Inclusive Education (Scenario)

You are teaching a mixed-ability class where one of your students, Maria, has a mild learning difficulty that affects her reading speed. During a group project, you notice that other students are finishing much faster and growing impatient. One student says, “It’s unfair that we have to wait for her again.”
You must decide how to respond while maintaining inclusion, fairness, and motivation for all.

How do you handle this classroom moment to ensure that inclusion and equity become part of the learning process, not obstacles to it?

Exercise 1: Multiple choice

What do you say?
Choose one of the following options.

A. “Let’s move on; everyone learns at their own pace — we’ll catch Maria up later.”

B. “Maria, please try to speed up; we have limited time.”

C. “Let’s pause for a moment — how can we organize ourselves so everyone participates fairly?”

D. “This is a great opportunity to think how teamwork can include everyone — let’s divide tasks differently.”

Exercise 2: Sorting

Arrange the actions in the right column in order, from the most inclusive to the least inclusive. List them so that 1 represents the most inclusive action and 4 represents the least inclusive.

Action 1

Action 2

Action 3

Action 4

Move forward without changing anything.

Acknowledge the frustration and discuss why inclusion benefits all.

Encourage the group to agree on shared ground rules for teamwork.

Adapt the task so everyone contributes according to their strengths.

Exercise 3: Reflection question

How confident are you in transforming classroom challenges into opportunities to promote inclusion and empathy among learners?
Choose one of the following options.

A. Not at all confident

B. Slightly confident

C. Moderately confident

D. Confident

E. Fully confident