Linda Graham

Professor Linda Graham is Director of QUT’s Centre for Inclusive Education (C4IE) and a Professor in the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice. She has authored over 100 scholarly publications including the best-selling book, Inclusive Education for the 21st Century, with the second edition now available. Linda is currently leading two major projects in QLD schools: the Accessible Assessment ARC Linkage project, and the Central Queensland Region Leading Inclusive Education Reform project.

Haley Tancredi

Haley is an educational speech pathologist and final year PhD candidate at QUT, where she is investigating the impact of teachers’ use of Accessible Pedagogies™ on the classroom experiences, engagement and learning outcomes of students with language and/or attentional difficulties. Haley is a Senior Research Assistant in the Centre for Inclusive Education and is also a chief investigator on the Central Queensland Region Leading Inclusive Education Reform project.

Accessible Assessment and Accessible Pedagogies™: improving experiences and outcomes for both students and teachers

Student comprehension of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment is a critical factor in engagement and achievement. Unnecessary complexity can create barriers to comprehension, leading to confusion, frustration, disengagement, and disruptive behaviour. In this presentation, we explain how students learn, the types of difficulties that some students face, and the implications of both for assessment and pedagogy. We then present the outcomes from a recently completed Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project that involved more than 400 Grade 10 students and 90 educators from three Queensland state secondary schools. Our research demonstrates that accessible assessment task sheets and classroom pedagogies have a significant and positive impact on the experiences, engagement, and achievement of all students, including those with disabilities impacting language and cognitive processing. We will conclude by sharing resources and principles to begin improving accessibility in your schools.