Helping students see eye to eye: Diversifying teaching of sensation and perception in higher education

Abstract

There is current interest in diversifying teaching curricula across many disciplines in university teaching. Sensation and perception is often considered difficult to diversify. Current challenges include diversity of the topics and teaching tools/materials, and the diversity that characterizes both the student and the teacher populations. We start by describing the diversity present in student and teacher groups, with a UK focus, and discuss how inclusive and diverse teaching materials can impact participation and engagement of broad student groups. We next consider how teaching content can be broadened by teaching on topics that consider differences between participant groups with different characteristics (including gender, ethnicity, disability and culture). Finally, we suggest resources that can be used to diversify sensation and perception teaching. We include example topics where diversity features in perception research, aimed at engaging teachers and students in the process of diversifying the teaching of sensation and perception.