Vorbereitung auf inklusiven Fachunterricht: Hochschuldidaktische Überlegungen und Erfahrungen zur Englischlehrer*innenbildung in Bezug auf Neurodiversität

In order to prepare foreign language teachers for successful inclusive teaching, particularly from a subject-specific perspective, there is a need for the development and evaluation of suitable formats for teacher education. The project ELLeN (English Language Learning & Neurodiversity, http://ellen-project.eu/) applied an inquiry-based and participatory approach to base student teachers’ learning on first-person narratives of experiences of neurodivergent individuals and professionals in inclusive education.
In this interdisciplinary project student teachers were introduced to the principles of inclusive teaching and neurodiversity through the format of inquiry-based learning (IBL). Supported by multimodal and multiperspective materials, they worked on preparatory tasks on neurodiversity and the implementation of qualitative interviews and their analysis. To investigate the development of students in terms of their attitudes and perceived competence growth regarding neurodiversity-inclusive English teaching, questionnaires, written reflections and focus group interviews were employed. Results show that focused IBL can help strengthen prospective teachers in seeing inclusive EFL teaching as feasible and enriching.