With the rapid growth of the global movement and technological advancements, learners are becoming more diverse than ever before. Diverse learners come from different backgrounds, including cultures, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, language, or personality traits. These differences even increase in lecture halls and large-scale learning environments and MOOCs, which makes it difficult to accommodate the varying learners' needs. Failing to address their needs and teach inclusively may constitute a common challenge for diverse learners to understand and communicate adequately in the classrooms. To bridge the learning gap, there is a need for pedagogical transformation to ensure effective, meaningful, and inclusive learning for all. This can happen by adopting innovative pedagogies and integrating digital learning tools to calibrate different educational options and integrate multiple paths of learning to meet these variations. This chapter will present the concept of inclusive pedagogy and explore its principles in large-scale learning environments.
TopBackground
Living in the 21 century surrounded by recent innovations and technological advancements, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and social networking sites, technology is becoming an integral aspect of people’s lives. Technology has transformed people’s lives in a whole range of different ways to meet their diverse needs. People seem inseparable from their digital ubiquitous devices. Children from diverse backgrounds now can choose games or interactive applications of their interests to learn the alphabets or solve a math problem in almost any language; professionals in various fields interact with technology simulations of their choice for career development and training on the job; Youth around the world use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other online platforms to stay connected and updated with news that matter to them. Learners at anytime and anywhere join MOOCs of their preferences to supplement learning needs or learn new things. Every day, new knowledge is being created and existing knowledge is being curated via social media platforms, presenting multiple viewpoints from diverse people of gender, race, nationality, and language in a complex global digital world. Yet, education is still an issue of concern and more specifically education in large classrooms. Generally, a large class consists of fifty learners or more in a single room. Oftentimes, delivering lectures is the primary instructional strategy in large classrooms. Yet, relying merely on this lecturing is challenging to engage learners and meet their individual needs.
Previous scholars articulated that current teaching practices of lecturing fail to take into account the multiplicity of ways that diverse society and education influence each other (Kalnatzis & Cope, 2016; Rose, 2016). Here is an example to clarify how learning occurs in an old-fashioned learning model that we often see in lecture halls in some schools.
Mrs. Mike is standing in front of the table and hundreds of students are sitting on their desks in a class restricted with four walls. He reads page 102 from the X book and all learners listen or are barely able to hear because of sitting in the back. He asks a question and only one learner answers, while others listen. Perhaps, they are texting someone instead or daydreaming.
Teaching in lecture halls as presented in this example, is problematic as it replicates a didactic mode of learning seen in the one-size-fits-all approach (Haniya & Sol-Robert, 2017). This mode of learning presumes that learners are homogeneous; they all learn the same way at the same pace. They may read the same book, listen to the same lecture, and/or do the same exercise, at the same time in the same place without paying attention to learners' various needs. Therefore, learners are seen are as passive participants rather than knowledge producers. Information is being deposited inside students' minds just like the banking model by Freire (1972). If there is a chance to participate, only one student can answer, and the rest of the class only listens but is not engaged. This in return, may erode learners' sense of responsibility and cultural inclusivity, especially when their voices are not heard and their opinions are not valued. With passive learning, information tends to be forgotten quickly since learners are not mentally active (Montebello, et. al., 2018; Haniya & Paquette, 2020). Consequently, this disengagement will negatively impact learners’ academic performance, and create boundaries of knowledge consumption and meaning making. Additionally, passive learning does not allow space for teaching complex, abstract material, and higher-order thinking skills that are necessary for diverse learners to compete in the job market and succeed in their career life in a changing society (Chang & Gomes, 2020).
Therefore, this chapter aims to explore the concept of inclusive learning in the learning environment in relation to technology affordances and presents a conceptual framework to equitize learning. Firsts, it discusses the meaning of inclusive pedagogy and its significance in large-size classrooms in the age of digital media. Second, it presents the theoretical backgrounds underpinning this chapter, with an emphasis on meeting individuals’ needs. Following that, the chapter highlights four innovative elements to promote inclusive learning and intercultural thinking with the assistance of digital tools. A case study of a multilingual course is also provided to guide professionals and educators seeking to facilitate inclusive and meaningful learning for all. Finally, the chapter concludes with final remarks to demonstrate the benefits of adopting inclusive learning in the classrooms.