Five sentence summary A good syllabus can make life easier for ADHDers and help them navigate important course components and policies, whereas a bad syllabus can create additional barriers and be a navigational nightmare. If we're forced to navigate a convoluted maize of instructions spread out over different documents and with inconsistent wording, you're not testing us on whatever the task is, you're testing us on our ADHD. A syllabus should be well-organized, consistent, and simple. Important information like deadlines or policies you're strict on should be made incredibly obvious. Reduce the number of steps it takes for ADHD folks to find the information they need and consider using a scaffolded syllabus. There are a range of ways to approach a syllabus. There are the parts required by the university. There are folks who update their syllabus regularly and have their students annotate the syllabus. There are folks who treat a syllabus as a living document and those who have a syllabus, a course calendar, a course roadmap, and other documents that all cover the same material in the syllabus but in different formats. Your "syllabus" might be one document or it might be two documents and a poster. This post is meant to clarify how ADHD folks struggle with important course information and how some of the more common types of syllabi can be problematic or helpful for ADHD learners. Where the struggle is ADHD folks have trouble with organizing and sorting information, so the syllabus can really set the tone for the course and make life easier for ADHDers or it can be a huge mess that is a headache for us to navigate. We also often have trouble with transitions (they require executive functions), and the syllabus is usually given to us at the start of a course. A good syllabus can ease the transition process, whereas a bad syllabus can throw up an additional 3 barriers to the 2 others we started with. If a student constantly has to struggle to remember where due dates are posted, and some are posted in the lab manual and others are posted in the syllabus, you're creating additional work for the student. I know this is one barrier that still drives me bonkers whenever I'm taking a workshop or whatever: I cannot handle when resources or modules are inconsistently organized. My brain already takes extra time to sort information, so when you haven't bothered to include a table of contents for the packet of materials you just handed me, I am not going to be impressed. We also struggle with our brains jumping ahead or from idea to idea, so it's easier for us to completely miss the details. In a syllabus, this can translate to missing the last three sentences printed on the reverse side or the Nov 13th in bold in the middle of a bunch of text. It's easier for our brains skip right by it, which could be a very big problem if that bold was meant to indicate the last and final day to drop the course. I know this seems really simple! "Why can't students remember to check both the calendar and the syllabus for each writing assignment?!" Remember that ADHD folks struggle with executive functions, like prioritizing information, sorting it, organizing thoughts, task initiation, etc. If you ask us to navigate a maize of dense course documents to find different readings, instructions, and assignment submissions, you're creating barriers. If you're placing some deadlines in a table and others within the text, you're creating a barrier. The ADHD learner spends more time trying to ensure they've followed every instruction and haven't missed an important guideline posted elsewhere whereas the non-ADHD learner focuses on the actual material. You're not testing us on the content. You're testing us on our ability to manage our ADHD. Guess what? We probably won't excel because we have ADHD.
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Five sentence summary It is not at all uncommon to present ADHD folks with choices and/or flexibility and have it overwhelm them. Demonstrate the decision making process to teach learners how to think through the different choices and their possible outcomes. Limit the number of choices given and include a "design your own" option to allow for more freedom for those who need it. Build in check in throughout the learning experience to detect problems early on, give learners opportunities for reflection, and determine if students have the appropriate resources and support to achieve their goals. Choices are often a disabled person's best friend exactly because we choose what works for us. For ADHD folks, there's less of a chance we will feel pigeonholed into something we will inevitably become bored with. Flexibility allows for creativity, innovation, personalization, and endless opportunities, but all of that freedom can overwhelm. Sometimes ADHDers need fewer choices and less flexibility. Choices and flexibility require us to identify goals, prioritize outputs, make a timeline, and identify steps needed to achieve success and these are executive functioning skills. How do we ensure choices and flexibility lead to success? By giving guidance, having a healthy balance of choices (not too many but not too few), and by scaffolding and checking in throughout the process. Guide them through the decisions Don't assume folks understand the nuanced differences between their options. Those students who are outside of their typical realm of study may be particularly lost and need more time to consider their options. Demonstrate how you would make a decision. Outline how the different options could affect their experience: this choice requires a lot of writing, the second option will mean you learn more about forests, this choice will likely require a lot of effort initially but less towards the end, etc.
For the ADHD learner that has no idea which option to work with, they may want you to give recommendations. "If you're low on energy and time right now, you may want to stick a familiar option and write a traditional paper." You could offer to meet individually with students, discuss their strengths and weaknesses, and then guide them towards an option. For larger classes, you could create some sort of Google form or flowchart that guides them through a similar, reflective process. Five sentence summary Projects requiring a narrow focus and a lot of depth, whether these are final class projects, or PhD dissertations, can be a serious source of struggle for ADHD brains. We are likely to get bored over time, we have trouble sorting our thoughts and organizing which is no small problem when the project requires depth. How you coach and adapt for your ADHD learners can make the process much easier. By questioning the learning goals for the work, allowing for increased creativity, and supporting your ADHD learners with check-ins and guidance on prioritizing, you stand a chance at some really successful work. Working on a singular project for an extended period of time often does not go well for ADHD folks. A narrow focus can exacerbate ADHD issues. Whether it's a master's thesis or an undergraduate independent research study, forcing and expecting ADHD folks to focus on one narrow topic often backfires. Our minds jump from idea to idea, we make creative connections, and how our brain focuses is different from those without ADHD. If you're really interested in making things more accessible for ADHD folks, you might have to check your ableism. Question your assumptions Yes, graduate school or a final term paper is supposed to be hard. I am not suggesting we remove rigor. Before we go any further, park those assumptions about rigor someplace else. Ask yourself, what ultimately is the point of this assignment? What is the learning objective? Will my student be any less prepared for the career they envision if they do a master's thesis with two sections that are related but maybe a little less closely than I would like? It might seem like giving your student some breathing room and flexibility is a recipe for disaster, but why? If they've expressed the need for something more general, something that allows them to follow their passion, there is likely a middle ground and you only have to find it.
Is a ten to twenty page literature review on one narrow topic my only option for preparing this student to begin lab work, field work, analysis? If I know my student will get bored easily, will get frustrated quickly, and will find the level of detail needed tedious and overbearing (and their brain is structured in a way that makes these outcomes more likely), how can I help them? What options exist that will ensure my student is prepared to start research and yet also works with their brain and their needs? Am I asking my student to adhere to these standards because I think it will make them a better researcher or am I asking them because this is what the department expects? |
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