Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Innovative and inclusive teaching strategies in higher education institutions are at the core of this essay. The paper reflects the results of an interdisciplinary research project in the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Unimore) located in Northern Italy that is also in the process of creating a faculty development system. The essay allows to reconstruct, by means of a wide survey (consistent with the AsdUni, Italian Association for the Promotion and Development of Didactics, Learning and Teaching in University) on the Unimore academic staff, the inclusive teaching strategies enacted by Unimore lecturers as well as their interpretation of the very concept of inclusion. On the basis of the results of the initial survey that involved a statistically significant sample of academic staff, needs of support in teaching activities were collected that were further investigated through semi-structured interviews. These needs have been taken into account to design a series of training activities on inclusive and innovative strategies that have been implemented involving 151 participants, with some participants engaging in more than one seminar. The impact of the faculty development initiatives on the teaching staff was then evaluated by using Kirkpatrick’s model. Findings revealed a strong appreciation of training among lecturers, as well as a high level of perceived utility of it. Pre-post analyses based on microdata on students who have attended courses experiment-ting inclusive strategies allows us to capture positive results in terms of sense of belonging, greater satisfaction with the activity and feelings of social inclusion.

As universities become more aware of diversity, with greater access to diagnoses of specific learning difficulties and increasing attention to multiculturalism, it is essential to adapt teaching methods to include everyone with their unique characteristics. However, despite Italian ministerial guidelines, many aspects of university inclusion, apart from examinations, are left to individual lecturers’ discretion. In order to understand their experiences, the research team carried out 18 semi-structured interviews with lecturers in the role of full professors, associate professors and assistant professors at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE). Non-probabilistic snowball sampling was used to recruit lecturers who had used or were currently using non-traditional teaching methods, with frontal teaching being considered the traditional method. The interviews were then analysed using Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological analysis to explore lecturers’ feelings and personal experiences (Colaizzi, 1978). This paper aims to raise awareness of the psychological and phenomenological aspects of applying innovative methodologies in higher education and to fill the existing research gap regarding the lack of qualitative research on the application of innovative and inclusive methodologies in higher education.