Week 21 - 11/03/14 - What I dream of is an art of balance.

The dream was one held by the artist Matisse. As this week's lesson and class exercises unfolded, I too was finding myself thinking that balance for a tutor is so important and is an art so hard to master.

We completed our consideration of cognitive issues and had a very real taste of what attending college with a sight impairment would be like. In a nut shell... Awful! It would appear that the "powers that be" are more interested in aesthetics than practicality. 

For example, even the emergency notifications have no Braille or audio option to them. of course, even if that were rectified, making your way to the emergency exit without walking into the numerous camouflaged pillars and low lying fixtures and fittings would be a miracle. A member of staff did inform us that the toilet doors were the only ones with raised door furniture to aid sight impaired people, this tickled me... Lets hope you aren't bursting when you decide to feel all the doors in the college, lets hope you don't make a mistake either.

A discussion - The impact of personal, social and cultural factors, as well as cognitive and sensory impairment on learning.

In preparation for my share in the discussion, I did the following research and produced these mini mind maps as an aide-memoire. 

The discussion can be listened to

So why balance? - my added reflections.

It's so easy to see many of the Cultural, Social and Personal factors from a predominantly negative perspective. I agree that Socio-Economic and certain facets related to Ethnicity can have a detrimental effect upon learning - see my notes on " persistent poverty impact on education" and definition Ethnocentric. But as tutors, great care must be taken so that our personal belief, on what is best for the student, or even our own hidden prejudices, won't result in the student being funnelled into a life choice that impacts on their conscience and goes contrary to their culture or personal beliefs. Surely, Our role is lay bare all the potential options and support them through any choices they wish to make.

To further illustrate this. What if a person's faith prevented them from pursuing a career that a tutor believed they would greatly excel at - some form of scientific research or military service. The tutor may feel that religion is hindering the education and future prospects of his favoured student. Perhaps the balanced approach would be for the tutor to reflect on  what the personal faith of the student may have added. For example, a Christian, that takes seriously what his faith entails may well be demonstrating qualities such as: morality, honesty and respect. It could be argued that his faith has made the student who he is today, and indeed into the student that has earned his tutor's respect and admiration.

Support, Yes. Offer suggestions, Yes. Take seriously whatever may be hindering their progress, Yes. 

But remain balanced - differentiation is taught to teachers for a reason.

Week 22 - 18/03/14 - This Club is not Exclusive

It started out by sounding like this week was going to be drier and harder to swallow than a box of Jacob's cream crackers in the Kalahari desert. Fortunately it wasn't, in fact the discussions over the various legislations that impact on education were intriguing. 

Our focus was on the four following areas:

• Tomlinson Report 1996.
• The Human Rights act 1998.
• Access for All 2001.
• The Equality Act 2010.

To introduce proceedings we were shown the following video outlining the Human Rights Act.

Just a little more information...

To meet the next part of the "inclusive practice" criteria, I wrote the following report that outlines the various regulatory policies and how these link to the organisations I work with and how these influence my own practice.

Week 20 - 04/03/14 - This way please...

What struck me about this week, was how exhausting and frustrating it must be to have Dyslexia. In fact, just sharing in a few brief exercises ( writing in Japanese ) opened my eyes and I would like to think it will make me more accommodating.

This quote by Geoff Petty gave me a small window into the continuing ordeal that many individuals with Dyslexia have...

So much that I take for granted is just missing for Dyslexic people. It's not that they are less intelligent, far from it, in fact it could be argued that to circumnavigate such a hindrance to learning and still become successful is to be lauded. Still, despite some successes, educators can't rest on their laurels.

Not everyone is going to want to shout from the roof tops... "oh, by the way. I'm Dyslexic..." .So It's critical that a tutor maintains open lines of communication with their students and keeps the eyes open for some of the indicators.

• Reading difficulties.
• Spelling.
• Behavioural issues - frustration based.
• Disorganised.
• Speaking.
• Long and Short term memory.
• Phonological processing.
• Sequencing.

What are some things we can do in our classes?

Petty,G. (2009). The learner's practical and emotional needs. In: Teaching Today a practical guide. Cheltnam: Nelson Thornes Ltd. 88-89.

