By Hannah Lee Riskas and Angela Moles, with support from UNSW Sydney and the Ecological Society of Australia*.
This guide covers lab, field and tutorial settings:
Implementation Guide
Adopt a reflective, student-centred mindset:
Use this practical guide to create inclusive, engaging ecology learning where every student belongs. View neurodiversity as a natural part of human diversity and adapt your teaching so that all learners benefit. From the first class, tell students they are welcome to contact you about any adjustments or supports that would help them participate, and that you will collaborate to find workable solutions.
Simple steps for improving your teaching:
- Audit your current unit to find improvement areas.
- Prioritise areas to improve (if you don’t know where to start, ask your students via a quick survey).
- Pilot one or two manageable changes in a lab, lecture, or field trip.
- Iterate: gather feedback, refine, and share outcomes with colleagues.
- Visit the UNSW Inclusive Teaching Resource (Teaching Gateway) and use the Equity Cohorts pages to find cohort-specific guidance and filters.
This resource is a living document. If you have a suggestion, find a broken link, or want to share a success story, please let Angela know.
*Acknowledgement of foundational work — The five course-design themes in this guide were informed by the Inclusive Teaching Toolkit Roadmap created by Diversified at UNSW Sydney. We acknowledge the significant contributions of Terry Cumming, Aaron Saint-James, and the Diversified team, whose work foregrounds neuro-inclusion and co-designed pedagogical frameworks with students from marginalised backgrounds1.