Abstract:

The democratization of access to higher education has highlighted the urgency of rethinking pedagogical practices to guarantee not only entry but also retention and educational equity for neurodivergent students. Historically, traditional and standardized assessment models act as attitudinal and methodological barriers, measuring deficits associated with neurodivergence – such as cognitive overload and anxiety – to the detriment of academic learning. Faced with this problem, this study aims to analyze recent scientific literature on Inclusive Formative Assessment (IFA) practices and curricular adaptations for neurodivergent students (with a particular emphasis on Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in higher education. This is a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of a qualitative nature, structured according to the PRISMA protocol guidelines. The bibliographic survey was conducted in the Scopus database, the CAPES Periodicals Portal, and the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD), covering the period from 2021 to 2025. The inclusion criteria encompassed publications focused on higher education and the intersection between neurodiversity and pedagogical assessment. Studies on early childhood education or on a clinical-pharmacological nature were excluded. The initial search identified an initial portfolio of 352 documents, of which 74 studies comprised the corpus after eligibility screening. The extracted data were submitted to Content Analysis under the theoretical perspective of Laurence Bardin.

The results, organized into thematic axes, reveal patterns in the literature:
(1) most of the empirical studies and reviews analyzed demonstrate that granting generic accommodations, such as extending test time, is insufficient and often masks the inadequacy of the assessment instrument, failing to meet the specific needs of neurodiversity;
(2) a considerable portion of the research points to a gap in university teacher training regarding neurodiversity literacy and the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), limiting the capacity to create inclusive environments; and
(3) an emerging body of work highlights the effectiveness of formative assessment frameworks structured around continuous feedback and the multimodality of knowledge expression (e.g., projects, oral presentations, digital portfolios).

The study's limitations include its exclusive focus on indexed databases, which may limit the scope of grey literature, and the scarcity of longitudinal investigations evaluating the long-term impact of IFA. It is concluded that institutional policies need to transition from a reactive, beneficence-based model to a proactive model that guarantees rights. Inclusive Formative Assessment is thus consolidated as a fundamental mechanism for building a truly equitable and innovative academic environment. The development of tools and training based on these findings represents a promising next step toward consolidating this transformation.

Keywords:

Inclusive Education, Universal Design for Learning, Academic Accommodations, ASD, ADHD.