Student belonging

This spring Holly Tilbrook presented as part of a panel titled “Neurodivergent Learners (and Earners!) in Postsecondary Education” at the UPCEA annual conference. Holly is a deputy director of the Academic Centres at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Continuing Education. That institute offers a variety of postsecondary learning opportunities for students of all ages, from onsite weekend courses to online certificate programs to degree programs offered across various modalities. Many of Holly’s students aren’t just learners, they’re earners, in the sense that they are active participants in the workforce. I wanted to know what Holly has been learning about supporting students with ADHD and other types of neurodivergence, particularly adult students and online students. I reached out to Holly via LinkedIn, where she posts thoughtful reflections on her work on a regular basis, and she was glad to talk with me. In our conversation, we discuss ways to build trust with neurodivergent students, accommodations that can more authentically meet these students’ needs, and helping neurodivergent students enter or re-enter the workforce. Episode Resources·       Holly Tilbrook on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/hebtilbook/ ·       Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge, https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/ ·       Still Distracted After All These Years: Help and Support for Older Adults with ADHD by Kathleen Nadeau, https://amzn.to/3ze0pt8

Many of us have excelled professionally while privately coping with various diagnoses, afraid that revealing them will discredit us, writes Marta Elliott.

Embed these four strategies into your courses to tap into the strengths of your neurodivergent students while helping them make critical connections to the course material and their classmates and develop essential executive functioning skills.

Possibly a better way to handle attendance, participation, and other forms of engagement.

Research from the University of Illinois finds college students derive belongingness from four factors. Having the cultural capital to navigate higher education matters most to students from racial and ethnic minority groups.

Written by Marisa Hamamoto Quoting Reverend Desmond Tutu, “Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes.” Language evolves, as culture and society evolve. As we learn more about autism, we realize the importance of using words that respect everyone's unique experience. Changing how we talk about autism helps everyone feel included

Things that feel terrible but are great

A concise guide to students as partners in higher education, including definitions, best practices, emerging questions for research, and key scholarship.

When some students hit an obstacle in school or college, they can take it as a sign that this whole education thing just isn’t for them. That can ...

Tamara (Tami) Shetron shares a vision of higher education for all (including those with intellectual and developmental disabilities on episode 507 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

In its 2024 annual report, Penn State’s Center for Collegiate Mental Health highlights the correlation between discrimination and mental health challenges.

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Resting, retreating, reading

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a learning framework for curriculum and course development rooted in three areas: multiple means of representation of...

Excused absences for mental health days are growing more common for K-12 learners, but most institutions of higher education don’t allow the same flexibility. One professor shares how he offers—and holds students accountable for—mental health breaks.

Will Hennessy shares about fostering neurodivergent learners’ growth on episode 499 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

Todd Zakrajsek shares about the ones who are too often left behind in higher education on episode 494 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

neurodiversity autism adhd mental health bipolar disorder PTSD autistic author autistic keynote speaker

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According to our new report, young adults in the U.S. reported twice the rates of anxiety and depression as teens. They identified several drivers of these emotional challenges, including a lack of meaning and purpose.

Many discussions of inclusive teaching practices ignore the role of neurodiversity in higher ed. In this episode, Liz Norell joins us to discuss strategies that faculty and institutions can use to create a welcoming environment for neurodivergent students and faculty. Liz is a political scientist and the Associate Director of Instructional Support at the University of Mississippi’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

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This issue of R3 reviews a Trends in Neuroscience and Education article exploring the connections between anxiety, attention, and academic reasoning among college students in STEM fields.