Teacher’s Guide (for TEFL teacher educators)
Introductory remarks
This guide includes introductory information on inclusion and neurodiversity, as well as a sequence of activities that can be used in seminars, courses or professional development opportunities that address neurodiversity in English language teaching. Teacher educators can use the material as it is or adapt it in any way that suits their needs. The guide enhances future English teachers’ awareness of neurodiversity by facilitating direct interaction between students and neurodivergent people, while facilitating the development of research skills through the use of inquiry-based learning and participatory research.
The guide was designed using the lessons learned from courses taught at the Goethe University Frankfurt, the Technical University of Dortmund and the University of Vienna, as well as feedback obtained from students at the Ghent University. See some of their comments below:
“The format of the teacher manual encourages active learning and contains a lot of useful background information as well as practical tips to get started.“
“Students with little or no teaching experience could get a first insight into a diversity practice.“
“Students who already teach could take a number of things with them and try them out in that practice.“
We hope teacher educators find this document useful for their seminars and would love to know your feedback.
Teacher educator’s Guide “Preparing English Teachers for Heterogeneous Classroom” and all its accompanying resources [pdf]
Teaching materials for university teacher education seminars
Module 1 – Introducing Inclusion
Inclusion and neurodiversity in ELT [slides]
Module 2 – What is neurodiversity?
What is neurodiversity? [worksheet]
Why neurodiversity and EFL?
This video discusses the concepts of learner orientation, successful communication, and representation to explain why future English teachers should learn about neurodiversity. You can find the transcript of the video below.
Module 5 – Interviews I
Ethical Code and Data Privacy
In this video, students learn some written and unwritten rules of research, current ethical regulations in Germany, and some ethical standards when using interviews as a form of data collection. You can find the transcript of the video below.
Sample consent forms [pdf]
These are two consent forms lecturers can use as examples. The first is designed for neurodivergent interviewees in Germany, and the second for school staff in Austria.