Developing Inclusive Learning and Teaching for Disabled

Students: The Importance of Staff Training and Continuing Professional Development

Alan HurstTrustee

Skill: National Bureau for Students with Disabilities

Plan of Presentation

• Evidence and themes emerging from the research

• Some questions concerning staff training and development

Evidence and Themes in the Research

• Curriculum design

• Learning, teaching and assessment

• Institutional policies and provision

• Individual/personal concerns

Curriculum Design

• The content of courses

• The flexibility of courses

• The requirements of professional bodies and fitness to practice

• The maintaining of standards

• The inclusion of placements and practical work

• The possibilities offered by e-learning

Learning, Teaching and Assessment

• Provision of lecture notes in advance

• Use of Powerpoint

• Lectures as a teaching and learning strategy

• Use of approaches which demonstrate principles associated with effective learning

• Wide range of possible strategies not used

The Institutional Context

• Internal organisation and the administrative structure

• The physical environment

• Health and safety issues

• The setting of priorities

• The approach to staff training and continuing professional development

Individual and Personal Factors

• Knowledge of impairments and their potential impact on studying

• Knowledge of assistive technology and “reasonable adjustments”

• Lack of prior experience of working with students with a particular impairment

• Lack of time

Some questions concerning staff training and development

• Who should deliver?

• Who should receive?

• When should it occur?

• How should it be accomplished?

• What should it include?

Debating Terminology

• Disability awareness?

• Disability training?

• Disability Education?

• Equality or equity?

Who should deliver?

• Involvement of disabled people (linked to the Disability Discrimination Act 2005)

• Role of mainstream staff developers

• The contribution of specialist disability services staff

Who should receive?

• All staff

• Targetted groups

• Strategic approach with line managers

• What about students?

When should it occur?

• Before initial contact with students with impairments

• After some experience of working with students with impairments

• Continuous and with some incentive to become involved

How should it be accomplished?

• Electronic self taught

• Face-to-face sessions

• Application of principles associated with effective learning

• Use of simulations

• Embedding into routine policies and provision

• Compulsion or choice?

Training:Some Sample Things to Do 1

• Learning is based on knowledge of basic principles – example – introducing medical and social models of disability

• Learning develops confidence – example – ideas inventory (word association)

• Learning improves knowledge – using a true/false questionnaire

• Learning is based on real life situations-example - using case studies of students

Training: Some Sample Things to Do 2

• Learning is effective when relevance/usefulness seen –approaches to teaching students with dyslexia

• Learning is effective if the approach is varied – using dvd/video/publications and publicity

• Learning is effective when it is enjoyable – using cartoons for example by Callahan

Some Potentially Positive Developments in 2009

Revision of the Quality Assurance Agency Code of Practice: Section 3 Students with Disabilities – to be used on regular visits to check on quality after September 2009

Review of Higher Education Funding Council for England policies on disability between 1997-2007 – has the funding given to support policy and provision for disabled students been used effectively?

Closing Comments

• No HEI which can claim to have implemented and embedded a successful, effective programme of initial disability education and continuing professional development

• No HEI where disability services seen as value-added provision rather than an optional, additional source of institutional expense