Cogent Education

Codesign for Neuroinclusive Learning: Participatory Approaches Across K12, Higher Education, and Informal Learning

Cogent Education is pleased to welcome you to submit your research to the Article Collection "Codesign for Neuroinclusive Learning: Participatory Approaches Across K12, Higher Education, and Informal Learning".

Codesign with neurodivergent learners offers a way to rethink how educational environments, tools, and supports are imagined, built, and studied. This collection will focus on participatory approaches that position neurodivergent learners as knowledge holders and design partners in the creation of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, learning technologies, and institutional practices across K-12, higher education, and informal learning environments.

This topic is important because many interventions intended to support neurodivergent learners are still designed for them rather than with them. Codesign can surface overlooked barriers, reveal strengths and preferences that conventional approaches miss, and produce more equitable, usable, and affirming learning experiences. At a moment when educators are seeking better ways to support belonging, access, and agency, this collection will highlight how participatory design can move the field beyond accommodation alone toward genuinely neuroinclusive educational change.

We welcome empirical studies, design-based research, participatory action research, theoretical and conceptual papers, systematic or scoping reviews, and well evidenced practice or policy analyses. Relevant topics include codesign of STEM and non-STEM learning experiences; curriculum, assessment, and instructional design; teacher learning and professional development; assistive, adaptive, AI, AR, VR, and maker technologies; executive function and sensory supports; transitions across educational settings; accessibility and universal design; and participatory work with vulnerable or historically minoritized youth when it deepens understanding of neuroinclusive educational design.

Meet the Guest Advisor

Dr. Ibrahim Dahlstrom-Hakki is Senior Research Scientist at TERC. Trained as a cognitive psychologist, his work focuses on neuroinclusive STEM learning, co-design, universal design, and the use of emerging technologies and neurocognitive methods to better support learners who think differently. He has served as PI or co-PI on multiple NSF funded projects, including NeuroVivid, AugmentedEF, and UniVRsal Access, and previously directed the Landmark College Institute for Research and Training. He also serves as Associate Editor for Mind, Brain, and Education and has led numerous conference symposia and publications on neurodiversity, accessibility, and inclusive design in education.

The Guest Advisors declare no conflict of interest regarding this work.