RaspberryPiFoundation: Creating an Inclusive Classroom: Approaches to Supporting Learners with SEND in Computing

Over the following two weeks, you will:

• Reflect on the common barriers faced by learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the computing classroom
• Develop a toolkit of general teaching approaches to make lessons more inclusive for learners with SEND
• Identify ways to adapt and improve teaching materials to make them more accessible
• Develop effective approaches to teach programming to learners with SEND
• Identify accessible programming environments and physical computing devices that can be used to make lessons more inclusive for learners with SEND
• Model best practice by creating an inclusive computing lesson plan and materials

This course covers:

• An outline of the four broad areas of need, and of the common barriers faced by learners with SEND
• General classroom approaches to include learners with SEND and reduce cognitive load in activities
• Advice on how to create more accessible teaching resources
• Specific approaches to support learners with SEND in programming tasks
• An overview of how to make programming environments more accessible
• The benefits of sensory outputs and using physical computing devices

Who is this course for?

This course is for teachers of computing in all primary and secondary settings. It will also be useful for special educational needs coordinators (SENCos) and teaching assistants in schools to learn about specific computing approaches to support the young people that they work with.

If you are a teacher working with students with severe special educational needs or disabilities, you will gain some useful insights during this course, however, you may need to consider more specific adaptations than those described here.