Later we looked at Mental Health Issues - for a comprehensive explanation of the numerous Mental health conditions see MIND

We need to look for indicators... Don't try to solve the problems all yourself, whatever the issue. Tutors are there to create a welcoming, safe environment and be a sign post so as to point people in the direction of the specialist help that they may need.

Week 19 - 25/02/14 - Don't just teach how you like to learn.

It was the first week of the Inclusive practice route. As the name indicates, We are looking at including students rather than excluding. When I was at school, the term "exclude" only seemed to apply to the final step taken with the mischievous, misbehaving individual. The idea of " inclusion" was making everyone have a go with the bat in PE. I am sure that I am doing many fine teachers a disservice. I had a great time at school and that was in no small part down to some terrific teachers, still I tend to recall, that the " one size fits all " approach was generally the way teachers taught.

A tailored approach, which I have written about previously, is most definitely the best way.

The weeks to follow are going to afford me the opportunity to delve a little deeper into the factors that can impede learning.

The above pyramid was the opening exercise. In pairs we discussed what we felt were the most detrimental factors to learning. It was tricky, as we all had slightly different ideas about what should come top. I believe that this was down to the fact that we collectively felt that they were all very important.

Personally, I was a little uncomfortable with the exercise, isn't it dangerous to start grading them in our own minds ?.. For example, if a student is struggling due to pressures applied as a result of cultural differences, while I may have put it at the bottom of the pile, to them it's number one. It would only harm them if we gave the impression that their problem wasn't as important to us a student with mental health issues. I suppose that is where professionalism comes into the equation. We are human beings with personal opinions and preferences, so leave them at the door and treat all equally.

Expectations can have such an impact on learners - even becoming self fulfilling prophesies in their own right. "I'm told I'm hopeless, so I will be..."; "My parents expect me to do well, so I will try to do so..."; " Girls don't succeed in this trade, so I won't"... It was interesting that while we were discussing the factor of expectations, often other factors such as gender, culture, socio-economic background and mental health labels are so tightly interwoven into the expectation factor.

A very interesting point was made about our own teaching styles. We might be a good teacher, but do we like to teach the way that we like to learn? If we are to be truly inclusive, we must be prepared to move from our own comfort zone and meet the needs of the student.

To help us with this we all completed a Honey and Mumford Learning Style Questionnaire.

My result? I'm a Reflecting Theorist. Quite scary. When I read the definitions it's like looking in the mirror. Of course this will impact on my style of teaching and I will need to adjust my lessons to care for the Activists and Pragmatists that I will inevitably come across. 

It's no surprise that we briefly revisited KOLB. This reflective practice allows all students to take the lesson from an exercise in fact finding, to deep learning and understanding. Certainly the inclusive, engaging approach is going to be a big part of the overall jigsaw puzzle of education.

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To conclude, We were split into groups so as to research several other factors, then report back. Why must a tutor be observant and sensitive to the individual needs.?. the following research on socio-economic factors; Ethnicity; Gender and Family factors will demonstrate some reasons.

BSL mini course ( Observed ) - Week starting 10/02/14

Monday - 3pm - 4pm
Tuesday - 2pm - 3pm
Wednesday - 3pm - 4pm 

It was the final week of this session of lessons and it was also time for my second observation.

Trying to follow the plan of last week, I tried to incorporate plenty of student interactive elements and it again seemed to work well. I used two videos to practice receptive skills and revisit vocabulary and technical aspects. 

Finding the clips was tricky, so much so, it prompted me to make my YouTube signing début. I responded to the observation feedback relating to the first video content by using a very different clip on the next group. The second clip, that can be viewed on my Prezi, was very successful as it allowed the students to expand on what they already knew, even introducing some clever little nuances relating to deaf culture and translation - note the lyrics " sing it loud... knowing everyone can hear you..." the young children sign " look at me" not " hear me " as this makes more sense to a deaf audience. 

A big thank you to all the students that have offered me feedback.

a selection :

For my further observations about this weeks lessons and my areas for improvement see my observation report.