Sustainable Learning: Inclusive practices for 21st century classrooms

Abstract

Sustainable Learning presents a new way of looking at effective inclusive practices for contemporary classrooms. As authors, we bring a blend of classroom, specialist and consultative experience in education and school psychology to the task of exploring in detail what teachers need to know and do to be confident, effective and inclusive. Throughout this text, we focus on practices and strategies important in engaging diverse learners and present these within a coherent framework built on what we consider to be the most important factors in understanding learning and teaching. Our ultimate goal is to guide appropriate instructional differentiation according to students' needs so that at least three conditions are satisfied. First, quality learning experiences should be available to all students. Secondly, to accomplish this, all educators need to focus on acquiring the skills underpinning teaching that matters. (By this we mean teaching that is evidence based, purposeful, relevant and responsive to students' needs.) Thirdly, students must be able to demonstrate that content is mastered and learning maintained to the extent that, as far as possible, they become independent learners throughout their lives. Independent and active learning is fundamental to meeting contemporary challenges; we contend that it is not enough to have only 'taught' content.