, in response to the competences to be built. This package was delivered through an e-book, a faculty guide and a MOOC. - to create open access diagnostic tools and repository of content facilitating interaction and reflective practices that will guide faculty towards targeted lesson-specific inclusive teaching practices. - to test in practice, and in local contexts faculty development for inclusive pedagogies, materials pertinent to competence building through action research and alternative processes of professional development (like reflection, peer observations, peer-coaching and awareness-raising activities) - to reflect on all experience of faculty, faculty developers, and other stakeholders - to put forward evidence-based policy recommendations that will enhance capacity building among all HE stakeholders.

All activities described in the project proposal were implemented. Activities include: - needs analysis: questionnaires, focus groups, interviews - i-SCP induction faculty development seminars for faculty participating in peer-observation and peer-coaching activities and faculty taking up action research within an active community of practice - creation of interactive content, resources, prompts for action & reflection for faculty development (eBook) and mooc with micro-credentials - using content as an incentive for creating more alliances/networking Evaluation of fd processes used for fd developers guide & policy And more: - various scientific conference presentations on project results - book launches - mooc launch - various discussion sessions and workshops at local universities - organisation of international conference on inclusive higher education - numerous blog posts and news items in project results - and etcetera All activities and Project can be found on Project website and overview list. https://coalition-erasmusplus.com/

This is a brief list of significant concrete outputs and results of the project. It does not give a full overview but gives a indication of the broadness of the results. - scientific report on results of needs analysis including the presentation of a framework of faculty competencies for inclusive teaching in higher education - a series of open-access seminars - a website with all resources - a online platform for discussion - various tools for faculty development, such as peer-observation forms, lesson plan redesign tools - action research tools and guidelines - guidelines for organising communities of practice at hei - a book providing scientific background on inclusive teaching in he - a faculty guide highlighting the use of the developed tools in practice - a international conference - presentations at major European educational research conference In a separate Excel-document we listed all deliverables, objectives and tasks of the project and describe for each the end product and were to find it. Most products developed in this project are presented on the project website: https://coalition-erasmusplus.com/