What does inclusion look like within an experiential teaching and assessing reflective learning model? Utilising authentic assessment to foster shared social membership

The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights calls for accessible higher education (HE), stating that it is necessary for the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity. Within this context, our research is centred on the Aristotelian principles of equity and fairness. To achieve these outcomes, our completed, Stage One research (2008–2019, 5603 participants), took place inside the university context and focused on designing out identified barriers to access and participation in mandatory assessment tasks for all students, including those with a disability. Building on our Stage One learnings and to generate increased inclusion, Stage Two involved the development of authentic HE assessment tasks which generate external, reflective, and inclusive practitioners who value shared social membership. This research seeks to support and strengthen the core philosophy of HE and the guiding principles of the participating university, Queensland University of Technology, which state: ‘ … the real world asks us … to guide it towards collective benefit.’ To achieve these outcomes, this university ‘ … partners with students to develop their self-knowledge, professional integrity and ethical leadership to enable them to become … global citizens who create positive social change’. This Stage Two research has been facilitated by the unique, author created integration of the Teaching and Assessing of Reflective Learning Model and the Experiential Learning Model (TARLEM). TARLEM focuses simultaneously on developing discipline-based content, the mastery of reflective practice skills, and an understanding of the reason for the task in terms of the social impacts of international business decision-making. The cross-cultural, cross-discipline and online/on campus participants are enrolled students in a UG IBU degree (622 responses).e

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