Sensory, communication, and processing differences and collaborative learning: Don’t forget about autistic students!

Abstract

Collaborative learning is generally seen as an inclusive way to engage students, encourage a sense of belonging, and increase confidence and critical thinking skills. However, for many autistic students, communication, sensory, and processing differences combine to make collaborative work an often stressful and inaccessible experience. Communication differences can lead to difficulty effectively working and contributing within a group of non-autistic peers. Sensory and processing differences can make it impossible to concentrate and process information in a room full of other students. The result can be extreme anxiety, shutdown, and mental health difficulties as well as lost learning and feelings of exclusion. Good practice should include allowing autistic students to opt out of collaborative learning. Inclusive approaches such as providing good information in advance and flexibility in how students engage with learning and assessment, plus not using group work to assess non-group work related learning outcomes should also benefit everyone. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .