How do you link theory with practice? This question was front and centre for Pablo Rodríguez Herrero, an associate professor in the department of pedagogy at the Autonomous University of Madrid, when he developed an innovative new approach to teaching.
Dr Herrero came up with what he called an “inclusive co-teaching” method on his master’s programme in quality and improvement of education. The module, which focused on teacher training for neurodiverse school students, employed two teachers with learning disabilities to work alongside Professor Herrero in co-teaching and developing a module on inclusion, disability and education to “overcome prejudice” and “build better communication” between students and teachers, he said.
The module has had a vast impact on those undertaking it – for students and teaching staff. “Students have been made aware of some of the prejudiced ideas they might have had about these groups of people [through the course]. But now they have constructed values and attitudes that promote a more compassionate society,” Dr Herrero told Times Higher Education.
The Central European University awarded Dr Herrero the European Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences and Humanities for his work, with judges commending him for his “innovative lines of pedagogical research and teaching”. They added that the model can “make an important contribution to linking theory and practice, particularly in academic areas that include human relations in their subject matter”.
The three teachers planned classes jointly, and during seminars Dr Herrero would “explain the theoretical part of inclusive education concepts”, while his colleagues – one of whom was diagnosed with Down’s syndrome, while the other had an unspecified learning disability – would share their “life experience and experiences within schools” with students to make them “inclusive teachers in the future”.
And the class was a success with students. Dr Herrero explained that the teaching method provided students with the opportunity to “develop skills and learn how to communicate” with neurodiverse students and educators, and students felt “more confident” about going into schools following the course.
In a paper evaluating the success of the course, co-written by Dr Herrero, students said the course had broadened views not only of those with extra educational needs but also of the act of teaching itself. One student said: “The function of education is supposed to be to transform society, and to transform society you need to have these experiences.”
By employing teaching assistants with learning disabilities – with the assistants explaining their experiences of the education system within the classes – the module also challenged the notion that people with such conditions “cannot teach”.
“This is a barrier and limitation we have in university settings,” Dr Herrero said, adding that academia and universities “do not recognise” the contributions or lived experience of such people.
While having a neurodiverse condition on its own does not make someone qualified to teach about the topic in itself, “academic teachers can collaborate and cooperate with these people to do more complex teaching and to complement our academic knowledge or background with the background of other people. It is not about excluding theory or academic knowledge, but complementing it with this kind of knowledge.”
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While this approach was not applicable to every subject, he said, it had the potential to revolutionise teaching in social sciences, nursing and health sciences – anything that might have a people-facing role. It might prove particularly beneficial in preparing medical students in dealing with vulnerable patients who have undergone long hospitalisations for example, he suggested.
But the teaching method does more than just expand pedagogical methods. He argued that it highlights education’s societal role and the need for greater diversity in the higher education system.
“This model opens new possibilities to university teaching, linking universities with society and also with citizenship,” Dr Herrero added. “It implies a redefinition of the epistemology of university teaching, recognising the value of this kind of knowledge.”
The model could be applied to wider social groups beyond the neurodiverse community. It could also be applied to people with other types of disabilities, indigenous cultures, minority ethnic groups, people with differing socio-economic backgrounds, refugees and members of the LGBTQ community, Dr Herrero said.
Dr Herrero is now hoping to present the research to the wider academic community, and exploring how the method might be applied to other disciplines and social groups.
But overall, he wanted to see universities more embedded with their wider communities and adopting a focus on social benefit. “I think that we should promote more links between universities and non-profit organisations or other organisations outside the university so we are working more closely with society.”
